President Trump’s America is on the rise again — wages are climbing, regulations are falling, and freedom is winning. In this episode of The Jenny Beth Show, Jenny Beth Martin is joined by Phil Kerpen, Rod Martin, and Steve Milloy for a powerful roundtable on Trump’s economic comeback, the Democrats’ shutdown chaos, and the fight between common sense and communism in America’s cities. The panel also exposes the truth about energy independence, deregulation, and corruption in corporate lobbying — and reveals how President Trump’s leadership is restoring prosperity, security, and strength at home and abroad.
In this special live panel of The Jenny Beth Show, Jenny Beth Martin is joined by three leading conservative voices — Phil Kerpen, President of American Commitment; Rod Martin, Founder/CEO, Martin Capital; and Steve Milloy, founder of JunkScience.com and Senior Fellow at The Heartland Institute. Together, they break down the week’s biggest stories shaping America’s economy and freedom.
Topics Covered:
Calls to Action:
Sign the petition at ImpeachBoasberg.com and demand accountability for government weaponization.
Call your senators and tell them to reopen the government — Americans shouldn’t suffer for political games.
Guests:
Phil Kerpen @kerpen | Rod Martin @RodDMartin | Steve Milloy @JunkScience
Hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, Executive Director of Tea Party Patriots Action.
For feedback or to share your thoughts, email november@jennybethshow.com.
Stay hopeful, stay active, and keep making our country great.
Narrator (00:00:14):
Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:00:17):
Good afternoon and welcome to the Jenny Beth Show. I'm Jenny Beth Martin. It's Thursday, November 6th and we're diving into this week's biggest stories from the economy to the election fallout with three powerhouse voices, Steve Malloy, Phil Kirkin, and Rod Martin. Yesterday in Miami, president Trump spoke at the America Business Forum laying out a bold message of economic common sense over communist chaos. He said Wages are rising, regulations are falling, and America is once again leading the world in strength and innovation. We'll break all that down, what it means for your paycheck, for energy independence, and for the fight to keep the government out of your wallet. Let's welcome today's panel, three people who know these issues inside and out. Steve Malloy is a founder of Junk Science and a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute. Rob Martin is CEO of the Martin Organization and Martin Capital and author, investor, and one of the nation's most insightful conservative strategists. And Phil Kirpen is a longtime friend. He's the president of American Commitment, a leading voice for free markets and limited government. Gentlemen, thank you all for being here today.
Phil Kerpen (00:01:28):
Thank you. Great to be here.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:01:30):
Alright, and before we go to you, let's listen to some of what President Trump said yesterday
President Donald Trump Clip (00:01:35):
Is for workers are rising at the fastest pace in over 60 years as the workers, and that's what we love. We love about workers since I took off, his wages for the typical factory worker are up $1,300. Construction workers pay is up $2,200 and miners are up nearly $5,000 this year alone.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:02:03):
Let's start with you Phil. What do you think about what President Trump said about wages and what does this mean for the economy at large? Well,
Phil Kerpen (00:02:11):
The good news is that incomes are now rising faster than prices. And that's something we didn't see really throughout the entire Biden presidency. We're not quite rising as rapidly as we were the first three years of Trump's first term yet, but at least we're headed in the right direction. The challenge is a lot of people were in a pretty deep hole because in the Biden years, prices rose so much faster than wages that even though we're moving in the right direction again, the psychology hasn't necessarily turned around yet, but it's very helpful. It's very good that people at the end of the month have a little more money less than they did the month before.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:02:44):
Rod, these numbers, some of these numbers are absolutely incredible. Manufacturing wages are hitting $29 an hour expansion. What do you think these wage gain signal for workers in America and what does this message send to the rest of the world about the strength of our economy?
Rod Martin (00:03:07):
Well, so far people haven't caught on, but it's coming. It's going to hit like a hurricane here in about a year because what we're seeing is a supply side, boom, $18 trillion in new investment to the economy, which of course the intermedia is just ignoring completely or laughing at. No, that turns into jobs at the Philadelphia Shipyard where we're going to build a nuclear submarine for South Korea for heaven's sake. But we're also probably going to follow that up with nuclear submarines for Australia and for the US Navy that translates into autos here, steel here, every kind of manufacturing here. Everything we were told for 30 years about how America was just inevitably de industrializing is wrong. And Trump bringing in less than one year, almost two thirds of the entire American economy in new investment is just extraordinary. And we'll see it in jobs numbers
Jenny Beth Martin (00:04:05):
And I'm looking forward to seeing those job numbers. Now, Steve, before I get to you, listen to something else that President Trump said yesterday,
President Donald Trump Clip (00:04:14):
Leading China we're leading everybody by a lot in ai and this was my idea, so I'm very proud of it. I said, build your own electric. People would come, we need more electric grid, sir, the electric grid's 200 years old, we need more electric grid. It's old. The electricity that the AI plants need alone is double the entire electricity that we have in the country right now. Can you believe it? So I had this idea, I said, we can't fix the old grid that much. We'll fix it up. We'll keep it going. Little bandaid here, little bandaid there. It's old. And I said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to let these geniuses build their own electric generation.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:05:01):
Steve, you've written for years about how energy policy is economic policy. How does the resurgence in domestic energy production, especially building power plants right next to AI data processing centers, reshape our economy?
Steve Milloy (00:05:17):
Yeah, so it's vital to do that. President Trump's policy is energy dominance. We're doing that in terms of the oil and gas industry and gas prices are coming down with electricity. It's important to remember that the Obama and Biden years put us in quite a hole. We have substantially weakened our grid with all this wind and solar and batteries and EV junk, and we were barely able to survive over the past 15 years. But now all of a sudden we have increased demand, not only from coming data centers and ai, but also President Trump wants to re our economy. And so we are way behind, and this is why electricity prices have been skyrocketing the last few years and unfortunately it's probably going to continue for the next few years because there's still 500 billion worth of green new scam spending that we weren't able to eliminate in the one big beautiful bill. If President Trump has the right policies, it's just going to take time to fix it.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:06:23):
Energy isn't just power, it's freedom. So Steve, why does energy independence equal economic independence?
