Weekly Review With Clay and Buck H3 - Bell-to-Bell "No Cell"

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border. Horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world. But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before. Today, our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. And our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked. And America is respected again, perhaps like never before.

That was from the State of Union last night, President Trump giving a phenomenal, in my opinion. Clay also sees it has a great speech, a phenomenal address to the nation. And the transformation of the nation in 12 months or so has been nothing short of incredible. And I think that he has done. Even better than I had anticipated in that period of time, he has accomplished even more. And one of the reasons I like to point this out, Clay, is the, oh, it's all the same, it's all a uniparty, nothing matters, the black pill, if you will, that some people on the right even like to take. Maybe they do it online to get attention or they're just having a bad day, which that can happen. You know, sometimes I'm a little salty. I've had bad days. But there is, I think, an important. uh... point in saying the country is doing really well right now trump is delivering the decision does matter who is in charge who has power to shape this country's future and its destiny does matter it is not all the same apathy isn't cool trump the republicans are infinitely better uh... than the democrats on on balance on every major issue right now And one thing that I would just say is, what is an objective measure that someone could point to and say it was better under Biden? I don't, if I were offered a bounty, if I were offered a reward, a substantial one to come up with something off the top of my head that I would have to concede, you know, Biden was a whole lot better on that issue. I can't do it. Clay, I think that we're in an area here of politics where the Democrats are so wrong on so many things that they are just going to keep digging because the alternative is to turn around and start one by one admitting and accepting that they've managed to get on the wrong side of every important, every important issue, the border, crime, immigration enforcement. the economy. I mean, we're seeing with states right now, people are fleeing. I mean, Gavin Newsom pulled this routine. I'm sure you saw him. He was asked, and was a friendly interview too, I think it was like MS now or one of those channels, asking about people leaving his state. And he's just like, we have the biggest AI. And it's like, yeah, dude, you inherited Silicon Valley. Congratulations. Your state is falling apart because of your governance. People are fleeing in large numbers. If you didn't have a lot of immigrants coming into this country, you would have had negative population. I mean, this.

They're losing everywhere. I just sort of sit here and say to myself, where is the, what is the bright, shining thing for Democrat? Obama kid, they would have said health care. Trump brought us up last night in the speech. Obamacare is a disaster. It's tripled everybody's health care premiums. No, all of that is true. And it is why their only outcome is people not paying attention that could lead to them getting support. I mean, I'll open up phone lines. Is anybody out there that sees something that Democrats are doing and thinks we need more of that? 800, 282, 282. I think this is where I'm a results guy. I'm a data guy. Show me the results. This is why in the first hour, I said murders are down 67% in Washington, D.C. That is a tangible result, in my opinion, of Trump's policies on crime. Inflation is down, I believe it's at 2.4% most recently. The stock markets at record highs. I think that is a reflection of Trump's economic policies. The border is shut down. Again, personally, I understand why people can say, I don't like Trump. He's not my cup of tea. He's too much of a bull in a China shop. I don't like the things he tweets. I don't like some of the names that he calls people. All of that, I would say, okay, I can understand that criticism. But I'm a results guy. And if you tell me that you're only going to analyze the results and not the surrounding penumbra of Trump behavior, there's nothing you can criticize in the actual results, which is why their only hope is to play on emotion. You know what wasn't mentioned once, I don't believe, last night, Buck? And this is where I think Democrats have to start to get really nervous. You're right. Democrats traditionally have won on health care, but a lot of people are getting their insurance bills and they're saying, wait a minute, Obamacare is broken. My premiums are tripling. They're quadrupling. I think there's a lot of you out there that are even just saying, I just want health care that's protection for catastrophe. And I mean that. Like you're going to look and say, I'll pay a lot of you out there. I know we're starting to research this because I've done it in the past. I'll pay the first $7,000 of my medical expenses right off the top. I'll make that risk. I'll even take on the first 10K or something like that. You're only worried about catastrophic related health care. I think there's way more people buying that. But Buck, you know what wasn't, isn't talked about anymore at all? And is actually the linchpin of basically the entire Democrat party? Abortion. It is, remember when they told us, Dobbs gets passed, Democrats tried to say, they're going to be showing up at the door dragging your daughter out by her hair. You're going to be trying to drive across the state line and police are going to pull you over and they're going to throw your, uh, your, your sister in prison.

