Best of the Program | Guests: Peter St Onge & Tina Descovich | 11/12/24

Summary

The Glenn Beck Program: Best of the Program | Guests: Peter St. Ange & Tina Descovich | 11/12/24

Hosted by Glenn Beck and Stu Burguiere, this episode of "The Glenn Beck Program" delves into the intricacies of American economic policies, focusing primarily on taxation and tariffs. Featuring insights from Peter St. Ange of the Heritage Foundation, the discussion explores former President Donald Trump's proposals and their potential impact on the U.S. economy.

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1. Introduction to Economic Policies

The episode opens with Glenn Beck expressing optimism about the current political climate, particularly regarding the potential return of a conservative administration. He mentions the importance of effective real estate agents in an improving housing market, emphasizing the need for professionalism and integrity in the industry.

Glenn Beck [00:00]:
"I think it's safe to at least hope that the housing market is going to continue to improve now that the big, mean orange bigot is going to be back in office."

Stu Burguiere joins the conversation, expressing excitement about potential governmental changes, notably the possible shutdown of the Department of Education.

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2. Trump's Education Policy Overhaul

The discussion shifts to former President Donald Trump's plans to overhaul higher education. A pre-recorded segment features Trump's detailed proposal to reform college accreditation and eliminate perceived leftist influences within educational institutions.

Donald Trump [03:08]:
"Cut tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding... Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system."

Key points from Trump's policy include:

• Accreditation Reform: Firing accreditors perceived as biased towards Marxist ideologies and replacing them with ones that uphold American traditions and free speech.
• Cost Management: Eliminating wasteful administrative positions to reduce expenses.
• Diversity and Inclusion: Removing bureaucrats focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Educational Standards: Implementing entrance and exit exams to ensure academic integrity and value.
• Legal Actions: Directing the Department of Justice to pursue cases against schools engaging in unlawful racial discrimination.

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3. Analysis and Skepticism

Glenn and Stu analyze Trump's proposals, weighing optimism against historical precedents.

Glenn Beck [05:08]:
"These are not campaign promises. These are... Here's what we're doing right now."

Stu Burguiere [07:20]:
"I think it's interesting because Trump, when he puts his mind to it, he can accomplish anything."

However, skepticism arises concerning the feasibility of dismantling the Department of Education, a move not realized by Reagan despite similar intentions.

Glenn Beck [12:52]:
"And he's planning, like maybe Donald Trump has done here. I mean, this is what this man was known for for multiple decades, and still it was hard to do."

Stu points out the complexities of executing such sweeping reforms, especially with potential internal resistance within the Republican Party.

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4. Transition to Tariff Talk

The conversation transitions to the topic of tariffs, introducing Peter St. Ange from the Heritage Foundation to provide expert insights.

Glenn Beck [19:45]:
"Sexy, Sexy Tariff Talk coming up."

Peter St. Ange discusses the economic rationale behind tariffs, particularly focusing on Trump's stance against income tax and his advocacy for tariffs as a tool to bolster the American economy.

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5. Interview with Peter St. Ange: Tariffs and Income Tax

Peter St. Ange [21:50]:
"Abolishing the entire income tax is absolutely rock fuel for the economy."

Key highlights from the interview include:

Abolishing Income Tax

• Economic Boost: Elimination of income tax could lead to a significant increase in take-home pay for American families, estimated at an additional $30,000 annually.
• Historical Comparison: Reference to the 1800s economic boom when the federal government relied solely on tariffs, leading to substantial industrial growth.

Implementation of Tariffs

• Targeted Tariffs: Focus on imposing high tariffs on China (60%) and moderate tariffs (10-20%) on other nations to protect American industries.
• Economic Impact: Tariffs would effectively act as a sales tax on imported goods, potentially increasing domestic production by making American goods more competitive.

Potential Outcomes

• China's Response: China's historical response to tariffs involved subsidizing exporters to maintain market share. If repeated, China might bear the brunt of the tariffs.
• Domestic Benefits: Lower production costs in the U.S. could lead to job creation and higher wages as companies re-shore manufacturing.
• Fiscal Implications: Tariffs would serve as a significant revenue source in the absence of income tax, potentially stabilizing government finances.

Peter St. Ange [27:06]:
"The median American take home is about 58,000. You go from taking home 58 to taking home 88. Right. That is a massive difference."

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6. Critical Perspectives and Feasibility

Despite the promising projections, both hosts express reservations about the practicality of implementing these policies.

Stu Burguiere [30:37]:
"Right. So he would need Congress to play ball on the income tax. And Congress is very tight... There's a ton of rhinos over there."

Challenges identified include:

• Legislative Hurdles: Securing bipartisan support in Congress for abolishing or significantly reducing income tax.
• Economic Risks: Dependence on tariffs as a primary revenue source may be unsustainable if domestic manufacturing absorbs foreign competition.
• Budget Cuts: Substantial reductions in federal spending required to balance the budget without income tax revenues.

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7. Final Thoughts and Future Outlook

Glenn and Stu conclude the discussion by weighing the potential economic transformations against the significant challenges of policy implementation. They emphasize the importance of understanding the balance between taxation, tariffs, and federal spending to achieve a sustainable and prosperous economy.

Glenn Beck [36:37]:
"You go from taking home 58 to taking home 88 in take home pay."