Steve Milloy (00:06:32):
Well, if we're not energy independent, then we're dependent on say opec. And I know big oil likes it when we're dependent on OPEC because gas prices go up and big oil makes a lot of money and I'm a big oil shareholder. I love big oil, but that's the unfortunate truth. President Trump's policies of energy dominance, lower gas prices, which is inflationary and just provides the necessary background for economic growth. Unfortunately now we see big oil, big business pushing back on President Trump. President Trump wants to get out of the Paris climate cords, he wants to roll back the EPA global warming regulations, particularly the endangerment finding wants to establish realistic air quality standards and business opposes all of this because they like the high costs that come along with it. But if we want to have a roaring economy, we really have to promote energy. We have enough environmental protection. If we had the rules today during the 20th century, we never would have developed into an economic powerhouse.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:07:35):
And Rod, you were just talking about how there is $18 trillion of investment in America that will be building submarines for other countries here in our country. How do these changes like having more energy produced here in America, work hand in glove with the changes in manufacturing that President Trump wants to bring about?
Rod Martin (00:07:59):
Well, energy isn't just freedom, it's wealth. The fact of the matter is I can do a lot more with a Ford F-150 than I can do with a couple of horses and a wagon. And the difference in productivity that comes from adding that machine with that gasoline in its tank is just incomparable. And that's the story of the modern world. As we have industrialized, we've developed energy sources that have allowed us to do more and more and more things up to and including walk on the moon. So if you increase energy, you increase everything. And one of the things we're about to see, and this is going to be transformative, we're talking about small modular reactors on military bases. So we insulate them from fluctuations in the grid. But what's coming is a much broader development of Israel's iron beam technology, which I'm not kidding, is lasers that shoot down missiles. And by mid-century you're going to see lasers that blow up tanks and lasers that do all kinds of things like you're in Star Trek or something. All of that takes nuclear power.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:09:08):
Wow, that's pretty incredible. And I think something about that when you've got lasers that are blowing up tanks, the way you just said, it probably helps reduce collateral damage because you can be much more precise about what you're aiming for when you are in the unfortunate situation of wartime.
Rod Martin (00:09:27):
Absolutely, absolutely. And we're moving into an era when nuclear weapons are effectively obsolete. We're already partway there with what you see with Golden Dome and the Israeli prototype Iron Dome. But where we're headed, it's going to be nearly impossible to get a nuclear weapon to a target in another country without just blowing it up in the harbor or something. You're not going to be able to use it as a tool of warfare. And that means that we are entering an age of tremendous global safety that hasn't existed for the last 80 years. And it's all driven by energy and the creation of new energy sources, which of course, oil, gas, coal to a degree, but nuclear is phenomenal and it's cheap and it's ready. And we're to a point where the radiation issue just basically doesn't exist and the waste issue is nothing. We can actually burn the waste in the reactors. So it's a completely new ball game.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:10:27):
It's amazing. It sure sounds like a bright future for all of us. Alright, before we move to our next section, I want to just ask our audience to go to impeach bosberg.com to sign our petition in demand accountability. And if you've already signed our petition, please share it with your friends and family. Accountability for the Arctic Frost weaponization of the government begins with you. Now we're going to turn to Tuesday's election results and what they mean for the economy. We saw big developments in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California, and President Trump said it best. Democrats are trying to give us an economic nightmare instead of an economic miracle. Gentlemen, I want to hear each of your thoughts on how these election results shape the economy and the country's direction. Rod, let's start with you. In New York City, Marx, Zoran, Mond is the new face of the Democrat Party, a man who praises socialism in communism and wants to reshape the city's economy around government control. If communism takes root in New York City, the global finance capital of the world, how would that impact the world economy? Rod, what do you think happens if New York becomes a global example of what happens when Marxism meets Wall Street?
Rod Martin (00:11:45):
Well, it's good news, bad news. The bad news side is reasonably obvious. This is a very antisemitic who has praised terrorists and is just a nightmare from every point of view. He's deeply opposed to any kind of energy that makes sense. I mean, if you could put up a windmill everywhere, he's happy with that. But if you want any of the stuff we were just talking about, he's opposed to it. And New York City can't run that way. So the bad news is you kind of get a live action play of the ending of Atlas Shrugged. But therein lies the good news because everybody leaves at the end of Atlas Shrugged. So where are they going to go? They're going to come to Florida and Texas principally. We have gone in Florida from winning governor's races by a 1% margin to an almost 20% margin since COVID.
(00:12:40):
So thanks guys. We appreciate all your refugees coming here. We've also gotten tons of capital influx in South Florida and not just from New York, but also from Silicon Valley and Texas is about to change the game. The new Texas Stock Exchange that launches first of the year in Dallas gives everybody an opportunity to cease to have a legal nexus with people who want to have rule by men, not rule of law. And so I think there's going to be at first a trickle, maybe a walk, but eventually people are going to run to list on the Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas and it's going to be a game changer. So New York is potentially sealing its fate here.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:13:31):
Hey Rod, I want to ask you a follow-up question. Several years ago I was in Vegas, and this is a little bit random, but maybe you can speak to this. And I was speaking to a man who is very savvy with computer technology in the stock market and he was saying that a one or two second delay in the way that things are reported with the stock market made it very difficult to be able to pull out of New York and go somewhere else. So have we dealt with that latency problem when it comes to what will be happening with the stock market opening in Dallas?
Rod Martin (00:14:10):
Was that to me? I'm sorry.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:14:12):
Yes.