It's gone. It has vanished as a political issue. Every state make its decision and whatever state you're in, you can advocate for it. I knew this was the case, by the way. We've been talking on the show for years. They managed to write after Dobbs kind of, and I was like, I'm telling you, this isn't going to be an issue. Until people experienced what actually was the result of Dobbs, they were able to play. But as soon as they did, it was true, which is that it wasn't an issue at all, because it's gone back to the States, which is what it should have done all along. And, you know, states have different abortion laws. States have different age of consent laws like states have different gun laws. States have different laws that. Depending on what states you're in, you're either good to go or going to prison. I mean, states have a lot of power. States make very big determinations about things that you'll go, well, that feels kind of arbitrary, but that's the deal. And on abortion, that certainly falls into that category. So, yeah, that is something that they can't. Think about it. There's hardly any discussion even on a state level about it. And if they don't have health care, which I think you're right, now they're going to blame Republicans for it, right? But the reality is their solution to health care has failed and made everything worse. Abortion's not a thing anymore. I don't even hear it in state legislative races. What do they have? What is their thing where they're like, we can address this and make things better? I legitimately can't even think of one. We don't have an insurance system when it comes to health care. Your health insurance is not insurance. It is a complex system of cross subsidies where there are guaranteed payments made from the government to hospital systems and to insurers and also insurers get guaranteed client-based from all of us because we have to have insurance. And what you have is... It's not insurance because younger and healthy people who should be the cheapest to get insurance have to subsidize the old, the sick, and the illegals. That's it. And the poor, right? I mean, there are people who, that's the entire system is you're going to get more expensive and crappier stuff than you would otherwise if you are somebody who is generally healthy and pays for your own stuff. You're going to get generally crappier, more expensive stuff so that we can get, because health care is a finite resource, despite what people think, despite what people say. And that means that, you know, we, we.

We're just squeezing the balloon and goes to one side instead of the other. And this is why family of four, that's, you know, every, you know, the parents are like 35 to 55 or something and they got two kids. They can't afford their health care premiums. Yes. Because they're paying for illegals in California and New York. They're paying for people who are chronically ill. Now, we could have a talk as a society about what we do with the so-called high-risk pools. We could have a talk about that, but that's not the talk that we had. Instead, it was everybody gets sandwiched in together. And so you have some people that are, and then you talk about the elderly, and there's no incentive. Here's a perfect example of this, Clay. And this was actually just making the rounds on X in the last couple of days. It's a great example. Can we talk about TVs and how when you and I were in college? Yeah, it's a great one. Or, you know, when I was in college and, you know, you were in your 40s. It was hard to carry, you know, TVs were like these huge heavy things. And I remember pooling money with my college roommates to be, like, we spent, you know, $500 or $800 or something, which was a lot of money to us on a TV. And this thing, you know, weighs like 150 pounds. And now, I mean, you get like a 60-inch plasma for 500. I mean, it's crazy, which is crazy. Yeah. Same thing's true of getting an MRI versus getting LASIC. LASIC is a generally a fee-for-service, very high satisfaction eye surgery where people compete different ophthalmologists or whoever does it. Maybe that's not, I think it's ophthalmologists, but whoever's doing LASIC surgeries, they, maybe it's an eye surgeons or something, whatever they're called, they compete on price and the whole experience. And so LASIC is half the price it was. 20 years ago. MRIs have improved basically not at all, not at all, same technology. And MRIs are now 100% more expensive, give or take. How is that possible, everybody? because of the bureaucracy, because they tell you that you're getting insured. You're not getting insured. But people don't want insurance. People want a magic little card that pays for all their boo-boos and makes all the bad things go away, even though that ain't happening either, by the way, no matter what insurance you have. So this is the problem. We can't. There's no accountability and there's no honesty, and there's no transparency in the pricing in the health care system. Positive front page Wall Street Journal today, OZMPIC prices are collapsing. Do you know why? Because everybody is competing with the GLP ones. And as a result, the overall cost for your average consumer purchase has plummeted compared to what it used to cost. And we'll take some of your calls, 800, 282, 282. But I think this is why.