Stu Burguiere [42:52]:
"There's no one offering a 15% corporate tax. Nobody."

The episode wraps up with reflections on historical economic strategies, such as those employed during Calvin Coolidge's presidency, highlighting the difficulty and necessity of making bold fiscal reforms.

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8. Key Takeaways

• Tax Reform and Economic Growth: The proposal to abolish or reduce income tax aims to significantly increase American take-home pay, potentially stimulating consumer spending and economic growth.

• Strategic Use of Tariffs: Implementing targeted tariffs, especially on China, is seen as a means to protect and revive American manufacturing, although it carries dependencies and risks.

• Legislative Challenges: Achieving these economic reforms requires overcoming substantial political obstacles, particularly within Congress, where bipartisan support is unlikely.

• Historical Context: Past attempts at similar reforms provide both inspiration and cautionary tales about the complexities of fundamentally altering the nation's fiscal policies.

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Notable Quotes:

• Glenn Beck [00:00]:
  "I think it's safe to at least hope that the housing market is going to continue to improve now that the big, mean orange bigot is going to be back in office."

• Donald Trump [03:08]:
  "Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system."

• Peter St. Ange [21:50]:
  "Abolishing the entire income tax is absolutely rock fuel for the economy."

• Peter St. Ange [27:06]:
  "You go from taking home 58 to taking home 88. Right. That is a massive difference."

• Stu Burguiere [30:37]:
  "There's a ton of rhinos over there."

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Conclusion

This episode of "The Glenn Beck Program" provides a comprehensive exploration of potential tax and tariff reforms proposed by Donald Trump, highlighting both the promising economic benefits and the significant challenges inherent in such transformative policies. Through expert insights and robust discussion, listeners gain a nuanced understanding of how these proposals could reshape the American economy and the legislative hurdles that must be navigated to realize them.

Transcript

[Glenn Beck]

On today's Best of the Podcast, we just had a sexy, sexy hour. I mean, talking about tax rates and tariffs. Oh, yeah, we talked tariffs with a Frenchman. And you know how sexy that can get. It's actually a fascinating hour. Learned a lot. And actually, well, Stu and I disagree on how optimistic we should be on this. Surprisingly, I'm the optimistic one, so don't miss a second of it. This is the the Best of podcast. I don't want to get out over my skis or anything, but I think it's safe to at least hope that the housing market is going to continue to improve now that the big, mean orange bigot is going to be back in office. I mean, you might be a little more likely to be thinking about moving over the next four years. And for that, you're going to need a real estate agent. And I'm not talking about some amateur who does it on the weekends. I mean, a serious person, an adult in the room, if you will. My company real estate agents, I trust, can pair you up with such an agent. None of these agents work for us. We just seriously, seriously vet them on best practices and everything else. We watch and monitor every sale and transaction that they make to make sure that everybody is happy at the end. Because we want you to have a serious, smart, hardworking, and honest real estate agent. Well, now you can. You just tell us where you're moving to and from, whether it's across the street or across the country, and we'll help you find the real. The right real. Real estate agent. It's realestateagentsitrust.com realestateagentsitrust.com.

[Stu Burguiere]

You'Re listening to the.

[Peter St. Ange]

Best of the Glenn Beck Program.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh, let's say hello to stupid gear. Hello. Very well, Glenn.

[Stu Burguiere]

Exciting things happening.

[Glenn Beck]

Exciting things, right?

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah. I mean, shutting down the Department of.

[Glenn Beck]

Education now, you don't believe that?

[Stu Burguiere]

Well, I mean, I don't. I'm skeptical whether it will actually occur. I am excited about the prospect of a president who actually wants it to happen. I feel like it's been. We haven't heard that really since Reagan, so I'm excited about that. But of course, Reagan famously did not actually achieve.

[Glenn Beck]

Of course. Of course. Reagan also said that he was going to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

[Stu Burguiere]

Exactly.

[Glenn Beck]

And he didn't do that.

[Stu Burguiere]

I will also say one of the central parts of education policy for Republicans, for as long as I've been aware of politics have been the idea of school choice. And nothing ever happened until the past couple years. Right. Like now we've come further on school choice than at any other point in my lifetime. Yep, I'm really excited about that. I think his, his appointments around this area will be really interesting.

[Glenn Beck]

So here's what he has said. First, let's start with his plan to overhaul leftist colleges.

[Donald Trump]

Cut 5 tuition costs at colleges and universities have been exploding, and I mean absolutely exploding. While academics have been obsessed with indoctrinating America's youth. The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left. And we will do that. Our secret weapon will be the college accreditation system. It's called accreditation for a reason. The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers, but they have failed totally. When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs and lunatics. We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all. These standards will include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated at low cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning and getting their money's worth. Furthermore, I will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowments taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh my.

[Donald Trump]

A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies. Policies that hurt our country so badly. Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers. And now we are going to get this anti American insanity out of our institutions once and for all. We are going to have real education in America.

[Glenn Beck]

Oh yeah, again, we need some porn music for this stuff. I mean, this is just. Oh, say it again, Donald. That is a very, very clear. I think, yes, the clearest I have. I've heard him, and the most passionate that I have heard him. This. These are not campaign promises. He doesn't need to make these promises anymore. These are. Here's what we're doing right now. Included in that, that whole rant is this. Cut four, please.