Rod Martin (00:14:13):
Oh, well, I think what happens is you do a list, a lot of companies are listed on more than one stock exchange. So you'll see a decent number of companies currently listed in New York because for practical purposes, it's the only game in town list also on the Texas Stock exchange trade, also on the Texas Stock Exchange. And then if that proves to be as good a deal for them as it appears that it will be, if New York does anything, especially stupid, which I think we're going to have at least four years of, it's easy enough to initiate the process to de-list in New York. And I think you're seeing that already happen to Delaware where they completely cheated Elon Musk out of five years of pay. It is just an absurd ruling. And if they're going to do things like that, why would you want to have a legal nexus with Delaware and be subject to their courts? Same thing is going to happen in New York and we're going to see more and more capital flow into key red states.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:15:19):
I think that's exciting for the red states and this is what the voters of New York want, then they're going to get what they voted for. Phil, you have spent years studying economic systems and government policy. Why do communism and big government socialism always fail and how can a collapse of that system in New York ripple across the rest of America's economy?
Phil Kerpen (00:15:43):
Well, they fail for some fundamental reasons, which is that markets are by far the most efficient way of organizing resources and prices convey information and they allocate resources far more efficiently by aggregating the wants and needs of millions of people in a way that no centralized economic system can replicate. And that's why every time central economic plannings tried, we get shortages, we get misallocation of resources, we get waste, we get corruption simply there's no substitute for the price mechanism as a way to efficiently allocate resources. And unfortunately it seems that this lesson needs to be relearned firsthand every couple of generations. And we've now got, if you look at the, well, first of all, New York was a very strange situation in that the two leading candidates were both very far left wing and very unattractive from the perspective of free markets. Remember the opponent here for the most part by the end of the race was Andrew Cuomo.
(00:16:41):
Curtis Lee was sort of fallen off and the bad news is one of them was going to win Jenny Beth, but the good news is one of them was going to lose. And so at least the Cuomo comeback is over here. But I do think we may need to learn some of these lessons again firsthand, but there may also be a very rapid backlash and a mayor of New York City can't do a whole lot if the state government is against him. We're going to have a very interesting governor's race next year. And if a Republican somehow wins governor of New York, and I do think that's going to be a competitive race, he'll be stopped very much in his tracks. But there's also an opportunity for contrast right next door to New York City while mom Donny was winning in Nassau County, Bruce Blakeman was getting reelected by an expended margin because as a Republican county executive, he's been very successful there. And so I think that there are actions and reactions. Some of them certainly will be a lot of companies and a lot of capital moving to states like Texas and Florida without income taxes. But a lot of it will just be people moving along island and you're going to continue to see competition between different ideas and different policies. And I'm confident that our ideas will keep winning. A trillion dollars of income has moved to Florida in the last decade, a trillion dollars. Think about that. People are definitely voting with their feet. No question.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:17:52):
That is for sure. So Phil, is New York City about to prove again that you can't tax and regulate your way to prosperity?
Phil Kerpen (00:18:02):
I think so. And we'll see if the mayor elect recalibrates into slightly more sensible policies because some of the things he's talking about are just, they're just ignorant from a policy design standpoint. So for instance, his 2% tax, if you make more than a million dollars as a household, he didn't say it's a marginal increase in 2% of what's above a million. He said once you hit a million, you have to pay an extra $20,000 in taxes. Well, I mean, think about the incentive that creates for everyone to make sure they stay under that level or to avoid showing their income or push it to other years or push it to other places. So if he actually is able to implement these policies, and a lot of them maybe stop at the state level, but if he's able to implement these policies, we're going to get an object lesson in how they don't work. I think
Jenny Beth Martin (00:18:45):
You're exactly right about that. Now, mond's already talking about its stream green energy mandates that would cripple the city's power grid. His climate pipe dreams could push New York into blackout just like what California saw when it rushed into renewables. Steve, are we headed for another energy disaster in New York City?
Steve Milloy (00:19:06):
I think they might be. The issue during the mayoral campaign was affordability. Of course. No one ever asked mom Donny how he was going to make anything more affordable. He's going to stick with the current policies in New York, which are to have green buildings and cut emissions and all that's going to cost a lot of money. And he wants to freeze rents, but he wants landlords to invest more in new air conditioning and heating systems. That's just not going to work. I mean, that's just going to chase people with money out of New York City. The affordability thing does not go with climate at all. Everything green costs more money. And it's not just you spend the money and you get something useful. They're pointless expenditures. They're not all these winds, solar batteries. It's not improving the environment, it's not improving the climate. It's not changing the climate. It's just costing more money. And I don't see how that goes with the affordability agenda.
Rod Martin (00:20:10):
It's not even green just saying, I know you've done a fantastic job of making that point through the years and it's not even green. Windmill is an environmental catastrophe even before it rusts into oblivion. It's also a bird blender when it's operating. These things are just stupid. Solar actually has some reality to it, but it's going to work better in orbit a lot better, like 800% better. We need to have real energy on earth and that is the greenest thing we can do.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:20:44):
Yeah, you're right about that Rod. I've been around the country all over the country and I've seen so many of the windmills that are just, they're not even moving. They're just taking up space and ruining the horizon, ruining the beauty of the earth and they're not even producing energy and we are subsidizing them with our tax dollars. It's just absolutely ridiculous. Steve, I have a question for you. Do you think that the lights will literally go out on the city that never sleeps?
