Couch Politics
America has to go back to being a nation [music] that builds and manufactures and tariffs are one of the main ways you do that. >> Then why has why has manufacturing? >> Hold on. Why has manufacturing declined? We also put tariffs on the economy and guess what?
We lost manufacturing [music] jobs in that time. >> But to do what to raise for going about it in the long run tariffs [music] work by raising prices for consumers. That is how they work. >> [music] >> manufacturing because on some of these if you are a regular person you didn’t well you paid it downstream yes some people did and it’s a different it’s not better it actually hasn’t happened >> but the bottom line is I’m not getting any of the money back on my bundles and that’s okay [laughter] >> all the shopping that you’ve been doing >> hello everybody guys what a beauty of a segment Poppy got for you tonight We got Joe Delicatess and Belli along with a Lamb Before Times very own Caroline Dino Sunshine. Let’s get into this segment and we’ll talk about it.
>> Corporate America seems to be benefiting from the tariff refund in new court filings. Uh the White House has actually paid back now hundred billion dollars since the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s liberation day tariffs. Companies like Apple received more than $2 billion. Amazon says that it got 600 million and Nike recovered $300 million. So, how much did the average American receive out of this?
Well, almost certainly nothing. But Trump is doubling down on this marquee piece of his agenda. >> You’re here to talk about the economy, >> right? >> What’s what’s your big message? You want to leave one takeaway with this crowd?
What is it? >> So, tariffs have been incredible. We’ve taken in hundreds of billions of dollars. Supreme Court gave us a little shot, but we’re allowed to do it in a different manner. >> This is just robbery, guys.
>> Uh that is being challenged, by the way, that he’s can do it in a different manner. But I mean, Trump is not going to learn. And I think the optics of this are pretty bad. You know, these corporations are basically getting a massive windfall. They did absorb a lot of those costs, some of them that were passed down to consumers.
And if you bought something from overseas, you’re not you’re not ever probably seeing that money again. >> No, I’m not getting any of the money back on my bundles. And that’s okay. [laughter] >> All the shopping that you’ve been doing, >> Y, you’re not going to get that money back. >> And I I don’t know how businesses, especially small businesses, are supposed to even get that money down to the consumers because if I’m a business, I’m scared in this economy.
I’m keeping the cash that I have for my cash reserves. I’ve probably overextended on some business loans that I need to pay back. I mean, I think a lot of people are just trying to catch up. There’s not an excess to give more to the >> other thing that stands out is the speed at which this is happening. The Supreme Court decision was February of this year.
Within less than six months, they gave out a hundred billion >> and that’s actually not even close to the total because that’s really just from the beginning of this year. It’s a phased process. So, there’s a lot more money going to go out. >> My mother broke her ankle. We’re It’s three months with Medicare.
We’re trying to get reimbured for $300 X-ray. You need to fill out two forms, have seven receipts, you have to sign something in blue ink, witnessed by Ahari Krishna during a full moon, and then you have to have her left ankle notorized. Like, it’s it [laughter] the this the it’s so set up for the corporations and that top 1% against all of the average Americans. And this is another example of that, unfortunately. Let me um JD Vance was on Fox News tonight and he was he was actually calling out the socialists who are running in races across the country, but here’s what he said about socialism.
Listen, >> this is exactly what Elsa and these limousine socialists are actually selling to the American people. They’re not promising you industry. They’re not promising you good jobs. They’re not promising self-sufficiency and a good industrial economy. What they’re promising is redistribution.
Again, we’ve seen this in Europe and in the United States. The idea that you can build real prosperity by just redistributing assets from one group to another group, that’s not how you build real prosperity. That’s what the tax cuts for the rich were. Largest cuts to SNAP benefits and they took away the health care subsidies in order to fund the tax cuts for the wealthy. This is a wealth distribution.
They took the money away from us to give it to them. I mean, it seems like it’s redistribution for me, but not for thee, because they literally said they were going to use the tariff money to reimburse farmers who were hurt by the tariffs. They also put tariffs on the economy. And guess what? We lost manufacturing jobs in that time.
But again, the loss for the Trump administration was the Supreme Court case. The Supreme Court decided this issue. The case >> Shut up, Joe. Listen, big boy burgers. You know more than anyone how expensive beef prices have gotten.
Don’t play around with me, guys. These tariffs have been a disaster. And this is on top of the mess of the economy we already have at this moment. Guys, just look at this. I drew this yellow shitty shitty line and the green one to show you when Trump took office.