[Donald Trump]

And one other thing I'll be doing very early in, the administration is closing up the Department of education in Washington, D.C. and sending all education and education work and needs back to the States. We want them to run the education of our children because they'll do a much better job of it. You can't do worse. We spend more money per pupil by three times than any other nation. And yet we're absolutely at the bottom. We're one of the worst. So you can't do worse. We're going to end education coming out of Washington, D.C. we're going to close it up. All those buildings all over the place. And you have people that in many cases hate our children. We're going to send it all back to the States.

[Glenn Beck]

Again. Oh, yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

Love that. I think that is really exciting.

[Glenn Beck]

Now, do you think he won't do it or do you think he won't be able to do it?

[Stu Burguiere]

I mean, I hope that it would happen, but I mean, if you're focusing on the natural levels of pessimism that I have when it comes to anything going on in Washington, you are a little black raincloud. Well, I mean, look, I'm trying to be realistic here, you know, I mean, but I think that there is. I think it's interesting because Trump, when he puts his, when he puts his mind to it, he can accomplish anything. But there are certain things that he says that are things I think he likes and wants but aren't central focuses of his life. For example, we know the border is right. He's got like that. There's no question he's gonna do stuff on the border. Another example I would use would be term limits. He talked often in speeches about term limits in 2016 and 2017.

[Glenn Beck]

Wait, wait, wait. Hang on just a second. I think to Compare Donald Trump's 2016 version. Mm. You're looking at a new 2 point, maybe 2.9 version of Donald Trump. Almost a 3, 0. He's not the same guy.

[Stu Burguiere]

It's true. It's not even a criticism of him, though.

[Glenn Beck]

I know.

[Stu Burguiere]

It's just like when you have. You can only focus on so many things. You can only get so many things done typically. Maybe he's gonna come up with a whole new way to do it. Maybe he's putting all these people in that are going to be able to kind of shepherd these things so he doesn't have to focus on them all the.

[Glenn Beck]

Now that is your bully pulpit.

[Stu Burguiere]

You really can only push for one or two things at a time.

[Glenn Beck]

I don't know. I find these videos that he's putting out to be almost like a fireside chat. And he's putting them out for a reason. Have you ever seen a president do this as President Elect?

[Stu Burguiere]

No. I like it.

[Glenn Beck]

I love this.

[Stu Burguiere]

I like it.

[Glenn Beck]

I love this. And he's putting these out one after another after another because he is preparing the Washington swamp. And America, these are massive changes coming our way and we're going to need your support. And he has told me, I've got to do all of this in 100 days, Glenn. I've got 100 days to do it.

[Stu Burguiere]

He's right on that. That's the way he should be thinking. Yeah, but it's a lot to do.

[Glenn Beck]

It is. But do you remember that first bill that Barack Obama put in that we looked at? It was one of the first health care bills or the. It was tarp. And then there was something else. And remember we.

[Stu Burguiere]

Stimulus plan, wasn't it?

[Glenn Beck]

Stimulus plan, that's $780 billion. And it was like 2,000 pages. And we went through it. Paper. I printed it and said, somebody, I didn't know how long it was, would you print this up? Let me read this. And it was sitting on our kitchen table in our studios in New York City, remember? And I looked at that and I went, this is not about stimulus. This is about fundamental transformation. Okay? And they just loaded that bill with everything. The reason why I bring that up is because that showed to me that they did something we never did, and that is plot the entire course. They knew exactly what they wanted to do. Okay. And they never told us. Donald Trump is the first one that I'm seeing doing this. He didn't even do this in 16. He made promises in 16, and he believes in keeping promises, but he didn't get everything done. He has the Congress and the Senate right now. He can make the right appointments right now. If he fails to make the right appointments, that's going to be a problem. Because if he has any internal fighting they are going to unleash on him.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah, I think that's true.

[Glenn Beck]

And if he has anybody on his own side fighting against him, which he did have last time.

[Stu Burguiere]

Definitely did.

[Glenn Beck]

Yes. Yeah. He's got. There's a mandate here and the Republicans should be reminded of that. And he should not put anybody in any position that doesn't understand maga. This is where we're going. This truly is fundamental transformation. This is a reset back to the Constitution in as many ways that I have ever seen. This is as impactful as what FDR did in the opposite direction in 12 years.

[Stu Burguiere]

Hmm. It's interesting because part. And let me. I'm playing devil's advocate here, because I have the same level of hope here for what might happen.

[Glenn Beck]

But, like, I want you to know, though, I don't hope. I believe. I know. I believe. I know in talking to him, he's not the same guy.

[Stu Burguiere]

I'm not. And that's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying I know. I'm saying it's hard. Oh, I know this is a difficult thing to do. Getting rid of the Department of Education, like, Ronald Reagan really believed that.

[Glenn Beck]

No, I know that he really did.

[Stu Burguiere]

That was not a fake thing. He talked about it for decades. I know leading up to his presidency, it wasn't even one term off. And he's planning, like maybe Donald Trump has done here. I mean, this is what this man was known for for multiple decades, and still it was hard to do.

[Glenn Beck]

Not Department of Education.

[Stu Burguiere]

That was central to his talk to, like, 1960s.

[Glenn Beck]

No, no, no, it wasn't. The Department of Education was started by Jimmy Carter.

[Stu Burguiere]

Right?

[Glenn Beck]

Yes.