Steve Milloy (00:21:18):
Well, it's quite possible. New York is bent on this green agenda, wind, solar batteries. It's not really affordable, but they don't seem to care, which is kind of interesting with Tuesday's results and just the state of the country in general and even the government shutdown, people are relying on people in the left to be rational and they're just not. They want the catastrophe. It's important for people to understand that or it's important for when you're playing chicken with someone, which is what the Democrats are doing. It's important to see that, to let your opponents see that you've ripped out your steering column. And I don't think Republicans have seen that yet. Don't understand the depths to which the left is willing to go. So if New York goes into, if there's a blackout, well of course they're going to blame the fossil fuel industry somehow for that and instead of the green policies, and it's very difficult to convince people on the left that the bad things that are happening to them are because of their policies. They don't seem to care.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:22:25):
No, they really don't. Now, a minute ago, I just want to give a shout out to the Association of Mature American citizens. We had an image up and we highlighted something, a piece that they had on their website about mond's energy policies and what happened in California when the renewable energies were being pushed through there and how they had more blackouts. So I just want to give a huge shout out to amac. Now it's time for us to remember our call to actions for the week. And we've got two mentioned the Impeach Bosberg competition. Also call your leftist senators and tell them to reopen the government. Americans shouldn't be suffering for the political partisan games from the left. Now we're going to switch to another topic. Yesterday, president Trump reminded us that his administration is not just cutting red tape, it is shredding it. Let's listen to what he said.
President Donald Trump Clip (00:23:23):
I'm taking an office. I signed an executive order requiring that every one new regulation, every time we issue a new regulation, think of this 10 old regulations must be limited simultaneously. So if we give you one, you get rid of 10 and so far for nine months we're exceeding that and 30 to one for every new one we give. They getting rid of 30 old broken down regulations.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:23:52):
I think that is just amazing. Trump said the goal was to cut 10 rules for every new one, but they're achieving 30 for one. And EPA administrator Lee Elden is leading the deregulation charge. Steve, you and I both know and love Lee Den. You've tracked EPA regulations for decades. What are the most burdensome rules that hurt workers and small businesses and how is Lee Selden's deregulation efforts making a difference?
Steve Milloy (00:24:19):
Well, so all the really bad rules out of EPA have come out of its air office, which means climate rules and air quality rules. And so President Trump is trying to roll back the 2009 EPA determination that greenhouse gases are destroying the planet. So that rulemaking is underway. There's already some litigation. I think there'd be before the end of the year we'll see that the greenhouse gas regulations evaporate. The more challenging rules and the more important ones are the air quality rules, which have, they're so burdensome that states don't want to have economic development. And now that we need more power plants and that means more gas and more coal in the short term because it takes a long time to build nuclear. And no one's really made progress on building new nuclear plants yet we're going to need to reform the air quality regulations. And that's just going to be a challenge that hasn't really started yet. I'm looking forward to it. And if we can get that done, that's going to make it a lot easier to have more power plants and to industrialize in America.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:25:25):
Alright, Phil, I have a couple of questions for you. The first one is that you have been a huge proponent of the RAINS Act for years and we talked about it on a previous episode of my show and I want you to explain what the RES act is, how that makes a difference, and then tell a little bit about what you think about the deregulation that we're seeing from President Trump right now.
Phil Kerpen (00:25:51):
Yeah, there's a great story behind it. I think a lot of your audience has heard it before, but I'll tell it again. This was back in, if you remember that first sort of Tea party summer when we were all going to the town hall meetings and everything was sort of rollicking. We were trying to stop Obamacare and Captain Trade and card check and all of that. There was a town hall meeting in Kentucky and a constituent named Lloyd Rogers went up to his congressman at the time, Jeff Davis, and he had his US Constitution in one hand and his water bill in the other hand. And he said, Congressman, my constitution says Article one, section one, all legislative power assessed into Congress, but my water bill says that EPA stormwater management rules are causing my bill to double because they had to spend billions of dollars in our sewer district on runoff management and this kind of stuff.
(00:26:36):
How is it that the EPA was able to double my water bill without you ever voting on it? And as congressman had no answer, he said, wait second, we should vote on stuff like that. And then he went back and he wrote this bill called the REINS Act, which has passed the house many, many times. We've never been able to get it done in the Senate. But basically it says, any economically significant rule or regulation or agency action has to go to Congress first for affirmative approval by the House and Senate before it can take effect. So instead of these agencies being given free reign, unless Congress can somehow muster the votes to stop them, which rarely works, it would work the other way around. They'd essentially send their regulations as proposals and they'd need affirmative approval from Congress. And of course, you and I know Congress can do lots of dumb things, but I would like our chances to stop the worst of the worst.
(00:27:19):
If we had that kind of process, we'd be in the game at least as constituents, there'd be votes and you could hold them accountable come election time. And we did make a big push this year to include a version of this in the big beautiful Bill and Jim Jordan tried to do it in the house side. It was actually in his committee print. Then it came out because they were worried about Senate rules. And then Mike Lee tried three or four different versions, Senate parliamentarian, and she shot down all of them. So we ended up not getting it in the bill at all. So this is still some of the key unfinished business I think from the original Tea Party agenda and we're going to keep trying to get it done and because all the incredible things that Trump is doing, and this has been a fantastic administration on deregulation, not just in energy and environment but in financial services, in labor policy. They've been very, very good at removing the worst, most expensive regulations. But if we don't get something like Rains done, then the next time a Democrat comes in, they'll bring it all back and then some the same way Biden did bring you back all the Obama regulations. So that's a really important thing to try to accomplish before the end of this presidential term.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:28:20):
And Phil, on your website at American Commitment dot, I'm just double checking, it is a.org. at.org you have a call to action about the RAINS Act, don't you?
Phil Kerpen (00:28:31):
It's a permanent one, however long it's been now 15 years, we always have our more timely ones, but that one we keep up all the time because that's a long-term priority. So you can always get that there, send a letter as we've written it or edit wherever you want and advocate for it with your congressman and senators.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:28:49):
And then the deregulation that we're seeing from President Trump right now, Phil, how do you think that that impacts the healthcare industry, the energy industry and the economy at large?
Phil Kerpen (00:29:02):
Well, healthcare has been extremely challenging. As you know, it's probably the most difficult not to crack. We've got a massive public choice problem because one of the things that Obamacare did as along with the structure of Medicare is we've seen a massive consolidation in the healthcare space. And so before Obamacare, 60% plus of physicians were self-employed. They were in their own practices and now it's under 20%. So we've basically seen these hospital systems gobble everything up and the hospital systems have massive lobbying power and they've been resistant to getting almost anything done. But we did get some significant reforms done in the one big beautiful bill, particularly to cut into the way a lot of the states and the hospital systems abuse, Medicaid. Medicaid payments are now going to be capped state directed Medicaid payments. The hospitals are going to be capped at Medicare rates, which will stop a lot of the abuses.
(00:29:49):
So we have made some progress, but healthcare is difficult. Touch Beth, it's probably the most difficult area to actually accomplish something. I'm hoping that we'll see more by the end of the year as a counter to what the Democrats are trying to do, which is just throw more and more taxpayer dollars at it. But energy, we heard about some of the big ones there from Steve, certainly the endangerment findings, the biggest one labor, they've moved away from a lot of the forced unionization policies that Biden was trying to put in place and financial services. We've seen a night and day change with the dialing back of CFPB with a much more reasonable regime at CFTC and SEC, and we've seen in particular a softening of the stance cord towards crypto that's bringing a lot of that activity back to the United States. And we've generally seen a much friendlier approach to capital markets. And so these are kind of the major areas and I've seen improvement in all of them, but healthcare is definitely the most difficult.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:30:38):
Yeah, healthcare is just extremely difficult and you and I have been standing together since 2009 for healthcare freedom and it is something that you can't even blink an eye and turn away from it because it is always causing a problem in our economy and in our own personal lives as we try to deal with our own personal relationship with our doctors. Rod, how does the deregulation impact entrepreneurship and investors around the country?
Rod Martin (00:31:12):
Well, it's just extraordinary. These regulations are all hidden taxes and you may not actually sit around and think all day about how it's affecting your bottom line, but I promise you it is just in the case of the endangerment finding, which if anybody doesn't know what that is, the Obama administration's EPA found that CO2 is a pollutant and we have to regulate it and blah, blah blah, which is just crazy. CO2 is plant food. And during the time period in which more CO2 has entered the atmosphere, we haven't seen any appreciable warming, but we have seen from satellite data that the world has actually gotten greener. So the green movement is really kind of an anti-green movement at the most basic natural level, but that endangerment finding has put a trillion dollar burden on the US economy. Now, the US economies $30 trillion a year. That's a lot, and a trillion is comparatively small, but that's not small. That's actually a huge burden and the worst of the burden, of course, it's small businesses who have the least ability to contend with it. Just getting rid of the endangerment finding should save small businesses, something between 170, 190 billion a year and let you
Phil Kerpen (00:32:35):
Buy the car and truck you want, which is nice too,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:32:38):
And get rid of that soup a button, get rid of that, a button on that
Phil Kerpen (00:32:44):
He's doing that.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:32:45):
I know, and I'm so thankful it drives me insane. I get into rental cars and I look at how to get rid of that before I even adjust the mirrors because you, you're not cooling off when you haven't disengaged it. It won't start the air conditioning. Well, sorry, just a little rant there. I'm glad that we're getting rid of that. It's those small little things like washing machines and dishwashers that work the first time, toilets that flush, showers that flow fast and getting rid of that make a huge difference in people's lives that just makes our lives better and these regulations drive us all crazy. So I'm glad President Trump recognizes that and is working to change it.
Rod Martin (00:33:29):
I would just add to that Jenny Beth, honestly, this is a big reason that we have seen such slowed GDP growth for years now from World War ii until Obama, we averaged 3.4% gross domestic product growth every year. And what that does is that doubles your economy About every 24 years since Obama, we've averaged 1.8, 1.6 some years. I mean it's just catastrophic. And that means you double your economy sure enough in 54 years. So young people get no opportunity. There's no job growth, none of the things we need. And getting these regulations back off of the backs of small business owners especially means there will be more hiring, better wages, more money spent on healthcare, more money spent on things that matter.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:34:23):
Rod, what you just said is really important because if the economy is, if the GDP is doubling every 24 years, then a baby who is born today is going to, will have a better economy as they're entering into adulthood. But if they don't have a better economy until they're my age, because it takes 54 years and I'm older than 54, I'm 55 now, but it takes that long to double the GDP. No wonder people in New York City are talking about how they're worried about affordability and they're excited about all the free stuff because they don't see any light at the end of the tunnel in terms of their own personal financial situations.
Rod Martin (00:35:12):
Well, and all of this is happening in a period of enormous immigration, so you have less new economic growth every year producing fewer new opportunities for young people. At the same time that Biden led in 10 million illegal aliens in just four years, absolutely drove the price of housing through the roof. Absolutely drove the cost of everything up. That's a big piece of why, but there are 20 million illegals in this country. Thankfully Donald Trump has either deported or encouraged to self deport about 2 million of 'em already. So that's great, but you actually have to control your border. And the truth is we are very generous with legal immigration. We let in 1.1 million legal immigrants every year. That is an extraordinary number. There's no other country in the world that touches it, that puts pressure on all of these things, and you have to have economic growth to give all those people and all the native born opportunity or you hit a point of stagnation and you start impoverishing your country.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:19):
Absolutely when the government gets out of the way. America soars. Now here's a lightning round for you before we go to the next topic. What does economic freedom mean to each of you? Phil, I'll start with you.
Phil Kerpen (00:36:33):
It means being able to make the economic decisions for yourself and your family control, have the basic choices of what to spend your money on and what to value.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:42):
And Steve,
Steve Milloy (00:36:43):
It means minimal government and maximal freedom.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:47):
And rod,
Rod Martin (00:36:48):
It really goes back to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Jefferson didn't pull that phrase out of the air he meant, and it was clear and it pulled from the heritage of the Great awakening just a generation earlier. The idea that Locke and life, liberty and property was too constricting. Pursuit of happiness means however God has gifted you, you should be able to pursue those gifts as long as they don't harm someone else. And without economic liberty, that's impossible.
