STEVE ABRAMOWICZ 7-15-26

Hey, I'm Chris Van Fleet. Go behind the scenes and beyond the headlines with the biggest names in pro wrestling and beyond. Jeff Jarrett, great to see you. In this business, the story behind the scenes, so much more entertaining than what you see on camera. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Paul Heyman. Mr. Heyman. You are a master at the little things. That's how you turn good into great. What does it take to achieve greatness? Whatever it takes I'm willing to do. That's an Emmy winning performance. How about it? Insight with Chris Van Fleet. Follow and listen on your favorite. platform. He's with the Heartlane Journal. Go to Heartlanejournal.com. See all his stuff there or listen to his podcast or just, you know, listen to him on this show every week. Steve, how are you, sir? I am doing great. Speaking to you live from the new Heartland Journal studios in Franklin, Tennessee. What's going on? Hey, by the way, if you're the voice of reason, what did that make me? The voice of confusion, the voice of speculation, conspiracy, what am I? I don't know. You got to come up with something. You got to get a brand. The voice of verification? The voice of verification? It's a mouthful, but you could say that. All right. I like words and phrases that start with the same letter, VV. I'll take it. I got to be in my name, so I got you on that one, Michael. Okay, okay, fair enough. So we had a caller in the last segment. that was really trying to figure out what the main differences are between our three gubernatorial candidates in Tennessee for the Republican nomination. You have John Rose, Marsha Blackburn, Monty Fritz. You know, the main difference I would see is that Monty Fritz is a little bit more of a fire brand, I guess, is the best way to put it. But in terms of policy, I'm guessing there's not a huge difference. He did bring up the school choice thing where Monty Fred seems to be against a lot of the school choice program. But what would you say is the biggest difference between the three? Well, one knows what a woman is for sure. I'm not sure about the other two, but there's that. Marcia has been a known name brand in Tennessee for a long, long time. She's worked her way up the ranks to get to the federal government of Senator. Everyone knows her. She's an A rate, the highest rated, by the way. I don't know if you looked this up yet, but A plus rated Liberty Score. And you know how I focus on that when it comes to Senator. She is a good one. The Senate is losing. whether she wins or retires, they're losing a good one. So that's the main thing, of course, money. The other main difference that people on the street have been telling me is she's raising a bunch of money out of state. And they don't really like that in Tennessee. She's been in Missouri. She's been in your neck of the woods, in Georgia. She's been kind of everywhere. And if you look at her donor rolls, a lot of out-of-state stuff, whereas Rose lent it to himself. He's a very wealthy man by nature, I guess, or whatever you want to say. And so he...

is self-funding, whereas Monty is kind of doing the door-to-door grassroots, trying to get everybody to understand what he's all about with very low dollars. So you've got your establishment, big out-of-state dollars versus your grassroots versus your self-funded. So really it is the three heads of the Republican Party Hydra to choose from. And from where I'm sitting, I'll take it, I'll take any of them. I think as long as it's one of those three, which it is, and not Jerry Brown or what's her name? Jerry Green. Jerry Brown was the governor of California when I lived there. Jerry Green, the Democrat, I'm all good. I like all three. Yeah, and the caller was asking more of like, what's the difference on policy? And he was like, I don't think there really is much of a difference. And that's kind of what I said. In terms of what they would... Well, no, there is. There is. I mean, to be honest with you, for example, one of them is talking about one of the things that's very near and dear to my heart, which is a property tax cap for these counties that have been outrageously jacking up rates on folks. And the same person has been talking about... spraying things from above, not doing that anymore. The same guy's been talking about, what's the other one that I love so much, doing something, far more homegrown issues that we don't like. So property tax is grocery tax. He wants to get rid of the grocery tax. The other two are talking about kind of D.C. stuff. They're talking about China. They're talking about, you know, things that. I'm not so sure the farmers, the 300,000 family farmers in Tennessee really care about whereas Monty is. So that's the biggest difference. He doesn't have the name recognition. He doesn't have the money to run, but he is talking about the issues that Tennessee cares about. And he's the only one that said, yes, I will debate when the other two keep ducking debates. I don't know if you've been noticing that. Marsh has been asked. We had one in town then. He was the only one who shut up with Monty Fritz. He's the only one to sit up. So the biggest difference, in my humble opinion, is one is a talk-to-talk Republican, walk-to-walk Republican. The other two, a little bit swampy, a little bit establishment. Got to say it. Okay. Okay, very interesting. I mean, part of the problem from what you said is that John Rose and Marsha Blackburn are working in D.C. right now. So it kind of makes sense why they would focus on that, although Marsha Blackburn was instrumental. you know, making sure we didn't have a state income tax in Tennessee. I say we, I live in Georgia. I still have to deal. But the state of income tax, but in Tennessee, you don't. Yeah, she definitely has that claim to fame that she was instrumental in that. But that was a long time ago, and it's always about, you know, what have you done for me lately? And she'd said something on news the other day that got a little people's radars up. She had said something about Starbucks coming in here with a $30 million stipend and that it was going to be made back really quickly in revenue from payroll taxes. That was a gaffe.