[Stu Burguiere]

The consistent policies on education. You're right. Sorry. I'm not being clear. But regardless of that, I have hope and optimism for what he can do. But, like, when you're talking about this is somebody who's going to do whatever MAGA thing he. I mean, his appointments so far have been pretty normal.

[Glenn Beck]

It makes me nervous. Pretty.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like Marco Rubio as Secretary of State is like.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, I wanted Richard Grenell.

[Stu Burguiere]

Any Republican president in that field could have listed Marco Rubio as Secretary of State. It's like, I don't even think. I'm not saying it's a bad pick, but, like, it's not particularly consistent with, like, what I hear from the audience at times about, like, how against Ukraine funding. They are.

[Glenn Beck]

How. Against the. How against Ukraine and the WEF and the United Nations.

[Peter St. Ange]

Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

I mean.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, I want somebody in the UN that wants to shut it down.

[Stu Burguiere]

I mean, and at least Stefanik is a normie Republican pick, and I don't think that's bad.

[Glenn Beck]

She's. I thought she was solid.

[Stu Burguiere]

Really, really good on a lot of things. I'm not even against either of these.

[Glenn Beck]

Picks, but, like, Marco Rubio, I'm borderline on. That's. That's a disappointment.

[Stu Burguiere]

Marco Rubio on the show. We like Marco.

[Glenn Beck]

I like Marco Rubio, but, like, I don't want him as a Secretary of State under Donald Trump where we're doing trusting. I want Richard Grenell.

[Peter St. Ange]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

I want the guy who will walk in and say, hey, by the way, just got off the phone with the President. We're going to make a deal here. Or I'm going back to tell him we don't have a deal. And instead of sending a signed deal to him, we're going to be sending aircraft your way.

[Stu Burguiere]

You know what I mean?

[Glenn Beck]

I want somebody who's going to walk into the EU and say, you are either paying your way. What he said, he means you're either paying your way or we're done. I want that guy. And I'm not sure Marco Rubio is that guy. He could be.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah, he could.

[Glenn Beck]

Maybe he could surprise us.

[Stu Burguiere]

And he's. Yeah, he's obviously, I mean, he was under serious consideration for vice president.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

At least by all the reporting. But it's just, it's interesting. And I think, like, part of the things with Trump is this is, I think, consistent with him. And again, I'm not, this is not, I'm not being critical here. I'm just trying to state what I think is actually true.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

Which is a lot of what Donald Trump says is a negotiation. And we all know that. Going back to the art of the deal.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like, you know that. And when he says, kim Jong Un is my best friend, he doesn't mean it.

[Glenn Beck]

Right, Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

He doesn't also mean the next day when he says, we're sending wet, we're gonna go nuke North Korea tomorrow. He doesn't mean either of those things. They're both.

[Glenn Beck]

Okay. I wanna go through different pieces. I think this is fascinating. I wanna go through the things that he has said and I want you to point out what you think is a negotiation.

[Stu Burguiere]

I don't always know, but I can guess. We know that those two positions can't be true, though. Like, and this is a 2016, 20 or 26 first term reference here, but like saying you're going to, you know, we're going to, you know, blast North Korea like, you know, you've never seen.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

And also, like, we're great friends. I love the guy.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like, those aren't. I know that those are two, obviously.

[Glenn Beck]

But I think there's a difference. The way he deals with TikTok dictators.

[Stu Burguiere]

I think that's true.

[Glenn Beck]

He knows because he's a private businessman who has bullied his way in very good negotiating ways. He has, he's used that as a businessman. He knows who these people are. Okay. And so he knows these are the things I would hate in business and I've done them to people who think they're all that. And I always win. I think that's different than what he's doing on, for instance, the Department of.

[Stu Burguiere]

Ed, But I think it's consistent with what you would do with Marco Rubio or Elise Stefanik. You're picking people who are maybe more hawkish than you to send a message of being hawkish while at the same time maybe trying to implement a more, say, JD Vance ish type forward policy.

[Glenn Beck]

I don't think maybe, maybe it could be. I don't want to. I'm going to give this man the benefit of the doubt because in 16 I didn't. And I was shocked by what he got done. Yeah. And what he meant. And now I really think that he means every word he says on these policies. These are scripted. These are not campaign promises. This is, here's what we're going to do. So I take them literally. Not just seriously, but literally. But I could be wrong. But the only, my only thing on some of his appointments is what does he know that I don't know about Marco Rubio? What does he know that I don't know? Silver is on the rise. Just since January of 2024, which is when I started talking to you about Lear Capital, the price of Silver has risen 39%. This is an unprecedented rise. Supply is dropping. Demand is soaring. Right now. Experts think that it is going to get a whole lot higher in the short term. They think that it could go somewhere between up between 60 and 100%. Kind of like, you know, you should buy Bitcoin, Glenn, when it was 30 cents. Yeah. Thanks a lot. Please. There's a ton of industrial demand. Solar energy, electric cars, new battery technology. All of these require huge amounts of silver. And just in case you haven't been paying attention, it isn't just here at home. China is buying massive amounts of it as well. You need to be building a hedge against insanity of a falling US dollar. Unless we turn this, unless we turn this economy and start building things here, we are not going to be able to make the payment on the debt soon. Lear Capital 800957 Gold. 800957 Gold. They're the only gold company with a 24 hour risk free purchase guarantee. Ask them how you can get up to $15,000 in bonus gold or silver with qualifying purchase. It's Lear Capital 800, 957 Gold. Now back to the podcast. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program and we really want to thank you for listening. Hello America. Welcome to the Glenn Beck program. Oh, it's about to get hot and steamy in here. No, seriously, hot and steamy. We have, we have Sexy, Sexy Tariff Talk coming up. Yeah, let me say it again. Tariffs. Oh, yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

It was actually the original name for this show. Working title was Tariff Talk, but we.

