Ana Kasparian — an untitled appearance

But for Republicans to not own the affordability problem that Americans are suffering right now is a problem. They need to acknowledge that that happened and that happened under the last presidency. But now we've got to own it. We got to bring you know what she's talking to those voters about right now um in their front yards. She's talking about state guaranteed paid leave. She's talking about raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Do you know what that's going to do to small businesses? How many people that's going to put out of work? a one-year moratorum on new AI data center construction. She wants to raise income taxes on couples making just over $400,000 a year. So, these are the solutions she's offering at a very sensitive time for this affordability moment. But Republicans beware, don't let them keep owning this affordability message when the numbers clearly show these prices ran up under the last administration and the onus is on Republicans to get them back down come midterm elections. That was both telling and hilarious at the same time. She's like, "Now Republicans don't let Democrats own affordability. It turns out the poors care about it and the middle class care about it. I mean, we didn't know that cuz we're all multi-millionaires paid off by Rupert Murdoch to blind rob you guys blind and and hand it over to corporate packs and foreign governments. But it turns out people care about affordability." And then she says, "Now all the things that Hong and other Democrats are doing on affordability, THEY'RE TERRIBLE AND YOU SHOULDN'T DO ANY OF THEM. SO, let's just trick people into voting for us, even though we would do the exact opposite of helping them." Well, we appreciate the heads up that Yeah. Thank you for the confession on Fox News there, but Elliot's got more on this. >> Yeah. Uh, so according to the Trump administration, not only is everything getting more affordable, but also what really Americans should be worrying about is what else? Communism. Here's Caroline Le. >> Thanks to President Trump and Republicans and common sense policies across the board. Our country is safer. Our country is more affordable. We cannot allow these radical extreme far-left liberals to take power. We have steady progress under President Trump right now. If these radical extreme liberals are given a chance at power here in Washington DC, they will try to obstruct this president and turn our country into a communist hell hole with every extreme liberal policy that they try to implement. >> Yeah, don't be worried about that actual problem. Be worried about the problem we kind of just made up in our heads. And also Caroline Levit there is saying that Trump has made life more affordable for Americans. And this comes after Trump told Fox News last week, "I inherited very, very high costs and they're all coming down now. The food, the groceries, it's all coming down. We've done a great job." You know, I think we should be given an A+ on the economy, but I think that's coming. People are starting to talk about it. Sure, Grandpa. I'm sure people are talking about it, but uh over here in what is referred to as reality, um it's not all coming down and it's not even close. Lewis Jacobson at Politact wrote, "With a few exceptions, prices have gone up since Trump began his second term in January 2025. Official federal data shows in many cases the picture for consumer prices has worsened since Politact looked at this question in January, partially because the price of gasoline has risen since the start of the Iran war in late February. In addition to hitting commuters wallets, higher prices at the pump also affect the cost of many consumer goods that need to be transported. If you watch this show for 5 minutes, you know how we feel about systems built to confuse people so someone else can profit. Medicare is the same kind of maze. Whether you're on it now or helping a parent through it. And before the comments start, don't you guys want Medicare for all? Why promote a private company? Well, until we get the system we actually want, which is definitely Medicare for all, people still have to survive on the one we've got right now, and most people helping them get paid more to steer them wrong. Same rigged incentive we cover here every day. That's why we work with Chapter Independent Medicare advisors who are honest, not paid to push one plan over another. They're the only Medicare advisors that compare every plan nationwide completely free. Take Chip, a member of our audience. His old broker milked him for commissions. He called Chapter instead, found a better plan, and now saves over a hundred bucks a month. And if you're already on the best plan for you, Chapter will tell you straight, no upsell. Get help against the rigged system. Call Chapter for free under 20 minutes at 8052012275. That's 8052012275. So, what is getting