Yeah. Does that mean, well, does that mean she may want an income tax on her agenda? You know, I doubt it. I doubt it. And he was the biggest China hawk. So who knows? Who knows? I'm just saying she has to answer for that. And if she won't debate, how are we supposed to know what she really met? Yeah, it's the typical thing. When you're up by 30 points, you don't want to debate. And when you're an unknown, of course, you want a debate to get attention happens. And many, many states, I really wish, though, that she would debate because it would help. I wish she would too, but her handlers don't want her to. And it has a lot to do with sometimes, like we saw when that elevator interview, she isn't that great off the cuff. And so maybe they don't want her to, but she needs to. And I think she will by the time we're closer to the election. But this is the key to that. Early voting starts soon. this week. And she is in her polls up 30 points. So I agree with you. When you're up 30 points, all you have to do is lose points if you make a mistake. But her competitors have some internal polling too. And they think it's much closer. I saw one that said 15 points, which is still a lot, but not insurmountable if you make the right case. So she really does need to stand up and say, look, I am. On top of my game, I do care about Tennessee where I'm born and raised. Oh, she's not actually born and raised here, but she grew up here. You know, so that's the job of the candidates to say, hey, I care about what you care about. Vote for me and I'll support you. Whereas, you know, like I said, Monty Fritz is getting the farmers all riled up. She's going to have to explain like, yeah, I would do that too, not impose a payroll tax on Starbucks because that means every company gets the payroll tax. Yeah, I'm guessing that was more of just a. A gaffe. I could seriously doubt that mars. When you're talking about the first governor in eight years, right? I mean, no guessing allowed. You need to know. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. So you also wanted to talk a little bit about inflation. And the numbers are kind of interesting because, you know, obviously inflation is a little bit higher than what we want. It seems that most of it, though, is caused by the war on Iran and gas prices. But in terms of one of the core inflation numbers for last month, It was the first time we recorded deflation since 2020 in the CPI numbers, which is kind of interesting. So outside of the war in Iran, it could, there actually are some good signs on inflation. There are. And it came as a surprise. The most important thing, and it plays right into what we were just talking about, this election that we're going to have in November, inflation is going to be probably the number one issue in most people's minds because of the pocketbook issues, right? You don't want to go to grocery store and pay these higher inflated prices to try to feed your family or have to work, you know, two jobs or have a husband and wife both working while the kids at some woke school. So 67 of 67 economists were wrong. 100% inaccurate. Inflation fell didn't rise. That's usually a surprise. And the market obviously reacted. June CPI basket of all the goods that we actually used was down 0.4%. Okay, not earth-shattering, but in the right direction. And they thought it was going to be up. So it was down, not negative.