[Glenn Beck]

Thought it was too sexy. Yeah, we thought too many people would too, and go on the nose. I gotta hear Tariff Talk. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now we, we got a guy, I think he's. I think. I think his last name says everything. Peter Senor, which I believe is Franch. Sexy, Sexy Tax Tariff Talk. From the Heritage Foundation, a visiting fellow, we have Peter St. Ange. How are you, Peter?

[Peter St. Ange]

I am great. I appreciate that introduction. Yes, it is that sexy.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah. Oh, I know. Everybody says it. Everybody says it. So without getting it too steamy in here, let's go over the tariffs, because I've always been against tariffs. However, I might be wrong. Donald Trump is making a good case when he's talking about getting rid of the income tax because tariff tariffs will raise the prices of things, especially if he does it the way he's talking about doing it. But if he is getting rid of or lowering the income tax to, you know, 10%, it's such a boon for the economy that we could make up that deficit and become a very powerful nation. Again, tell me I'm wrong.

[Peter St. Ange]

That's absolutely correct. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And economists, you know, the vast majority of economists go after tariffs. They attack Trump over tariffs. And I think they are looking at the trees for the forest here. Because if you replace a tariff, which is basically a sales tax, but it's one that focuses on imported goods, if you replace that with either reducing or, you know, in our dream scenario, abolishing the entire income tax is absolutely rock fuel for the economy.

[Glenn Beck]

Hold on. The reason is because he just said abolish the income tax. I mean, pay attention, Sarah. This is. He just said abolish income tax. Oh, yeah. All right, go ahead.

[Peter St. Ange]

Yeah, so you can queue up the. Right, the background music. So, yeah, and he actually floated abolishing it with Joe Rogan a couple weeks ago. You know, he had been going after. He said no tax on tips and then no tax on overtime, no tax on first responders, no tax on Social Security. And it was kind of like he was really flirting with just breaking up with the income tax altogether. And when he was on there with Rogan, that's exactly what he did. He said, you know, maybe we should go back to the 1800s. When you know, that was before we had an income tax. It was also before we had a fed. And back then, the federal government had to live off tariffs, and that was the greatest period not only of economic growth, but of cultural achievement. It is astounding what we. Everything Elon Musk does was invented in the 1880s. Computers, magnetism, rockets, what's his hyperloop. Every single thing came out of there. It was really the golden age of humanity. And the key there was that we did not have an income tax, we did not have a regulatory state, we did not have a fed. So if Trump can take us back there and all we have to do is like an 8% sales tax on Chinese stocks, that is the deal of the century.

[Glenn Beck]

Okay, so let's go over the. Who pays the tariffs, American companies or the foreign country?

[Peter St. Ange]

Interestingly, during Trump's first term, he put tariffs on China, and China actually paid about 80% of those. So it would issue subsidies to Chinese exporters so they could maintain market share and keep their prices low. So the Chinese government paid the tariffs. So if he does it again, he's talking about hitting China with something like 60% tariffs and then between a 10 and 20% tariff for everybody else. Now, given Trump's style, he is not going to come in and do that across the board. He's going to come in and use that as a club. Right? So the Europeans specifically, they act like a fortress. They are brutal to outsiders. If you want to export to Europe, they will. They put you over a barrel. You remember a couple years ago with Brexit, the first thing the European Union did was sat them down and said, nice economy you got here. Be ashamed of something happened to it. We're going to need a payment from you every single year. It is literally the mafia. They do that to Norway, Switzerland, when all these countries have to fork over billions of dollars to get access to the European market. Now, imagine if we did that. Imagine if we call up Mexico or Canada, we say, hey, listen, we got this beautiful economy. You guys are selling into it here. Once you write me a check for 50 billion to keep access, exactly what the Europeans do. So the first thing Trump's probably going to do, given what he did last time, is he'll call up Europe and he will do the exact same thing. He'll say, you know, I got a 20% tariff burning a hole in my pocket. I need you to do something for some things for me. But anyway, even if he does end up applying those to all foreigners, the Europeans are not going to cover the exporters because they're in a deep fiscal hole. They don't have the money, they're already bankrupt. They're not going to do what China did. But a lot of those tariffs, especially the ones for China, are probably going to keep getting paid by China because exports to America are what they live on. If they lose, that game's over and.

[Glenn Beck]

We should not be empowering them, quite honestly. Now here's why I have possibly turned around. I'm willing to listen to tariff talk because in my cute little head I keep thinking that all of the. When you have an extra 20 or $30,000 that you're pulling in every year, whatever it is you were paying in income tax, and, and everything, everything goes down that's made here in America. If you're not paying that income tax, you have a lot of extra buying power, which means most Americans will spend that and we'll grow our economy, which will put more taxes. Well, we don't have tax, so that wouldn't work. How does it work when you don't have taxes? Go ahead.