I'm looking around, and I like to watch and see how everybody's covering. CNN and MSNBC haven't covered, by and large, the Trump State of the Union today. That's a sign that things went really well for Trump. They basically are just pretending it didn't happen. They're turning the page and they're moving on to other stories because last night was seen as such of a success for the vast majority. I think a people who pay the picture. You know how pathetic it actually has gotten in Democrat world, Clay? You know what really one of the primary, really the primary Democrat attack on Trump is these days? It's not. Russia collusion. It's not elections denial. It's not, you know, the insurrection, whatever. You know what it is right now? Epstein. On Trump. That's the thing that Democrats attack. That's the lead right now on MSNBC. I didn't even know that. You have a quad box up. I don't even have it up in here. That's, yeah, Epstein. That's, that's Trump's fault. Like, this guy was, whatever you're saying, this guy was doing this for decades. Like, does the Epstein thing is Trump's fault? They've released millions of pages. The millions of pages are out there. But this just goes to shouldn't. They charged Epstein while Trump was in office the first time. Everybody forgets. Pure Trump slander. That's all this is Trump Epstein. Trump Epstein. Something that you would see in an authoritarian or totalitarian dictatorship. These are tactics, my friends. Trump Epstein, Manufacturing Delusion, a fantastic book, which you can get right now on Amazon, explains these tactics. It does explain them in detail because that's all they're doing. They're just smearing his name. All right, if the roof on your home is 15 years or older, there's a good chance it needs some maintenance. But unlike other parts of your home, it's hard to inspect your own roof. That's best left to the experts that do it every day. So here's my suggestion. Get your roof inspected by Erie Home, America's largest privately owned residential roofing company with 50 years of experience. Erie Home will inspect your roof free of charge with a 25-point inspection. If your roof needs replacement, Erie Home offers all kinds of options, including the use of newer metal materials that are made to mimic the look of the roof you likely have now. These new metal materials allow your roof to last up to two or three times longer than traditional shingle roofs with proper care and maintenance. Your new roof from Erie Home comes with a 50-year transferable warranty. So if you sell your home, you're providing even more value in the selling process. Schedule your free inspection at eeriehome.com slash buck today and get up to 50% off installation. That's eeriehome.com slash buck. You know them as conservative radio hosts. Now just get to know them as guys. On the Sunday hang podcast with Clay and Buck. Find it in their podcast feed on the IHartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton's show. We're going to get to your calls here in just a couple of minutes. So we got loaded line. Stick with us. Buck, this is interesting.

Do you know which Democrat was the only Democrat to shake Trump's hand at the state of the union? Our buddy from Pennsylvania, John Fetterman. Yes, that's correct. I just guessed that, but I had a feeling. Yep. Legitimate. Oh, sorry, we've got Marsha Blackburn coming up. We'll get to your calls in a sec. I bring that up because Quinnipiac just came out with a poll in Pennsylvania. Republicans have a 55 point approval for John Fetterman. 73 to 18. Democrats, minus 40. John Fetterman is overwhelmingly popular with Republicans, overwhelmingly negative now with Democrats. I just thought that was super interesting. All right, let's get to some of your calls. Scott in Indiana, what you got for us? Hey, Clay, earlier you said you were worried about Democrats, winning back the House. And then just a few minutes ago, Buck said they're losing everywhere. Democrats are losing everywhere. I'm confused. If they're losing everywhere, how come we're worried about them taking back the House? No, I mean, they're losing the argument. They're losing the argument everywhere. Yeah. The concern that we have is that we are in a post-fact world where results may not matter. I also think Trump derangement when Trump is not on the ballot. This is my personal take is a more powerful motivator than Trump's support is. Again, when Trump is off the ballot, the people who hate him are more likely to show up because their brains are broken. than everybody is out there who's a big Trump supporter. We saw this in 2018 when Democrats were very successful in the midterms. Now, so that's why I would say I think the House is potentially going to be in play. And if I were predicting right now, I would say it's likely that we're going to have a tough time keeping control of the House. Okay, let me hit you with this. Pricepix. PricePix.com code Clay, 50 states. I was talking about the fact that I went to a party for the founder, and he made over 130 people millionaires. with the company that he founded. That's awesome. It's a great American success story. And when you look at what has been accomplished there, it's just that people really like sports, and they like that sports brings us together, and they like the opportunity to go on and pick their favorite athletes, their favorite teams, two to six players. It's super easy. Download the app today. You get $50.

that they took to protect and defend and honor the people who voted for them and elected them to make certain that they were there to serve the people. It was absolutely astounding. But you know what? This is where the line of distinction is. What we have seen is the current Democrat Party, which is led by the far left wing of the Democrat Party, the Democrat Socialists, they would rather take care of illegal immigrants than they would take care of the people that voted for them. They would rather... provide for illegal immigrants, then provide for the citizens of their states and the citizens of this nation. It is astounding. Marsha Blackburn, you also wanted to talk to us today about this case currently. with the courts involving social media, and there's the Kids Online Safety Act. There's a whole range of issues coming together here. Can you just tell us first what is going on right now? We've got Mark Zuckerberg recently had to show up in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He testified. He's a CEO of META. There's this whole court case going on. It's with the jury right now. What are the items at issue and what do you want to see from this case? Yes, indeed. This case, which I will say this, Mark Zuckerberg being on the stand in this case, I don't know what the outcome, the legal ramifications of the case are going to end up being. No one can tell us exactly because there's a jury involved. What I do know is this, that Mark Zuckerberg lost in the court of public opinion. because he continued to say that social media had nothing to do with the accelerated levels of anxiety and depression, eating disorders, teen suicide, and this bucket of mental health issues. when the research that Meta has and whistleblowers have given that research to us, and of course it was presented in court, and you know that they know what they are doing to kids. You know that they are designing programming to capture younger kids. We all know that the valuation of Meta and Google, in all of these big tech companies, it is based on the number of eyeballs.

draw to the page and the amount of time they can keep those eyeballs focused on their platform. So I think he lost in the court of public opinion. It has brought forward the need to pass the Kids Online Safety Act. That came out of the Senate 91 to 3. We have 75 Senate co-sponsors on it. It is significant. It would put in place a duty of care, a product by design safety standard. for the virtual space. That is something at this point we do not have. Your grandkids, my sons, go to a similar school in the Nashville area that has a good technology policy, which is, and I know they probably... Maybe cheating right now, but they're not supposed to have their phones. They're not supposed to be able to text message during school. And if they're caught with cell phones during school hours, there are consequences. Shouldn't this be the standard for every school basically in America? You're a grandma before that. You were a mom. As a dad, I think it's a no-brainer. And I think it's super bipartisan. Are you in favor of this? More and more schools not allowing kids to be on phones during the day. Oh, yes, indeed, bell to bell, no cell. That is a very good policy for kids. And, you know, there is a growing body of research that shows that children who do not have a cell phone. On their desk, in their backpack, within reach, their test scores go up. Their achievement goes up. Their participation in class increases. And the more you see this research, the more you know that it does matter. And you realize what a massive distraction it is to have that cell phone at the ready. I think one of the things that is so interesting about this also is talking to... parents, teachers, and principals. Most of the behavioral issues that take place on school campuses find their nexus at the cell phone. And the bullying is 24-7. It never stops. So putting those phones away for that period of the academic day forces kids. to focus on what they are studying. It means that kids that go to study hall are actually doing research work, they're writing papers, they're pulling books out of the library shelves and hearing from librarians about the change in behavior during those study halls is something that has not been lost on me.

Speaking to Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, when you talk about, I just want to bring us back to this for a second. social media issues for for kids and online duty of care are the social media companies are they just saying that that's impossible it's too expensive it's not necessary I mean what's the counter argument because usually when it comes to any political issue about children everyone at least pretends that they care about the kids right even the big companies pretend so what are they saying in response to this uh why why would they Um, you know, not, will they go along with it? I mean, why does it even require an act by Congress? They have proven they cannot police themselves. They have also proven that when kids are on those phones, kids are the product. And, you know, one of the interesting things is that every industrial sector in this country has product safety standards, whether it's an automobile, a toaster, a mattress, a curling iron. Everything has a safety standard. everything except the virtual space. And the reason for that, Big Tech has spent millions of dollars lobbying last year, fourth quarter of the year, in order to take down the Kids Online Safety Act, meta-hired one lobbyist for every six members of Congress and spent $20 million. I'm somebody that knows. what it feels like to have big tech come barreling after them with lots of lobbyists lawyers and millions of dollars because they do not want to change their business model. They would have to change that business model. If you put in place a safety by design standard, if you delink the algorithm, so that the algorithm can be controlled by the parents and the kids and not controlled by the platform. They don't want that. Marsha Blackburn, last night, I was at a In the Black is what it's called event about trying to balance a budget. A bunch of people you know were there. It was awesome. I know you're running for governor. But.

The federal government, inability to remotely make decisions that have to do, let's use as an example right now, basic election integrity. You're going to be on the ballot in November. Tennessee, thankfully, has really great election integrity. But the fact that white, black, Asian, Hispanic people overwhelmingly believe that you should have to show a photo ID in order to vote to prove you're who you are. What's going to happen with that in the Senate? I think there might be a filibuster. How's that process going to play out? I still can't believe this is unpassable, basically, based on the Democrat response. You know, it's an 80% issue with the American people across all different demographic groups. And that's a thing that is so interesting, the fact that it has such broad bipartisan support. I mean, Zohran Mamdani wants you to show two forms of ID in order to go shovel snow in New York, but he doesn't want you to show an ID. to vote. What they're trying to do is make it easy to cheat and hard to vote. We want to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. And we have got to have photo ID in the Senate. We are going to push the Save America Act forward. I look forward to having a vote on the floor. It should be common sense standard practice that you have to be a citizen of the United States in order to vote in our elections, and you have to show an ID and prove who you are. When it comes to the issue of the balanced budget, And I have supported a balanced budget amendment for the United States. We have that in Tennessee. We have to balance our budget. We can't borrow money or print money. We have to be very careful about that and be a good fiscal steward. It means that some years, the leaner years, you cannot do some projects you want to do. And then it means when you do have years where you have a surplus, you have to be wise about where you place those dollars. The federal government should do likewise, and they would be well served to do likewise. Marsha Blackburn, appreciate you being with us. You got it. Take care. There's a specific reason why the price of gold grew by 65% last year. Economic uncertainty. When there's turmoil, when there's uncertainty, the value of gold goes up. Investors looking for safe havens is, well, that makes a lot of sense, right? Safe havens. Gold is just one of those, a solid, reliable investment. Over the last 20 years, gold's up over 700% in value. Think about that. Over 20 years, up 700%.

And you don't have to trade in, trade out, and play all kinds of games. No, no, you just buy gold and hold gold. And that value creation happened. Birch Gold Group can help you purchase gold. That's who I rely on. That's who I get my gold from. They help you diversify your savings with gold, particularly within your existing 401k and IRA accounts. Birch Gold Group walks you through the process of buying gold in clear, straightforward terms. When I work with them, couldn't be any easier, no pressure, no complexity. They educate you and they give you options. If protecting a portion of retirement savings makes sense to you, it's worth a conversation. Remember, you can also put gold into your existing 401K or IRA accounts by doing a transfer. They can diversify gold into those accounts, diversify your accounts with gold. Text my name Buck to 98, 98, 98, text BUCK to 98, 98, 98, 98, 98. Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history on the Team 47 podcast. Clay and Buck highlight Trump replays from the week. Sundays at noon Eastern. Find it on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back into Clay and Buck. I just stole your thunder there for a second, buddy, because there's something very important that everyone needs to hear. You know, it's one thing when I talk smack, you know? You know, you may be a son of a gun, but you're our son of a gun, Clay. You know what I mean? Like, no one else is allowed to talk this kind of smack. But here I am preparing to watch the State of the Union and flashing across my screen over at Fox News, a gentleman who I have done his show many times, I have seen him out in the wild. I've bumped into Jesse Waters before, and he is quite a charming fellow. And I thought somebody that was playing by civilized rules. But then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, I mean, just like a kidney shot, a rabbit punch. All my man, Clay Travis, when he's not looking on his TV show, this is cut 36, Jesse Waters. Listen. I don't know that I've ever been, frankly, prouder to be an American than when we kicked Canada's ass and seeing America to a large extent united around this team like we were. I was too young to remember it back in 1980. Oh, you were? I thought you were like 40 in 1980. You look good there, Clay. I mean, Jesse Waters. You must listen to the show. He must listen to the show because, well, where did that come from? Thought you were 40 in the 80s? Rough. That would make me 86, Korean War veteran and aging quite well. I think partly people don't realize how much makeup most people wear on television. I, for every, unless I am in studio, I am never in makeup for Fox News. And if you see how much makeup a lot of TV people will wear, and I'm not throwing shade here, you have an exaggerated sense.

You have an exaggerated sense of what television life is like. Now, I'm not saying I haven't thought about this. I think you might be saying some of the Fox host gentlemen are a little tart it up, a little too much rouge going on on the cheeks. I've been saying for some time that about the age of 55, I'm suddenly going to have a huge makeup team come in here every day. And they're going to treat me like a car that needs brand new wheels in pit row. And none of you are going to recognize it or know what happened. And you're going to be like, Clay, you haven't aged today. You look the exact same as you did 20 years ago. I'm playing the long game. I look old and ugly now. But 10 years from now, I'm going to be gorgeous. I'm just telling you, it's coming. Prepare yourselves for an outstanding looking quick.