transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] So you're saying with Hilton Honors, I can use points for a free night stay anywhere? Anywhere. What about fancy places like the Canopy in Paris? Yeah, Hilton Honors, baby. Or relaxing sanctuaries like the Conrad and Tulum?

Speaker 2:
[00:13] Hilton Honors, baby.

Speaker 1:
[00:15] What about the five-star Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives? Are you gonna do this for all 9,000 properties?

Speaker 3:
[00:22] When you want points that can take you anywhere, anytime, it matters where you stay. Hilton, for the stay. Book your spring break now.

Speaker 4:
[00:37] Now, it's Red Eye Radio. Gary McNamara and Eric Harley talk about everything from politics to social issues and news of the day. Whether you're up late or you're just starting your day, welcome to the show. From the Relief Factor Studios, this is Red Eye Radio.

Speaker 2:
[00:57] All across America, we are Red Eye Radio. I'm Gary McNamara. Eric has the morning off. All right. Yesterday, confirmation hearing for the Federal Reserve Chair nominee, Kevin Warsh. Here's Elizabeth Warren. Okay, so here we go. On Fed stuff, right?

Speaker 5:
[01:20] Here we go.

Speaker 2:
[01:20] All right.

Speaker 6:
[01:21] And your courage. We'll start easy. Mr. Warsh, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?

Speaker 5:
[01:29] We try to keep politics, if I'm confirmed, out of the Federal Reserve.

Speaker 6:
[01:31] I'm just asking a factual question. I need to know, I need to measure your independence and your courage.

Speaker 5:
[01:38] Senator, I believe that this body certified that election many years ago.

Speaker 6:
[01:42] That's not the question I'm asking. I'm asking, did Donald Trump lose in 2020?

Speaker 5:
[01:46] I'm suggesting you in 2020, the Fed made a huge inflation problem, and you certified the election. You need to keep politics out of monetary policy.

Speaker 6:
[01:56] In our meeting, you said you would be independent.

Speaker 2:
[01:59] Now, the interesting thing is the Wall Street Journal pointed out editorial page, by the way, the difference between the news department and the editorial page pointed out that, it's like, you know, what came up, what actually came out of the hearing? And it's like, well, Elizabeth Warren isn't talking about it now, but all during the last few years, all she's been talking about is lowering interest rates. And it looks like the, Kevin Warsh believes that interest rates should be lower. And they made the point saying, actually, he'd be exactly the nominee that Elizabeth Warren would want. But of course, they can't ask him Fed questions. Look, we look at Warsh and wasn't who we initially thought Trump might pick. And he, from what we know in his past, he seems to be independent. He seems to be more of a believer in what we believe the Fed should be about. He doesn't believe that the Fed should be engulfed in any of the green energy stuff. So, from what we can see, as opposed to other people that might be put in there, in fact, we said it when he was nominated. We said, well, you know, for Trump's complaints about the Fed now, is he a solution to what Trump wants? Certainly, he's not going to lower. And he can't do it by himself. But the Fed is not going to lower interest rates two or three points in a couple of months. That's not happening. But I thought that was interesting. It's like, excuse me, he's exactly what you want in there. He believes that interest rates should be lower than they are right now. But again, he isn't the one that decides on that alone. So we'll see where that goes. What was the other thing I wanted to bring? There's something else here that I had. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, just more economic stuff, just more, you know, where the country is going overall. You know, because the whole Virginia thing, you know, that's political parties attempting to get power, but what wins political parties? Elections year in and year out over a long period of time. And when you look at right now, when you look at the population difference, you know, you can gerrymander all you want. The courts are probably gonna get involved. I wouldn't surprise if they overturned the Virginia gerrymandering because it is so blatantly wrong. By the way, it's a great point as to the tyranny of the majority. It's why we have a constitutional republic. You know, you look at it, you can get an example, because I don't think, you know, Democrats will point to Texas. Texas is not the same as to what's going on in Virginia at all. In Virginia, you're talking about one Republican district, ten Democrats, in a state that probably, depending on the election, is 5149 most of the time. Part of the problem is the tyranny of the majority, were the minority, or... I guess the minority, because even if it's a plurality, it would be a minority of the plurality, if you were talking to a popular vote for three people or whatever. But it's the reason that we live in the system that we live in. It's why you have a Senate. Founding fathers knew it. And how did they know it? That was the Civil War we fought in the Revolutionary War. It was over representation. If places believe they don't have representation, that's a key to starting a civil war. Hey Drivers, Eric Harley here for Catscale. You probably already know you can get guaranteed accurate weights when you weigh on a Catscale. But did you know that you get those same guaranteed weights much faster when you use the Weigh My Truck app? Simply pay, weigh, and get back on the road. It's that easy. Look for the iconic black and gold Catscale sign at truck stops and travel plazas nationwide. And remember, weigh what we say or we pay. Guaranteed. Go online to create an account. Watch the helpful tutorial and download the Weigh My Truck app today. Check out weighmytruck.com to save time on the road. That's weighmytruck.com. Do it today. That's weighmytruck.com.