[Peter St. Ange]

Yeah, so just kind of running through the numbers. So the first thing that happens is if you get rid of the income tax altog so I estimate you get about a 20% jump in incomes in the US so that would be something like $15,000 for a typical family. That's what you get off the bat. The typical family currently in America pays about 18,000 in income tax. So you save that and then you knock off about 3,000 for the tariffs. There's a variety of estimates on that, but that seems to be the cluster. So you get a 15,000 raise because the economy is growing faster. You get an 18,000 raise because you don't have to, you know, send your income tax to the government. People don't realize how much they're paying to the government.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Peter St. Ange]

A lot of it. But anyway, you know, you've got the guy, what do they call it? Withholding. Anyway, so that's 33 and that's all three for the tariffs. You looking at $30,000 raise per year, 2500amonth. Now, currently the median American take home is about 58,000. Okay. Which is about 76 minus the income tax. So you go from taking home 58 to taking home 88. Right. That is a massive difference. So that sort of sets the stage. But then next what happens? Exactly what you just mentioned.

[Glenn Beck]

Hold on. You go from 58 to 88. Oh yeah. Ding dong pizza delivery. Every man. Anyway, why is that the part you.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like so much in his movies. It's interesting what he's excited about.

[Glenn Beck]

All right, go ahead. All right, so I love it.

[Stu Burguiere]

And it's true.

[Peter St. Ange]

I mean, you know, if you're making 88, you can go to Vegas and things happen in Vegas.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, right, right. Creating jobs.

[Peter St. Ange]

Yeah, well, and so that's the fun part, right, is you mentioned earlier that if you're not paying income tax, then production in the US Is cheaper. So instead of the Chinese stocks coming in, they used to come in for whatever, $6. Now they're coming in at $9. Fine. But China's paying for that, so they're probably still coming in at 6. But meanwhile, American factories can make socks for less because they are not paying the income tax. There's a very good chance that we're going to steal a lot of that manufacturing, even if the Chinese government pays for the tariffs. So you've got.

[Glenn Beck]

And that means also because the economy, we are building factories, we're doing things ourself because we can. Everybody's pay goes up because we need more workers. Right?

[Peter St. Ange]

Exactly, exactly. And then if you do mass deportations, then those jobs will actually go to America. So you've got two possibilities, right? One of them is that China covers the tariffs, in which case it's a free lunch for us. You know, China's what, sending us about 500 billion? Well, their share would be, let's say 300 billion. So that would be fantastic. Thank you very much. Or China does not cover the tariffs, in which case Chinese goods are priced out of the market. American goods pay no income tax, so they're cheaper. By the way, every headquarter on earth would try to move to the United States if you're paying no income taxes. And the single biggest economy on Earth, everybody is gonna be moving here, including the Chinese companies. So, right. The worst case scenario, the Chinese don't cover it and then they get out competed and all those jobs come back to America. And if it's only Americans living here, then Americans are gonna be swimming in jobs.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, this is just. This is big. How much?

[Peter St. Ange]

Oh, yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

I mean, he has only kind of floated this on the Rogan Show. How real do you think this is? Because I know he loves tariffs. I know he loves tariffs.

[Peter St. Ange]

He loves tariffs and he hates the income tax. So it's beautiful. It's like a. Just like the perfect mutant president that we.

[Stu Burguiere]

Peter, isn't the complication here, though, that he can essentially do what he wants with tariffs, but he can't do what he wants with the Income tax. And that becomes the heavy lift here.

[Peter St. Ange]

Right. So he would need Congress to play ball on the income tax. And Congress is very tight, as we're all discussing at the moment. There's a ton of rhinos over there. So that's going to need, you know, the pressure and the passion that people showed during the campaign. Yeah, but millions of Americans showed. Yeah, we're going to have to put that on the rhinos.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I think that if he did, you know, a tour even, and it was just all about income tax, you just have to say to people, you go from 58 to 88 in take home pay. I think a lot of people will be like, you know what, I love that.

[Stu Burguiere]

I agree. But you're not gonna get. Obviously. So in theory, you could put it into a reconciliation bill. Right. You could put at least a massive reduction. You couldn't. Not a constitutional amendment, unfortunately. That's what I would prefer. Repealing the 16th.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, me too. But you could capture Americans imagination with this.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah, I think that's pretty. That would be pretty great. I do think you'd have issues with some of these, as you point out, rhino type Republicans who would complain about all sorts of things, including deficit stuff.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

Like they would say, oh, we're going to lose all this income.

[Glenn Beck]

Peter Saint Auge, he is. I'm not going to hold it against him for being French. I mean, somewhere in his past somebody had sex with a Frenchman. Okay, let's. Let's move past that. He's with the Heritage Foundation, a visiting fellow.

[Stu Burguiere]

This is definitely the weirdest interview he's ever done. He's regretting every minute of this.

[Glenn Beck]

Like, this is the end of my career and my credibility.

[Stu Burguiere]

You're streaming the Best of Glenn Beck to hear more of this interview and others. Download the full show. Podcasts, wherever you get podcasts.

[Glenn Beck]

So we were talking about the average person's take home pay going from 58,000 to 88,000. Oh, what is this?

[Stu Burguiere]

What is this music? Is this supposed to be like 70s porn music?

[Glenn Beck]

I do. Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

There's no women singing in 70s porn music.