So, and that's, by the way, the biggest drop since April of 2020. Remember what was going on back then? Yeah. That's six years low and that was after COVID. So good. Good news. Good news. But. I've been watching the rise in Japan in straits, right? That's the real story, and that has a lot to do with what you just said, the war in Iran, more than it does here in America, because we don't get our oil from Iran or the Straits of Hermuz, they do. And so that's telling you there's a big problem there, and it has been closed to oil transportation to Japan and China who gets their oil from Iran, right? And so does Russia. So we don't... When our prices start falling, it's a little slower than usual because we have been backfilling Japan's demand for the first time ever. We had records and exports to Japan last month. That's the problem. It's not inflation. I think it's supply and demand. Yeah, oh, it is. Trump. Yeah, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, you're right. One of the issues people don't really think about, they ask why our oil price is still higher for us if we're not getting our oil from Iran. Well, we're selling a lot to those countries that do, which means the supply goes down. And anytime the supply goes down, the price can go up. So if we're giving, we're first selling it to China or Japan now, that means the price will go up for our consumers as well. But I did want to say some real quick, and I'll let you respond. It's not even that inflation. It's not even that the inflation rate went down. There was actually deflation. So there were actually some prices that went down, which is pretty interesting. I mean, that usually does not happen. And this is the first time it has happened since 2020. So, I mean, that's a pretty good sign. Yeah, but there's a little bit of funny business with that. Did you see what the largest component of deflation was? Let's see here. What was it? 31% in healthcare. I don't believe that number to be true. To be honest, it could have been an error. It could have been whatever. They always revise these numbers. So six months from now, they may say, oh, it's actually up point one. But in the meantime, healthcare was the biggest reason for that fall. And I don't see how that could happen. You go to the doctor, emergency room, you're paying more than ever before. And your insurance is costing you more than ever before. So how exactly that works out? Well, you know, I was going to say. Well, it might be because of some of the reforms in the big, beautiful bill that cut some of that in terms of government spending. I mean, I don't know. I'm just totally speculating, but. Yeah, no, it's a complicated thing. They call it the dismal science for a reason. But here's back to your original question. It would be really nice. If the three Tennessee governor candidates would run on getting rid of some of the inflation pain like grocery tax, the state has a rate of 4%, plus we have local taxes that can get it to another 2.75, and that results in a grocery tax between six and a quarter and six and three quarters in most areas when you add federal and any gas taxes to help. And one actually is running on that repeal grocery.

Actually, I'm wrong. Grocery, it's 27.4 cents per gallon for gas, 26 cents tax plus 1.4 cents special petroleum fee, and federal makes it 44.4 cents, not as bad as California or my old state of Washington, but still, wouldn't you like to say 44.4 cents per gallon if you're driving to work and be able to do something else with that, like pay groceries without taxes? Well, one of the only states that have these growth taxes, so that would be good. We have farmers to help move their product. But we can't control that at the federal level, but we could at the state. And one candidate is running for that. And that's what you're supposed to do in inflationary times, not the opposite, which is raise these taxes. Yeah, I'd call it for a waste of $34 million in that gas tax last year. So wouldn't it be nice to have the $34 million going towards something else instead of like Ford or Starbucks? Yeah, I had called for a temporary suspension of the gas tax, at least temporary. I mean, obviously I'd like it to be permanent some of the gas tax suspension, but I called for at least a temporary one while the war in Iran was going on. And Georgia actually did that for a while, but then, of course, it came back on. So I think you're on to something there. Real quick before. So Murphy's Borough, Tennessee, they had property owners. They get a reduction in property tax following a vote by city council. So it is really simple to do. You just need leaders who will do it. And there's only one of the three that have been talking about it. I wish all three would talk about it. Speaking with Steve Abramowitz, he's with the Heart Lane Journal. Real quick, I know you're hosting an event along with the Tennessee Conservative that's coming up in Franklin. Yes, 23rd of July next week, actually, we are having a bunch of folks. Tickets are almost sold out, actually. So if you're interested in the neighborhood, hurry up. Brandon Lewis is the only conservative news outlet in town besides you on radio and me and podcasting, in my opinion. And I'm trying to help them out in Middle Tennessee. So we're having this event, and at the moment, it's very popular. All right, there you go. So check it out at tennesseeconservativenews.com. Steve, always appreciate you coming on. I know we'll talk to you again next time. All right. Peace in our time. Later. All right. There you go. If you want to react to any of that, you can. We have the text monster 423-267-102-3. One person said the difference between the Republican candidates for Tennessee governor. His two are willing to meet with their constituents or participate in a debate. The other one says no. So there you go. It's true. She's up by 30 points. She doesn't want to debate. It's just the reality. All right. We'll be back here in just a moment. On Yaffe Live. Stay with us.

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