He took office in the yellow one. Obviously after the yellow line from 2021 to 2023 you can say that all this job growth here was coming right coming out of COVID and jobs being artificially much higher right that’s um everything before the green line but from 2023 to 2025 in between the green and yellow line you can see the economy steadily increasing this was you know Biden’s last couple years slowly but you know going the right direction then look what happened right after the yellow line when Trump took office right after the yellow line. Guys, the most recent jobs report, I’m sure you saw all the news. It was breaking news all day today, decreased by 23,000 jobs in July, which is just it’s just horrific, guys. The unemployment rate, guys, dropped to 4.
1 from 4.2, but that’s because the workforce is shrinking. People are giving up looking for jobs. The May and and June job numbers were revised down a combined of 103,000 um jobs. Average hourly earnings, guys, wages rose at the lowest rate in over five years since COVID.
Basically, like you want to know, guys, what jobs did increase though in the economy? Ready for this one? Which which jobs do you think increased? Let me know if you can figure out in the comments before I tell you. Construction.
Construction of what? Data centers, which are literally being built to replace us. To replace as many jobs as possible. I mean, unprecedented amount of spending is being done right now to try and replace as many of our jobs as possible with these damn data centers. It’s like, guys, we’re in the brink of a dystopian tech world disaster.
Slowly but surely, the signs are popping up. You know what I mean? >> Was brought by, you know, roughly the same attorneys general who were now bringing the case against the new Trump tariff. This is the decision they sought. This is the relief they sought.
this is what the actual appellants to this case wanted to happen and now the same people are saying well I can’t believe the the money is going back uh to these corporations that was always going to happen the problem here is that Trump lo Trump Trump believes in tariffs there’s no question about that he thinks they’re doing the right thing may maybe they are maybe they aren’t we’ll save that for another day >> the point is once he lost the case it’s out of his control this is what the court actually the mechanism by which they reimburse is completely the economy idiot the court just said the tariffs are illegal. They decide how they re reimburse and they’ve created a process that makes it possible for large corporations to get reimbured to give it back to the supporters or some of these if you are a regular person. >> You didn’t import the tax downstream. Yes, I understand people did and it’s a money go to get that money back. >> This is what’s the difference if we paid it for for it downstream or upfront.
We paid for you, jackass. Like, I’m sick of these people trying to lie about the tariffs and what they’re doing. It’s a tax on us. That’s it. It’s a tax.
It’s an increase on cost on us, on the American consumer. That’s all you need to know. The greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of the United States. And it is coming from regular everyday Americans who are just trying to pay their bills, pay their grocery bill, buy a car, make sure that their kids have everything they need when they’re heading back to school in the fall. and it is going into the hands of people who already have >> especially when the economy is hurt because of the Iraq war if they if anybody needed it now.
But he >> the average person lost $2,000 last year because >> the government can call all these companies in and go look you need to filter some of this down to the people. Figure it out and we’ll figure it out with you. And that’s a choice that they’re not doing that and Donald Trump has the influence to do that. some companies uh you know to be fair are saying oh you know either if you’re Amazon because Amazon sells uh you know they they have both business merchants and consumer merchants so they’re they’re going to try to give back some tariffs to certain customers but other companies are hedging against future cost increases by saying they’re going to use the tariff refunds to keep prices lower because guess what Trump is trying to keep the tariffs and he’s being sued as Joe pointed out by um by 25 states who are basically arguing that these tariffs, these new tariffs are pretext for the same old tariffs that are going to raise prices on Americans yet again. >> Well, there’s no two ways about it that tariffs built our country.
Like when you look at Mount Rushmore and you see all the presidents there, every single one of them are high tariffs. Like you you have to have a way if you’re going to do tax, you can do it a multitude of ways. You tax foreign imports rather than giving income tax to people’s completely different point. economy doesn’t work that way. By the way, things were already so expensive.
>> So, there’s a case to be made that you have to adapt tariffs to the 21st century. And Jameson Greer is not doing a great job. The way he’s done it, he’s lost every case that he’s done. Like, we got to be better about this because here’s the deal, guys. You got to be thinking 10, 20 years.
You can’t blame Greer for this. >> Has to go America. [laughter] But one way or another, hold on. America has to go back to being a nation that builds and manufactures. And tariffs are one of the main ways you do that.