Phil Kerpen (00:37:18):
I like his answer better than mine. I'm going with that.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:37:23):
Okay. Now a quick reminder, go to impeach boberg.com. Stand up for the Constitution and equal justice under the law. Now let's hear from the transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
Sec. Sean Duffy Clip (00:37:34):
Is going to tell you that this is data-based. This is not based on what airline travels has more flights out of what location this is about, where is the pressure and how do we alleviate the pressure?
Jenny Beth Martin (00:37:50):
Alright, the FAA is announcing that it's going to beginning tomorrow, it's going to cut 10% of flights in 40 different airports around the country. And as somebody who travels a lot, I'm already thinking about booking backup flights just in case my flights get canceled. So I have a way to get from where I'm going from Point A to point B, we heard just now from transportation secretary Sean Duffy talking about how the Democrat government shutdown is hurting the American people from air travelers to small businesses. President Trump called it out this week saying Democrats are creating an economic nightmare to replace this economic miracle his administration has rebuilt. Let's dig into what's really going on here, Phil. How is this government led shutdown and the FA a's decision to cancel or delay flights impacting the ordinary Americans and the economy?
Phil Kerpen (00:38:44):
Well, look, it's very hard to ask everyone to show up at work every day when they're not getting paid. And we're now five weeks into this and some of those people are going to not show up or they're going to go, they need to do something else to pick up income in the interim. And we're definitely seeing that. We're seeing that strain. And you can't just indefinitely have a shutdown like this. And the challenge we've gotten now is that the Democrats who were filibustering government funding didn't pay any political price for it. In fact, they think it was to their political advantage. And so they're not necessarily incentivized to relent and allow the government to reopen. And I don't want to nuke the filibuster. I disagree with the president on this because I think that the left has a lot more nefarious and destructive things up their sleeve.
(00:39:25):
And the next time they're in power will get Puerto Rico and DC or states and they'll pack the Supreme Court and they'll have vote by mail and they'll let illegal aliens vote and we'll never win an election again. And so I don't want to kill the filibuster, but honestly, they should do a reconciliation bill. They should use the existing process same as they used for the one big beauty and they should use a reconciliation bill to reopen the government to do some of the key healthcare reforms that we've talked about and to cut overall government spending and just say, look, if Democrats are not willing to come to the table, they're going to take their ball and go home. We're going to govern without them. That's what I would recommend at this point,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:39:58):
Phil, I haven't heard that mentioned yet. So I like that approach. It's a good idea. If they go nuclear, they better go nuclear all the way. You can't just, if they only,
Phil Kerpen (00:40:11):
You don't go nuclear just to fund the government for a few weeks, especially what we know the Democrats want to do it for.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:40:17):
Right. And we're talking about two weeks at this point. So I mean I guess they may make it longer, but you don't go nuclear just for a continuing resolution. If they're going to do that, they better. And I'm not saying that I am for it, I'm much more, if it were not for the filibuster, we would've had the John Lewis Voting Act into law during the Biden administration and would, I don't think we would've had fair and free elections in 2024. So I'm very thankful for what we had for the filibuster during the previous administration. And I think that it has helped conservatism over the years and it has helped prevent the expansion of government. If they are going to get rid of it, they better get rid of it and then do everything they've ever thought about doing, pass the election integrity reforms they think need to be passed, cut taxes even more, pass the reigns act, pass the save act pass, repeal Obamacare or change the healthcare system.
(00:41:21):
So we at least have healthcare freedom in America. Again, I mean if they're going to do it, they better go all in 100% because that is exactly what the Democrats will do if they regain power and we better show if this is the path that they choose to go down, they better be willing to show that this is what conservatism means. This is what Republicans have tried to get done for years and years and look at how it benefits each and every American's lives. But if they do it just for a continuing resolution, especially just for a continuing, it would be,
Phil Kerpen (00:41:58):
I do think Jenny Beth, I think a lot of these things could be done under reconciliation. So I would look to that verse before thinking about nuclear
Jenny Beth Martin (00:42:05):
And they also could override, the chair can override the parliamentarian so they could do that without getting rid of the filibuster, still have reconciliation and add a few things to the reconciliation bill, like rains, what you were talking about before, if they wanted to do that without going 100% full nuclear. Okay, a second ago, by the way, we did have an image on the screen. There have been 1200 flight delays or cancellations nationwide due to staffing and budget interruptions. And that was from an f, a status report and the Department of Transportation. And then there's been an estimated 2.3 billion in travel losses since the shutdown. And that was from the US Chamber of Commerce and it is quoted from November of 2025. So that's a recent statistic. Steve, the Biden Arab bureaucracy was notorious for using pen as a political tool and now we're seeing the echoes of that again, as government continues the shutdown. Why is it that the Democrats seem so comfortable weaponizing, weaponizing regulation and inconvenience to the American people?
Phil Kerpen (00:43:24):
Well, so the Democrats are really focused on one thing and that is gaining power and their motif for gaining power is to cause chaos because out of chaos just comes more government control, which is what they want in the first place. And their voters are committed to that. I mean, they get it. Republicans don't always understand what's going on for politicians in both the base. They often just don't understand. Democrats don't understand what's going on, have situational awareness that could be improved, but the Democrats know exactly what they're doing. That's how after the disastrous Biden administration, you still get half the country voting for an empty pants suit like Kamala Harris. I think Republicans, the challenge for normal people over the next few years is going to to gain the situational awareness and be able to marshal this into electoral power because we're going to need it. We saw what happened this week and you could write it off as two blue states and a blue city, but there's more. You can see Democrats are just willing to play chicken all the way.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:44:37):
Absolutely. And they don't care about who they're hurting. I think they're so hypocritical because they think the government can solve all problems, and yet they're willing to shut the government down for weeks and weeks and weeks on end. And I don't see an end to this insight at the moment, rod Secretary Duffy's doing what he can to manage this mess that the Democrats have created, but the Democrats have put him and they put all Americans in this impossible situation. You've said before the Democrats use economic disruption as political leverage. How do you see that playing out here and how can conservatives counter that kind of manipulation in 2026?