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Speaker 2:
[07:01] Prices may be higher for delivery. Great map, and I talked about this, I think, last Friday that I had seen where it shows, oh, it had to be like 20 states, just North Texas alone, which is Dallas, Fort Worth, have more population than like 20 different states. So when you look at the movement, when you look at how many in just the next census, we're not talking about redistricting, we're just talking about the states that will lose congressional seats. It could be 70, excuse 70, it could be seven, after the next census, because of people moving. When it comes to long term, on so many of the issues, it's 80-20 against what the Democrats believe. On the cultural issues, they're dead. The only thing that's left is the financial issues, and the financial issues right now, we're dealing with the country, that prices are killing them, and they've been killing them for five, six years now. Okay, I'll say, we'll say five. And the people beginning to just, that's the only thing on their mind. That's what matters most. You can talk about all the other different issues out there. What hits people the most, what affects them the most is prices. Biden lost because of immigration and prices. Trump's numbers on the economy, not good, prices. The only good thing, the only good thing for Republicans right now, in the latest polling, we talked about this a week ago, Democrats aren't the solution to the public. So what is? Well, you still face the fact that if you're the party that is in power, and people blame you for prices, boom, that's it. In polling shows, people blame Trump for the prices. That's where we are. And conservative pollsters, the same thing, doesn't matter, can't sit there, I don't believe the polls. Doesn't matter which poll you're talking about. And you've seen the movement over a period of time. But for Congress right now, who knows? With Virginia, but long term, the Republicans have a party, have a problem, conservatives have a problem. The Republican Party is moving more populist, more liberal, more socialist. And it's that simple, they are. And people are asking, you know, part of the, look, part of the, you know, entire Trump was America first. To a lot of populists, that meant, don't spend federal dollars over there, spend it on us. They weren't thinking of cutting the federal budget, because nobody, think about this, there is zero protests, zero, over the deficit that we have. And now that we're spending a billion years, a billion years, a billion, excuse me, a trillion dollars on just interest payments every year. And we're in that, we're in that financial doom cycle. Politically, you can't, you can't win by saying, let's cut. They tried to cut with Doge, couldn't do it. Public didn't want it. Why? The majority of the public believes that it's irresponsible what we're doing, but also the majority of the public believes we can balance the budget by getting rid of foreign aid and waste. Well, that's over. That was the biggest attempt to get rid of waste, did some good. A lot less federal employees running it, but once we get done paying all the tariffs back and the interest on the tariffs that have to be paid to the importers, there's not going to be any change in the deficit. It's going to be worse. We're still spending more money. We have to spend more money because interest rates are eating up what goes to federal programs. Just a few years ago, we were paying $400 billion in interest. Now it's a trillion, that $600 billion more that cannot go to just keeping what we pay for now going. It's an automatic $600 billion cut, which you got to make up somehow, which means they spend more, which creates more debt, which keeps us in this cycle. We are no longer a nation that believes, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. That's not where we live. And the Republican Party even realizes, what do we do? We cannot sell fiscal conservatism. People will say, yeah, it's the right way to go and then do it. No, it's not the right way to go. We've seen it. We saw the beginnings of it during Obamacare. Get rid of all Obamacare. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just get rid of the mandates. Get rid of the mandates. Don't get rid of the program. We like the program. So the whole promise in Trump's first term to get rid of Obamacare failed. Why? People like free stuff. Or it's not the people like free stuff, people like stuff that other people are paying for. And it's a worry. When you see where we've gone in this nation, when you look at the far left and the sense of entitlement, when you look at the party, and Republicans should look at what the Democrats have become, that's what happens when you become a party built on people believing they're victims and oppressors, and the oppressors have to pay for the victims, and you're entitled to what other people have. Envy and jealousy is not, are not positive characteristics to have, to have a nation succeed. And that's where the Democratic Party is, and that's where the Republican Party is headed, I'm afraid. But we live in our own delusional world. Well, we're absolutely against the debt. Increase spending for everything except foreign aid, and get rid of the wasteful spending, and that'll balance the budget. No it won't. Yes it will. No it won't. Here's the proof. I don't believe anything that I read. Then what do you believe? And so, you know, that's where we are, and so I don't know where it's gonna end up, but that's really originally where Eric and I came up with the entire we're doomed, because there's this cycle, this cycle of fiscal doom. You know, I don't know how you get out of it. Everything is about borrowing more money. You're not gonna be able to get it from billionaires. When you have, who was it? Oh, it was Harold Ford. We played it yesterday. Say you can't spend your way out of this. It's a Democrat. He, I viewed him as an extremely liberal Democrat 10 years ago. Now he's saying what everybody is saying. You know, I saw the other day, Fetterman. Every, everything that Fetterman believes is where the Democrats stood in 2020. That's how far left they've gone. And so the Republican Party has just moved more left, which is more populist with more socialist belief that our government can spend the money and give it back to us in a better way. As long as that's the philosophy, that that's the federal government's job, we're not going to solve the problems. It's not going to solve it. And we will make the economy weaker. And if we make the economy weaker, we make the United States weaker. We are Red Eye Radio, brought to you by FPPF, Fuel Power Max.