Okay. Then why has why has manufacturing Hold on. Why has manufacturing declined? I mean, you can’t just here. I I get that talking point says it all the time, but the facts don’t back up a manufacturing renaissance.
In fact, manufacturing investment has gone down compared to the Biden years. How do you justify that when you’re claiming the tariffs are supposed to bring back manufacturing? >> No, I’m saying the vision you have to think of for the next 20 years. Why is >> I’m not talking vision. I’m talking reality.
What is the reality of how tariffs have affected the economy? Some some industries might benefit in the short term from tariff tariffs, but in the long run, the broader economy is going to suffer. That is what we have seen happen. Tariffs work to raise prices for Americ where where have we incentivized domestic production. >> All right, let me get them in here.
I had enough. Everyone seated. All right, enough. Stop throwing paper in the classroom. Classes in session.
Professor Poppy is here. So how does tariff tariffs incentivize domestic production? By force. By literally making the alternative products that that used to be cheaper very expensive and not worth buying. That’s the entire point of tariffs.
You’re forcing Americans to pay for the more expensive product in the US because you remove the cheaper option. And it might not only be the cheaper option, it might also be the better quality option. You effing idiot. The worst things that Republicans did with this is that there was no alternative product here. We didn’t have manufacturing plants that were going to take over making pencils or whatever.
Like, so people just stopped buying products or much less of it. Like I’ve given this example so many times. If you were able to buy 10 pencils for a dollar because it was coming from China, but now we tariffed it and now the cheapest option is an American pencil that costs five for a dollar. The price has now doubled. What do you think that happens?
That’s a you you put a pressure. It’s a price um it’s a price demand pressure, right? What do you think happens? People stop buying pencils because their costs double now. They start buying pens or use their phone or whatever else.
Like they’re trying to Republicans are trying to force us to pay for the more expensive option when at the worst time to do this when no one has the money for it. 50% of households are going underwater are going into the red each month. A little bit more and more each month. This is so stupid. I can keep going on how stupid this is.
Especially at a time like this. Especially when we aren’t even manufacturing set pencils. I’m talking about this is so stupid. >> That’s why I’m saying Jame Greer like he’s the guy in Jame better. >> It actually hasn’t happened.
But the bottom line is the concept of tariffs when properly applied and adjusted to the 21st century work. And nobody’s answered my question which is how are you going to return America to manufacturing it power is China builds. China makes stuff guys evidence that tariffs work right there’s zero evidence that tariffs work. But at the end of the day Donald Trump was elected because he promised what did he say a million times on the campaign trail on day one everything will get less expensive. Your grocery bills will go down.
Your car payment will go down. The first thing he did was to make everything more expensive and that was before the war in Iran. He has destroyed an economy that was already on shaky ground. >> All right, next for us. Has it become >> and guys, China can manufacture because they have four times the people that we have.
So they have a bunch of different um economic classes I guess that they can have people make pencils and actually they’re moving away from those cheaper products and kind of exported that kind of work to different African nations, right? Because it’s not worth it anymore for them to do that. Just like for us, it’s not worth to manufacture or have factories for certain things here because it just the output of it. The profit margins are just not enough for American standard um cost of living, right? We are the richest nation in the world.
You shouldn’t be manufacturing like another n or a poor nation, right? That just doesn’t make sense. And she just keeps saying this, adjust it for 21st century work, adapt to the 21st century, and just repeats it over and over. She has no idea what this means because it means nothing. She heard some dumb ass say it and thought it sounded good and just repeats it without thinking it through.
The only manufacturing guys that we should be doing here other than essential products like what happened during co for mask and gowns and stuff like that is that the end result of set product we are making here is expensive with big profit margins like semiconductors or computer chips. Biden had the right idea bringing manufacturing of that over here because it has great profit margins as you can imagine but no pencils we shouldn’t be manufacturing here and if it is right and when we do manufacture pencils here have you seen the show how it’s made how many people do you see in those it’s completely automated by robots because it’s not worth the labor cost to have people make the effing pencils but to make computer chips yet it’s very much the the the the current labor cost, at least for now, until AI and robots figure out how to take that the last bit of manufacturing out of humans hands, which is inevitable probably. Now, we’re getting into some Isaac Asimov stuff here. He’s an author. I’m going to leave it there.
Let me know what you think about all this in the comments. Please leave a like, subscribe. Really helps the channel. Really helps push the message out there. And I’ll catch you in the next one.
All right.
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