Rod Martin (00:45:24):
Well, they're literally using snap and food stamp recipients as human shields get a trillion dollars a year in healthcare for illegal aliens. I don't know how you top that short of just going ahead and being Hamas, which I'm sure they would all happily be since they're flying Hamas flags in every opportunity they are absolutely, as Steve just said, they are intent on power. Conservatives need to take seriously the views of their opponents. We don't do that. We sit around and talk about how that doesn't make sense. So that's crazy. No, it's not crazy and it makes perfect sense. The things they're doing lead you greater power for themselves and aggrandizement of their party's power base, and that is always the compass from which you can tell what they're going to do. So here we are. Yeah, air traffic control, that's a disaster. Food stamp, recipients not going to have money, all these terrible things, they don't care. They're just going to blame it on Trump and they think they can win that game of chicken. It's a hostage taking and we have to call it what it is. Absolutely.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:46:40):
Okay, coming up next, we're going to turn to each of you about what you're working on right now from climate truth to healthcare reform to global diplomacy. But first folks, it's past time for the government to reopen. If you've not called your leftist senators today, to tell them to stop the shutdown and get back to work for the American people, pick up the phone, call the capital switchboard and tell them to open the government now. Okay, let's take a few minutes to highlight what each of you is working on right now. You've been in the middle of very important work that connects directly to everything we've been talking about today, freedom, accountability, and America's future. Steve, let's start with you. You've been all over the story of Bill Gates walking back, his climate doomsday rhetoric, something you've warned about for decades that his doomsday rhetoric was false. What do you think of what Gates has said recently and do you think the global elite are suddenly changing their tune now? Do you believe this signals the end for the climate panic narrative or are we going to see that continue?
Phil Kerpen (00:47:42):
Yeah, so Bill Gates has gotten a lot of attention this week with his walk back of how bad climate is, and I never really thought much Bill Gates to start with. I mean, selling software is a lot different than understanding the atmosphere and global energy system, which he never mastered. And so I guess I'm glad to see him walk this back, although with what he did is kind lukewarm. I don't think people think too much of him. The more important actor has been President Trump because President Trump has from the beginning, dialed into climate as a hoax and he talks about it as a hoax whenever he can. He talks about wind and solars the green needle scam whenever he can. And he is really the guy that driving that is terminating all this stuff. Now, if the government goes back to Democrats, all this stuff is going to come back. So what I'm working on is helping EPA make these changes that President Trump wants to as permanent as possible. And fortunately we've got another three years to do that and hopefully in that time we can convince enough of the electorate that things are getting better in America.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:48:55):
That's very good, and I certainly hope that you can. Steve, do you think that all this climate doomsday warning that we see from the left, is it ever going to collapse for the junk science that it is?
Phil Kerpen (00:49:10):
I don't see how they walk it back. I mean, they're pretty invested in it. Al Gore, how does Al Gore walk any of this back? The last time this was in Congress, they got a trillion dollars worth of funding. And even after President Trump whacked some of it back with the one day beautiful bill, there's still 500 billion. So they probably figured if we can just get rid of Trump, we can get back in pretty good shape. So no, I don't see it going away. I think they're maybe laying low right now looking for their opportunities, but climate has been one of their most successful cons and it's too important for them to ever give it up. So they may be laying low right now, but they're going to be back with ity.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:03):
Yeah, you're right. It is one of the most important cons and it's absolutely disgusting. Alright, Phil, your latest op-ed exposed a RP as a $9 billion giant, acting more like a corporate lobbyist arm than a senior's advocate. How do we get to the point where this organization claiming to protect seniors is actually enriching itself through backroom healthcare and what can everyday Americans, conservative lawmakers, and everyday Americans do to hold a RP accountable?
Phil Kerpen (00:50:36):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. We've been tracking for a number of years the amount of money that they get from their exclusive licensing arrangement with United Health. And you might notice that all of the UnitedHealth Medicare products are branded A-R-P-A-R-P originally when they came out with these products, got 3.95% off the top of all of these premiums, then they raised it to 4.95, then they raised it to 5.95. So basically 6% of all the premiums in all those A RP branded UnitedHealth products get skimmed right off the top and goes into their coffers. And that amounts to about $800 million a year. But something really interesting happened last year, and nobody noticed it until we did. Chris Jacobs, who does our annual reports on a RP finances found on hidden on page 15 of the notes to their annual financial statement. It says that in 2024, they got in advance against their next 12 years of payments.
(00:51:32):
They got an advance of $9.062 billion, which is to say a one-time payment of $9,062 million. And I don't even know what a nonprofit advocacy group get a $9 billion one-time infusion. You can't put that in the bank. I assume they get some investment bank to design some kind of vehicle for it, but I mean it just makes them a total monster in the healthcare advocacy space even more so than they were before. The scope and the scale of what they are and what they have is astonishing. And their advocacy, of course always benefits. Their corporate partner always benefits what's good for United Health and therefore for themselves. And I think that's why they're lobbying so heavily for these supersized Obamacare subsidies because the second largest recipient of those is UnitedHealthcare. And I think we just have a massive amount of corruption and the consolidation, the cartel of healthcare that's happened in the aftermath of Obamacare has made just these massive entities, these massive insurance entities, these massive hospital entities, and they just have unbelievable lobbying power and influence.
(00:52:36):
And we've got to counter that first by shining a spotlight on it, but also by exposing their bad self-serving arguments. Because if you're a senior and your Medicare plan went up 27%, which is what the A RP Medicare plans did this year, and that's because they're getting $9 billion and they actually make more money when you pay more, rather than being a group that's advocating for your interest in trying to get you to pay less, that's actually a big opportunity to expose that and to fight back against it and maybe to get some real healthcare reforms done. And so we're trying to shine a spotlight on that. I know you mentioned AMAC earlier, they're a really good alternative for seniors who don't want to be with a RP. I also like 60 plus association. There are a lot of other groups that are out there, but understand that when you do business with a RP, you're essentially helping UnitedHealth and the main business they're in is not collecting your membership dues. They get about 200 million a year from that, but it's monetizing you for UnitedHealth and getting a $9 billion one-time payment last year
Jenny Beth Martin (00:53:32):
In that $9 billion one-time payment. The advance, how many years was it supposed to be in advance for 12?
Phil Kerpen (00:53:41):
They're, at least from an accounting standpoint, they're going to run it out over the next 12 years. So the terms are not disclosed. So it's not exactly clear whether they're still getting an annual, it's not exactly clear. Our best understanding based on what they've disclosed, which is limited, is they're still going to be getting that 6% of premiums. So this is sort of an advance against the next 12 years of that. But when the 6% exceeds that, they'll still get an annual payment as well. We think they haven't been asked these questions though, so we don't know the exact details
Jenny Beth Martin (00:54:14):
That is, it's staggering. That is absolutely staggering. And when you were talking, I just very quickly looked up what the Red Cross annual budget is, and it's somewhere either it looks like from what I'm looking at, and I just did this, I haven't clicked through to make sure what I'm reading is factual. It's either 3.4 billion or 2.7 billion. The Red Cross, it goes in to help people when they are in need. I think there are even better nonprofits that can help people after disaster strikes and the Red Cross, but it's who everyone always thinks to you when disaster strikes. What in the world A A RP is supposed to be a membership organization so that you get some things a little bit cheaper when you're older. At least that's what I thought it was. But clearly this is just disgusting
Phil Kerpen (00:55:08):
And it makes it very hard. It makes it very hard to actually win any conservative healthcare victories because here's my problem, Johnny, I can go tell members of Congress, Hey, ignore what those guys say. They're on the take, they're basically part of United Health. But do you know what the member of Congress hears? They hear, oh my god, those guys have 9 billion. I don't want to cross them. So this is the problem. We can say whatever we want to say. They still have the money. So that's the challenge.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:55:31):
And it's really gross because United and all of the health insurance companies wind up benefiting from Obamacare while Obamacare is down. It helps the insurance companies and harms the people, the recipients of health insurance, like all of us. So it is really twisted because the government winds up helping benefit the insurance companies and the insurance company is helping benefit a RP, which then in turn puts pressure on the government to give more money to the insurance companies. It's a vicious cycle that leaves these citizens just out completely of the circle. Okay, rod?
Rod Martin (00:56:12):
I think so. They're very accurate.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:56:13):
Rod, you recently called President Trump's trip to Japan and South Korea, an Asian triumph. What stood out to you most about this trip and what message do new partnerships send to our allies and adversaries alike?
Rod Martin (00:56:27):
Well, just at the most foundational level, what the Beltway establishment has neglected to notice for almost 40 years and had good reason to pursue in the 40 years before that was that America is the overwhelmingly dominant economy in the world. And that means we buy more stuff than anybody else in the world. So that creates market power. We don't need foreign suppliers for most things. We just choose to buy from them because it's cheaper or because it props up their government. So for instance, in the case of nato, we have for decades now been paying 70.5% of the cost of defending the alliance. 31 allies collectively have been paying 29.5%. These are economies that are collectively nearly the size of the United States. And 20 years ago they were bigger. So how can you possibly justify that? Well, before the Soviet Union fell, we were busily propping up our allies economies to make sure they stayed on side, rebuild them after the war, all these wonderful things.
(00:57:37):
But the Cold War ended quite a long time ago now, and what Donald Trump is doing is he's using America's market power to rebalance trade in a way that's fairer for everybody, where we aren't subsidizing all these people, we turn them into partners, not independents. That's exactly what we've seen in all of the trade deals, but especially this Asian trip where we really have China in a box. It's a completely export driven economy. They can saber rattle all day long, but at the end of the day, they cannot replace the US consumer market and stay out of a depression. So we cut a deal that's actually quite extraordinary, are still charging them 37% tariffs while they charge us 10. And they agreed to this while doing the other things we wanted to do. He also went and firmed up the alliance with Japan, which strengthens its military, which results in us having effectively a national guard of Japan to help augment our military in containing China. Same thing in South Korea, which you're seeing with their growth in their defense industry generally, but also in this new deal to build nuclear submarines in Philadelphia for South Korea, which augments the Aus deal. We just reaffirmed two weeks ago to get nuclear submarines for Australia. We are building an impenetrable containment wall against China. Not to harm them but to keep them from harming us. And if they'll play ball, we can all make money together, but if they won't, it's not going to go well for them. And that's the exclamation point on this trip.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:59:19):
Very good, rod. Thank you for that analysis. Now for some final thoughts, let's listen to what President Trump said yesterday about Thanksgiving.
President Donald Trump Clip (00:59:29):
Walmart, Omar just announced that the cost of their standard Thanksgiving meal, this is the greatest. They're greatest, they're wonderful. They come out every year with how much is a thanks giving meal cost compared to last year, right? And it always goes up, up, up. It's 40%, 30% more is 25% lower than one year ago.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:59:51):
Isn't that great? Now that's some good news. We can all be thankful. That is some good news we can all be thankful for. Be sure to tell your friends and family that prices are coming down this Thanksgiving. And if you have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe or if you want to send any feedback about this new season of the Jenny Beth Show, just shoot me an email at november@jennybethshow.com. I want to thank Steve Malloy, Phil Kirkin and Rod Martin for joining us. America thrives on freedom, truth, and hard work, not fear and control. And before we go, don't forget to sign our petition@impeachbosberg.com and call your leftist senators today and demand they open the government. Stay hopeful, stay active, and keep making our country great. I'm Jenny Beth Martin and this is the Jenny Beth Show. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you tomorrow.
Narrator (01:00:44):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.