[Glenn Beck]

Are you hearing the women? Oh, there it is.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

Well, I don't know where. I'm not up on my 70s porn. You've never heard.

[Stu Burguiere]

You've never heard a parody of a.

[Glenn Beck]

In fact, I have. I thought this was pretty close, but not.

[Stu Burguiere]

No, it's. What is this? What is she singing about? Sarah?

[Glenn Beck]

She's just singing. All right, stop. So Stu, of course, is a little black rain cloud. 58,000. The average person's take home pay 58,000 to 88,000.

[Stu Burguiere]

Okay. Let me just lay this out briefly.

[Glenn Beck]

All right, go ahead.

[Stu Burguiere]

I like going from 58,000 to $88,000.

[Glenn Beck]

That's good.

[Stu Burguiere]

I'm very much.

[Glenn Beck]

He wants it.

[Stu Burguiere]

I am. Look at the way he's dressed. I hate stewdoesmerch.com has mugs that say, Repeal the 16th Amendment.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. You're for it.

[Stu Burguiere]

I'm for it.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah.

[Stu Burguiere]

If you can do the three things needed in this plan. One, eliminate the income tax.

[Glenn Beck]

Yeah, I think you could do that.

[Stu Burguiere]

Two, cut spending by multiple trillions of dollars.

[Glenn Beck]

I think you might be able to do that.

[Stu Burguiere]

You do those things, you can have any tariff you want. I'm fine. I don't like tariffs at all. And I would be completely for eliminating all of them. However, if you can do all that completely, fine. With whatever. You can put 1 trillion percent tariffs on Chinese. Whatever goods. Whatever you want.

[Glenn Beck]

Right.

[Stu Burguiere]

I'm fine with it. If you could do those other two things, I'm. Can we be honest about this? Isn't it a bit of a fantasy to get those two things done? I want these things.

[Glenn Beck]

Lots of things are fantasies until they come true. I was surprised that I never thought to me, oh, Mr. He doesn't know porn, knows all the tropes.

[Stu Burguiere]

And so it's interesting how you could just immediately go into the exact porn. Hey, the pizza delivery guy, the thing.

[Glenn Beck]

You brought up over and over again. Apparently his favorite part of all the.

[Stu Burguiere]

Movies is when the pizza shows up. What a surprise. He stops there. He doesn't even make it to the sex.

[Donald Trump]

He stops at the pizza.

[Glenn Beck]

That's exactly right. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Can you put the camera back on the pizza? What's happening? That looked good. All right.

[Stu Burguiere]

Anyway, but I mean, come on, do we really.

[Glenn Beck]

I say three.

[Stu Burguiere]

What I'm concerned about here, Two words, two letters.

[Glenn Beck]

May I just say.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

RO versus Wade.

[Stu Burguiere]

I would have said the exact same thing about Roe versus Wade. Let me give you two other words that's true.

[Glenn Beck]

Three words. President Donald Trump.

[Stu Burguiere]

I would have also told you that would not occur in 2015. I would have said that. So it's so. Look, miracles happen. I agree with that. And maybe. But it does to me, noting my experience of the past 40 plus years of life seems highly, highly suspect that those two things will get done.

[Glenn Beck]

Feeling that the world's changed and everything that we've known from experience should go bye. Bye.

[Stu Burguiere]

I like your world better than my world. I wanna make sure I'm clear on that. But like, what I'm concerned about here is that you need like, I would be surprised if they can't get a tax cut done. They'll get something done on taxes. They get a reconciliation bill. They get one shot at that. They are gonna have 53 senators.

[Glenn Beck]

How hard do you not think the American people will embrace 58,000 to 88,000 in take home pay?

[Stu Burguiere]

I think they'll like that. I think they'll love that. What they will not like is hearing about all the programs that will go away and all the single.

[Glenn Beck]

And all you'll have to say is $58,000 to $88,000.

[Stu Burguiere]

And yes, I'm sure Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and a bunch of other RINO senators will go along.

[Glenn Beck]

People stand up the way they've stood up. This is a positive thing to rally about.

[Stu Burguiere]

I agree.

[Glenn Beck]

You don't think there would be marches all over. You don't think he would just pack people by the buttload into stadiums across and just say call your congressman, call your senator that he would be able to rally American people like nobody else? I mean, look, you need what, 80%? You need how. What is the percentage you need to cut the federal budget? What do you mean cut the federal. For instance, Calvin Coolidge did this. He cut the federal budget by 50%. Yes. And then he cut the budget again by 50%. Incredible. And he lowered the income tax from like 95 to like 5%.

[Stu Burguiere]

You don't have to sell me on the Calvin Coolidge presidency. I love Calvin Coolidge. What do you. I don't. What do you need to. It's not like.

[Glenn Beck]

Who is listening to this show?

[Stu Burguiere]

I don't know.

[Glenn Beck]

You don't have to sell me on Calvin Coolidge. Oh, yeah, talk some more. Calvin Coolidge.

[Stu Burguiere]

Is that before or after the pizza shows up?

[Glenn Beck]

Oh, my gosh, what a nerd program this is today.

[Stu Burguiere]

I would love Calvin Coolidge just to come back to life and his policies to be passed.

[Glenn Beck]

But that's all that Donald Trump is saying, let's do Calvin Coolidge. That gave.

[Stu Burguiere]

It was hard to. Calvin Coolidge is known as a great president to conservatives because he accomplished something very difficult.