cheaper? Well, uh, eggs, bacon, bread, and cars. What is getting more expensive? Um, yeah, pretty much, uh, everything else, including coffee, ground beef, steak, fruits and vegetables, tuition, and child care, electricity, housing, and on and on and on. Nothing important. Also, as for inflation, um that's not looking good either. So, uh Politifact noted that the spike in inflation is like the rising gas prices a result of the ongoing war with Iran. Also, speaking of gas prices, also not looking super good. They've gone up 34% since Trump went back into the White House. Also, it is not just gas itself. Uh fuel oil is up 24%. Natural gas is up 12%, electricity is up 8%. So, while people may be saying that Trump deserves an A+ in the economy, Politact readed his statement that it's all coming down as you're not going to believe it, mostly false. Uh, Jen, I I'm I'm shocked. I'm I'm flabbergasted. Um, I'm taken aback truly that our dear leader would say something that is mostly false to his people. Uh but also I'm reminded of the George Orwell quote uh where he said, "The party told you not to believe the evidence of your eyes and your ears. It was their final uh most essential command." And I don't know why that pops into my head, but what are your thoughts? >> Yeah. Well, that's because they're telling you, "Please don't look at the prices." >> Oh, that's >> right. And if you look at the prices, remember they're lying to you. It's actually cheaper. I did that at the grocery store here in LA. I went, it's called Ralphs. And I went to Ralph and I was like, I think Donald Trump is right and your prices are actually lower, so I'm only going to pay less. They were like, oh, you're right. You caught us and I paid less. >> Oh, that's right. >> Or maybe that didn't happen at all because those are the actual prices. Okay. So, look, the one thing that is really hard to lie about is the economy. So, you know, Joe Biden uh when he was in charge kept telling you that inflation wasn't that bad. People didn't believe him. You know why? because inflation was significant. Okay? And you could say, "Hey, you know what? You really Israel is our greatest ally. You need to support them and they're, you know, to just uh the most beautiful people and they're almost all going to be killed, whatever, right? And you're not in Tel Aviv. You're not in Gaza. So, in the old days before social media, television blocked all the news in that regard. So, how do you know, right? So, you might believe that, right? And that's true of really any foreign policy. Supporting Ukraine, supporting Saudi Arabia. How do you know? You don't live in Riyad, right? So, and there's many other things. Oil subsidies. They say you that you need to give them $35 billion a year. Now, that sounds stupid and obviously wrong. Why do they need your money? They're already super profitable, right? But they say, "Oh, we got to drill, drill, baby, drill, and then your gas prices are going to be lower." And I maybe you don't know cause and effect. A little bit harder to track. But when you go to the grocery store, there's no negotiating. I know what the Fruity Pebbles costs. I know what it cost before. I know what it costs now. I know what the gas cost before. I know what it costs now. So, you can try to BS me all day long, but I got eyes and ears. And I actually have to take money out of my pocket to pay it. Right. So, that's why the first clip from Fox News is so funny. She's like, "Oh, we're they caught us. Okay, they caught us in 4K and it turns out we can't trick them on this one. So, we should trick them in a different way. Let's pretend that the people trying to address this issue are the bad guys. And then Caroline Lev comes in with a parting shot. She's leaving the White House. It's not that interesting a story. She just had a kid. Uh but she comes in and she's like, "Wait, wait, wait. Let me do some doozies at the end here. It's going to be a communist hell hole if you actually care about gas prices. Why would that turn us in? We had lower gas prices before. Were we a communist g hell hole then? No. This is just absurd. And guys, they can't get out of the 1950s, right? Remember, most of the Republicans and Democrats that are in charge today grew up in like the 1850s. Like they're ancient. They're like 280 years old, right? So to them, they're like, "OH, THE COMMUNISTS ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER. Oh my god, THE COMMIES. I HEARD THEY'RE GOING TO KILL us all and they're going to nuke us from Moscow. All right, bro. Which communists? What are you talking about? What is Cuba going to take over? Are are Democrats going to win and then open the gates for North Korea and then they're going to swarm in and what? This is insane. Nobody thinks the communists are going to take over. Like you're that's only going to work on people who are 89 and older who remember hiding under their desk in the 1950s, right? So