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Speaker 4:
[17:09] Wind open for your calls. 866-90REDI on Red Eye Radio.

Speaker 2:
[17:29] Red Eye Radio. He is Eric Harley, he has a morning off. I'm Gary McNamara, I'm here. Coming up on the bottom of the hour, there's a really interesting story, some research being done. Mass exodus from California is driven by poor people. And Texas now emerges as the top destinations for companies leaving blue states. Now this all fits in with the whole thing of the gerrymandering vote in Virginia, and just everything else as to where we are going as a nation, both politically and also economically, because both tie in together. And so we'll have those stories coming up on the bottom of the hour. I want to play this short report from CBS. This is really interesting when we talk about voter ID, when we talk about fraudulent voting, illegal immigrants voting or non-citizens voting. This is a story about a former mayor in Kansas who was just convicted of fraudulently voting. Here we go. Here it is from CBS News' Ian Lee.

Speaker 9:
[18:40] A court this week just sentenced a man who was not only caught voting illegally, but he did so while serving as mayor. Joseph Bios was, until late last year, mayor of Coldwater, Kansas. And he was extremely popular. The two-term mayor won like 80 percent of the vote. And while he's in the country on a green card, that doesn't matter. Only US citizens can vote. And in Kansas, serve as mayor. Bios pled guilty and a judge sentenced him to probation and fined him $2,000. But this sparked an investigation in Kansas. Last November, state officials said there could be thousands of non-U.S. citizens on their voter rolls. Now, here's the thing. That's not illegal. It happens by mistake all the time. If you're an immigrant and you go get a state ID or a driver's license, the DMV may accidentally register you. It's only illegal if you vote. So Kansas wants to know how many more people are out there like Zabayos and say their investigation is ongoing.

Speaker 2:
[19:41] And that's why, you know, when the Department of Justice wants to look at state voter rolls and they're being denied, saying no, you've got no business in it, that's what they're looking for. They're saying, wait a minute, are you registering people? Because that isn't against the law. If the state, if you get an ID or a license, let's say you're here legally and get a license, what they're saying is thousands of people are being registered to vote. And so you can vote if you want, you may get caught later on, but if you vote, that can affect an election. And Republicans say that's wrong and Democrats are like, no, we don't want you to do that. Which means, as we've said before, whether it's looking at the voter rolls to make sure that people are citizens or voter ID, there is only one reason why Democrats almost in unison. And this would be why you had the vote in Virginia. We wish to win elections however we can. Whatever gives us the edge, even in the case of fraud, people that are not US citizens voting when they're not supposed to. It's the only reason. There is no other reason.

Speaker 4:
[21:36] Catch Red Eye Radio live every night on the Red Eye Radio app, available in the App Store. Red Eye Radio.

Speaker 2:
[21:44] And I'm Gary McNamara, along with Eric Harley. Eric has the morning off. Amazing that this did not get more news yesterday. The Republicans in the Senate have decided to use reconciliation to fund DHS. Here's John Thune yesterday. He, in fact, posted this about 12 hours ago. Really amazing. It did with all the hype and hoopla over this over the last month. And by the way, a ton of Department of Homeland Security agents have not been paid. Here's what the Republicans say they're going to do.

Speaker 10:
[22:19] As you all know, the Senate this year has passed 11 of the 12 appropriations bills. We did that in a way we wanted to get back to regular order. So we worked with Democrats, actually worked with Democrats on all 12. And then, of course, at the last minute, the Democrats decided they didn't want to fund DHS. And so we've now had two long shutdowns of DHS. So long that the employees at DHS, DHS has been unfunded for a longer time than it's been funded. So those employees over there have not been paid for more days than they've been paid in this fiscal year, if you can believe that. So the Democrats have effectively written themselves out of the appropriations process by drawing a line in the sand and saying that we are so committed to our open borders and defund the police policies that we are not going to fund the two agencies that are tasked with keeping this country safe, protecting our border and ensuring that illegal immigrants in this country who commit criminal acts are deported out of the country. That's pretty much what it is, as simple as that. And so what we have been forced to do, and frankly this is not my preference, but it is a reality, we are going to use the reconciliation process to fund those two important agencies. And so we will be getting on a bill later today, a budget resolution that will be the unlock the next step, which is budget reconciliation, that will enable us to ensure that those who carry out law enforcement responsibilities in this country are actually funded. And so I had to say, again, what did the Democrats get out of all these shutdowns? The long shutdown in the fall, now this is 68, 69 days here on DHS. I can't determine what that is. They made it, they want to make it about reforms. And so we, the White House made reforms, we offered up reforms, and they kept moving the goalposts, walking away from it. It became very clear that their base was convinced, had convinced them that the only thing to do is to defund the police and to go back to the Biden open borders policy. That is effectively what this is all about. Republicans are not going to allow that to happen, which is why we have been forced by the Democrats to use the reconciliation process to see that these two important agencies are funded. We will be doing that starting today, for the balance of this week, and that will unlock, as I said, the second step budget reconciliation to come later.

Speaker 2:
[24:54] There you go, the Senate yesterday. And we had said the whole DHS thing is just an extension of the Defund the Police. It's the same thing. And the rhetoric that's been used by the left is just absolutely reprehensible, comparing ICE to Nazis, Gestapo and all that. You had two incidents that happened because you had two people, unfortunately, that believed that they should obstruct a law enforcement operation. The ICE agents thought that the one woman was using a weapon, her car, as a weapon. And the other man, as we know, was struggling and was armed at that point. Wish it hadn't happened, but if the obstruction of law enforcement hadn't happened, hadn't started it, none of that would have happened. So that is not execution in the streets, as Democrats have said. It is factually wrong what they have done. But this is where, and understand, this is why I've said, Republicans have to promote all this stuff. Just don't promote it once. Just don't promote it yesterday. And when you pass the bill, pound on it. Talk about identity politics. Talk about, you know, that, you know, the, you know, defund the police. Talk about, get into the minutia. It doesn't take that long to do it. And attack, attack, attack. And stop defending yourselves instead of attacking the Democrats on their racism of identity politics, their racism of anti-Semitism, the misogyny of the radical transgender movement, the misogyny and the sexism that they have. Talk about, since, you know, the whole Southern Poverty Law Center thing is a perfect, perfect time for Republicans to say they are the haters. Perfect time. All right, other stories out there. This one, the New York Post, really interesting. People from California who found themselves financially struggling in the state are leaving for much greener pastures, setting up their lives and their families in other states where they're now thriving. The residents fleeing California are poorer inhabitants, finding it hard to maintain their quality of life in an increasingly unaffordable state, but finding much improved circumstances after relocation according to a study. Since the pandemic, the share of residents moving out of the state's higher income communities jumped dramatically to 19% researchers from the University of California's California Policy Lab shows. The households leaving, they are not broke, but they are struggling to make ends meet compared to their wealthier neighbors. The affordability gap has really widened over the last decade, said Evan White, executive director of the lab, told the San Francisco Chronicle that makes it really difficult for people even making good money to get by. Matt Ingalls, 41, was not poor by any means when he left Los Angeles for Texas with his wife and two children in 2021 after eight years on the West Coast. With the high cost, he said it was easier to feel he and others were falling behind. I do notice in California that there is that wealth gap. I mean, there are just so many ultra rich people living in LA and San Francisco, and you have daily exposure to those people. So maybe the perception, even if you're doing well financially, is that if you don't have as much because there's so many people, you know, living in abundance. He said the cost of living in Texas is significantly less than California. With everything from gas to groceries, his family saves nearly $60,000 to $80,000 alone on education, because the quality of public schools in Texas are good, while in California, he sent his children to private schools. You just get way more bang for your buck in Texas than you do in California. My quality of life here is significantly better, but that's more than just finances. People exiting the state tended to have worse credit scores. Sometimes their credit cards maxed out. They had more auto loans, significantly higher student debt, and were 10% less likely to own a home. But when they finally left California, their outcomes improved. Those who left were 11% more likely to own a home after leaving. This is according to the California University Lab of following people that move. In contrast, people moving to California were only 6% more likely to own a house within seven years. During 2025, nearly 150,000 more people left the state than arrived. The affordability here is a huge piece of the housing market. And I see that my clients that move here, he said, I mean, they have numerous clients that I've helped move here from California. And they're astonished at what they can get for their money. All that points to the fact that California is increasingly becoming a state for the only well-off, researchers said. Well, I mean, they said, driven by poor people. The article, that's New York Post, says that. It actually isn't, I mean, I know they're talking about the billionaires that are leaving. But what they're saying here is now, you've got the middle class leaving, too. So I guess it would be by poor people compared to the billionaires, if that's the point that they were trying to make in that case. High rents and higher housing costs are major factors, according to the lab, the California lab, that kept people down. A separate study also recently released found that the average California household has about 35% less disposable income than the national average. The reason, high taxes, high housing costs, high energy costs. Efforts by state Democrats to increase housing stock have not made a dent. New housing units built in the last five years have not yet translated into meaningful relief for households struggling with high costs. Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, told The Chronicle, If the trend continues, the implications for California's tax base and national political clout could be severe. For example, after losing one congressional seat in 2021, California is on track to lose three to four seats in Congress in the 23 census that we had talked about earlier. When talking about the whole Virginia, gerrymandering and this from Fox, Texas is emerging as the nation's leading economic engine and corporate America is following its lead with companies rethinking where they call home beyond attracting investments, creating jobs and encouraging long-term growth. Texas saw a 10.1% increase in economic output per capita from 2021 to 2024. I don't have any reference here in front of me, but that seems to be huge with the state's thriving economy. The corporate exodus to Texas is no coincidence. Texas' economy continues to outpace the national average and ranks number one in job creation in March alone. 26 new projects were announced in locations across Texas, which are expected to create more than 20.5 billion. In capital investment and 1,241 jobs supported by its pro-growth policies that advance freedom for companies and consumers alike, Texas is opening a new frontier in its growth story, attracting companies' legal incorporations to their headquarters. Historically, a company's decision to redomicile was viewed as a routine business decision. For a century, Delaware has held the corporate crown being home to at least 60% of Fortune 500 companies. However, increasing opposition towards Delaware's legal climate has spurred corporate interest in reincorporation, primarily in pursuit of more predictable legal frameworks for doing business. Enter Texas. And they go through and we told that remember when Delaware was going through that a few years ago, and we said that we went, what the hell are they doing? It's like, okay, let's pass a law that writes our own death warrant. And you throw up your hands, you go, I don't know what they're doing. Doesn't make any sense. We are Red Eye Radio.

Speaker 4:
[34:36] Coming up more with Gary McNamara and Eric Harley. It's Red Eye Radio.

Speaker 2:
[34:54] We are Red Eye Radio. I'm Gary McNamara. Eric has the morning off. All right. So I have to play this. I just discovered it during the break there. And we've often talked about the budget we did earlier today and about where it's going and the amount of interest that we're paying now on the debt, which in just four years has gone up. The interest on the debt, 600 billion. So those are automatic cuts right there unless you borrow more money, which puts you in that fiscal cycle of doom, as we call it. Well, Rand Paul's talking about his penny plan, but it's changed a little bit. Remember the penny plan that he proposed before and that others have proposed. Remember, the penny plan was just take one penny out of every dollar we spend, just one penny. Well, that's 1% cut. We can't get there. And so he's proposing a penny plan, but a few more pennies. Here we go.

Speaker 7:
[35:51] I think we really get it. All spending needs to hold the line. I introduce a plan every year called the penny plan. Right now it takes a 6% cut in all spending to balance in five years. That's what I favor. I think the stock market would go gangbusters in the economy if we announce we're going to reduce spending each year and balance our budget in five years. But I'm in a small minority up here who are willing to do that.

Speaker 2:
[36:15] It's true. There's only a small minority. The American public would say that's a great plan except when it comes to cutting. And remember, as he said, six cents, it's the six penny plan now, not the one penny plan to balance a budget for five years. Never going to happen ever. I wish it would. And it sounds simple when you say, oh, remember when it was a penny plan, we couldn't do it. When it was, all right, let's just keep the budget the same, but just index it for inflation, that we couldn't do. It doesn't matter whether it's Republican or whether it's Democrat. We can't control spending. And there is, you know, there's more of an effort now, but even as the president, you know, what we have 350,000 fewer federal jobs, still, we're still spending way more money than we did last year.

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