[Glenn Beck]

You know why he did?

[Stu Burguiere]

And I'm acknowledging that this is difficult.

[Glenn Beck]

Do you know why he did? Because Woodrow Wilson, the progressive just started gobbling everything up and everybody went, I don't want that. That was the uniqueness of Calvin Coolidge. He was put into a situation where they scared the hell out of every American and they were like, okay, this isn't going to work. I don't like that. And that's why he put that in, why he was able to put that in.

[Stu Burguiere]

I like.

[Glenn Beck]

And by the way, just let me just say the Roaring Twenties.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yes.

[Glenn Beck]

At the beginning, nobody had a telephone, refrigeration, electricity. By 1930, almost everybody had that.

[Stu Burguiere]

I'll note we're currently in the 20s. Would be a nice little retro thing to have Another Roaring Twenties would be a great way to kick it off. I, of course, support these ideas, you know, and I think it's better than previous approaches. Right. Where previously it was like, well, what if we only increase the budget by 1% a year and in 10 years we would be able to balance the budget? Like those type of approaches, which are kind of technically maybe accurate, they don't inspire anybody. There's no, there's no excitement behind that.

[Glenn Beck]

This is what I've been asking for since 2010. Who is stepping up with a moonshot idea?

[Stu Burguiere]

Yeah.

[Glenn Beck]

Who is? And Donald Trump is. He's stepping up and saying, see that space that everybody says we can't get to? We're going there.

[Stu Burguiere]

I like it, I like it. I want it to happen. I'm a bit skeptical that it can, but, hey, you're not a badly skeptical that it will occur. And I'm concerned because, look, we know that Donald Trump likes tariffs. I am not a tariff guy. But the problem is you have two very difficult things to do, which is cut multiple trillions of dollars from a budget which there's been no appetite, by the way. We should also note here that Donald Trump ran on multiple times, not digging in to massive programs that are the massive major cause of our debt. Things like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid. He doesn't want to touch those programs, which is okay. I mean, he won the election on it. I get it. But like, you can't cut 75% of your budget unless you touch those programs.

[Glenn Beck]

So, wait, what do you say about this? What do you say if Donald Trump proposes anyone making under $100,000 a year? And we're not going to combine salaries, if you're married, we're not going to punish you with a combined income.

[Stu Burguiere]

Okay, so 50k a person, 50k a.

[Glenn Beck]

Person, 58k, you know, is the average salary 58k, you know, times two? We are only going to count. We're going to count both of you under 100,000. You pay 0 income tax. Everybody above them pays a flat tax of 15%. Yeah. Thank you, Sarah. All right. Everybody wins in that. Everybody wins. I love it.

[Stu Burguiere]

I love it. First of all, you know what the media is going to do with that claim.

[Glenn Beck]

Who cares? The media doesn't matter anymore.

[Stu Burguiere]

I think there's something to that, but I think there would be a lot of. It would be difficult for a lot of these, let's say, purple state, purple district representatives to go along with such things when their programs are being cut. But, okay, all right, we go through that process and we do that. You know, I don't see how you cut the trillions of dollars out of the budget without touching the programs that Donald Trump has promised not to touch. So that would be a difficult thing to deal with. And second, beyond that, he can just do the tariffs. And the problem with the tariffs are if you go through this fantasy league situation where all of this comes true and all of our wildest dreams are here and now you're depending on tariffs to fund the government. That's fantastic. Except for the fact that if the tariffs work and we move all of our manufacturing back to America, there's no one paying tariffs anymore. So then you have no income there either. So now you're cutting another 75% off, which, again, I'm probably fine with. But I don't know that America is.

[Glenn Beck]

This is the reason why I want tariffs and I'm for tariffs in the first place. We've got to build our manufacturing base back. So if you just go, let's say you. Let's say you say you pay tariffs, you pay nothing here. If you make it here, everybody moves back, you give them a 15% income tax. When the tariffs don't work anymore, they're not going anywhere because Nobody's offering a 15% corporate tax. Nobody.

[Stu Burguiere]

So you're then reinstituting the.

[Glenn Beck]

You do a dream, you address that when you get there.

[Stu Burguiere]

And probably the answer to all this is they're less extreme options that sort of balance each other out.

[Glenn Beck]

I really like that.

[Stu Burguiere]

I don't either. I really like that we're not going to move all of our manufacturing back, obviously. And nor that would that even be a good thing, frankly. I mean, like, if anything, we've learned that maybe having diversity of where places are, where things are made is probably a good thing, right? Because if we get a bad president here that says, hey, I'm going to shut down this industry because I don't like it, we want to make sure that stuff is still being made somewhere in the world because Donald Trump will not be president forever.

[Glenn Beck]

Think of that statement. You have to no one in their right mind. 25 years ago, 30 years ago, any time in America would have said, well, except for prohibition when the progressives were doing it. Yeah, nobody would have ever said, well, they're going to destroy this industry. They're just going to destroy it. No, but you didn't have that fear of the government. You shouldn't have that fear. It's crazy.

[Stu Burguiere]

But I do have that fear.

[Glenn Beck]

I know.

[Stu Burguiere]

That's why I worry about all this stuff whenever.

[Glenn Beck]

That's why this stuff has to be passed into law.

[Stu Burguiere]

Yes, not just executive order.

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