the rest of us don't care about your super stupid talking point about communists. Now you if there's once you get past that then you want to have a real debate about hey where do we go guys? Do we do Medicare for all? Is that going to actually save us money like the Yale study that just came out says that it's going to save us a trillion dollars or do I think it's going to cost us money? That's a legitimate debate. Like let's have that debate. How do you know what's going to lower gas prices doing X or Y or Z? Okay, that's a legitimate debate, right? But saying you're a communist is a little bit like when the Democrats said you're a fascist, right? And remember if you're a Republican how much you hated that or if you're an independent, right? What are you just calling me names and it's not even what I am at all? What what is this? Now the Republicans think, "Oh, remember that dumbass strategy the Democrats lost with?" >> Exact. >> Yeah. >> Let's adopt it instead of take out fascist and put in communist and we'll win. literally the exact uh same strategy, which I I do find it kind of entertaining. Also, to your point as well, it's minimum wage. Like when Sander on Fox News is talking about affordability and and then scoffing at all of these potential solutions like increasing the minimum wage. Yeah, I'm not saying that's not going to be a complicated thing. At the same time, what's your alternative? Because if you look at the graph of compensation versus productivity, productivity has been on the rise uh since forever basically and we're more productive than we've ever been and we always have been more productive than we ever have been as American workers. But compensation has flatlined since the late '7s because we hitched our wagon to neoliberal capitalism. And so what are you going to do to put money back in people's pockets that they actually earned? And also, I'm not sensing a lot of actually wanting to help workingclass people in that sentiment. It sounds to me like the end of the or the whole point is simply to continue winning elections and not get creamed in the midterms. >> So, I I got to tell you guys one other thing. So, for God's sake, again, wherever you are in the political spectrum, don't get stuck on the labels. Oh, oh, that person is again a fascist, a socialist, whatever it is. No, no, no. What's your policy? What is your actual position? What do you want to do about minimum wage for example? Right? And so along those lines, if you haven't heard of middle out economics, look it up. A great advocate for it is Nick Hanower, but there's many advocates for it. And Nick is a a incredibly successful entrepreneur and he's to be honest quite wealthy, right? And what he's saying is don't give the money to us because rich people save the money. They don't put it back in the economy. Give the money to the middle class in different ways. Right? like helping them with child care, uh helping helping them with college debt, etc. If you give it to the middle class, since they have less money overall, they have to spend it right away because they got to pay the rent, they got to pay the mortgage, and they got to pay their student debt, etc. And it gets put back into the economy and juices the economy and is way better at lifting all boats. In fact, that's exactly what we did uh when we built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. Between World War II and Ronald Reagan, that is when the great again the greatest middle class in the history of the world was built on those middle out policies. And from Reagan on they switched to trickle down economics. We're going to give all the money to the rich. We're literally going to take your money and we're going to give it to the richest people in the world. Oil subsidies, perfect example because the oil companies are literally some of the wealthiest, most profitable companies in the world and in the history of the world. And every year $35 billion we have to pay out of our taxes and give it to the oil companies for free. Why? It's nothing but a robbery. A flatout robbery, right? So that's what you have to be concerned about. So don't give it to Exxon Mobile. Are you nuts? And then they say, "Oh, no. It's okay. Exon Mobile later is going to trickle down on you. I don't want anybody trickling on me, okay? I don't need it. What I need is middle out economics. You want to call it something else? I don't care." And guys, they keep trying to scare you. Like for example, I'm a I call myself a capitalist because I'm a capitalist. Ro Kana, Abdul Al, these are all people who say, "No, we're capitalists." But what we don't want is corporatism where corporations take over your government and say, "Don't give it to the average American. Give everything to us." And that's the system we actually live under. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his swings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated