Debunking The Myths - July 1st, Hour 2
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I don't think that we should have billionaires because frankly it is so much money in a moment of such inequality. This isn't just about...

Mr. Mamdani is an individual. This is about the message that the people of New York City are trying to send to our party. What do you think the message is? People want to be able to afford to dream, and they want a government that bets on them. Freedom is back in style. Welcome to the revolution. Yeah, we're coming to your city.

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Right, Hour 2, Sean Hannity Show, toll free. It is 800-941-SEAN if you want to be a part of the program. All right, so with the one big, beautiful bill being passed in the Senate, now it will go to the House. Plans now, as of today, are that it will be debated and voted on, hopefully tomorrow, and hopefully passed, and there's more good in it. But as I said, both on radio yesterday, on TV last night, there are a lot of provisions, policies I don't like.

And there's a lot more cutting that I want to see. And I think that but with that said, this legislation, you know, the it'll be the largest tax cut in American history. And Democrats will be voting for the largest tax increase in American history. The bill also eliminates taxes on tips and overtime. Eighty eight percent of seniors will not pay taxes on Social Security as a result of this bill.

There is a misnomer and a myth of these tax cuts. We can't afford them. We've got to pay for them, which is the argument that some of my friends make. And I'm like, no, you're wrong, because Reagan cut taxes from 70 to 28 percent, the top marginal rate and revenues to the federal government actually doubled the bill. Not perfectly, but it eliminates taxes.

You know, it tackles waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid, creates a new work requirement for able bodied Americans. You know, just to fact check it, there's been a lot of demagoguery going on. And thank God most Americans, unlike me, were asleep last night. You know, oh, only the wealthy benefit from the from the tax cuts. Well, we're going to introduce you to Kurt Couchman, a senior fellow in fiscal policy for Americans for Prosperity. And he points out it doesn't make it true because they say it.

The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act helped all Americans, not just the fortunate few. It lowered taxes across every income level and simplified filing by doubling the standard deduction and adjusting it annually for inflation.

The bill cuts Medicaid for people who rely on it. That's another lie. The reforms to Medicaid and the one big beautiful bill aren't about cuts. They're focused on fixing a broken system to better serve the people that need it most and putting in work requirements for able-bodied people.

I thought it is the reform that has been necessary for a long time. The idea that Medicaid and Medicare, you get the same service, you literally pay nine times more in some cases for the exact same medical procedure

if you're getting Medicare versus Medicaid. It's insane. And the idea that tax cuts somehow, oh no, it's gonna explode the deficit. Well, no, hopefully it's not gonna explode the deficit because again, Reagan doubled revenues by cutting taxes. And that's what happens every time you cut taxes.

But Trump's first three years in office, when he cut taxes, it created record low after record low unemployment for every American, for African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, women in the workplace, African-American youth unemployment. That would be inclusive. That would be one that's helping working men and women.

Democrats voted against what they want to keep taxing tips to the maximum level and tax overtime to the maximum level and not incentivize people to work harder. That's insane. And this is a great first step. I want to see other things. I didn't like the salt deduction in the bill, but on measure, it's having been up all night. We did not have the votes by 8 a.m. this morning.

Because I was up talking to senators all night. They did not have the votes as of 8 a.m. this morning. And then people say, well, you know, this is unfortunately the way the swamp works. But it is the most conservative bill I've seen in my lifetime. Kurt Couchman with a senior fellow fiscal policy at Americans for Prosperity. How are you, sir? Hey, Sean, I'm doing well. That was all very well said. And I'm glad to be with you today.

All right. You have studied all of this. And, you know, a lot of the demagoguery that we heard is like the typical, you know, language that we hear every two and four years during elections that Republicans are racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic. They want dirty air and water and they want grandma and grandpa to eat dog and cat food before Donald Trump throws them over a cliff in a wheelchair.

And when they say, and they were out there saying this only benefits the wealthy, that's a lie. When they said this bill cuts Medicaid for the people who rely on it, that's a lie, that it will explode the deficit. You point out all three of those are major lies. Yeah, that's absolutely true. The tax cuts in this bill build on the 2017 tax cuts.

And those have benefited all Americans, sometimes directly through your personal income taxes, but also through making investment more profitable and more investment going into the economy increases our productivity and also our wages.

There are provisions in this that will improve healthcare for all Americans. It will shift resources from the inefficient, low-value green energy nonsense into the energy resources that will make electricity cheaper for all Americans and drive manufacturing and innovation all across the country.

Well, there's other things that the president's doing that will benefit the economy also. It seems to have gone unnoticed by most in the legacy media, but nobody really pays attention to them anymore anyway. But I think it's a big deal that the president has made this push and it's part of this bill to push America towards energy dominance.

Not only will that make us an energy rich country and result in a lot of revenues that we're really not planning on, but similarly create high paying career jobs in the energy sector. The president was able to secure through his trade policy and tariff policy over 10 trillion dollars in manufacturing commitments for the next four years and in critical national security areas like pharmaceuticals.

and semiconductor chips, but also auto manufacturing. That's a big win, again, for American workers. And that's high-paying career jobs. And they won't be competing with Biden-Harris illegals that are being deported every day. Yeah, there are a lot of things going on right now. The administration is doing many, many different things.

things that are good for the country, good for growth. This bill also includes a lot, and it's not the only effort to restrain spending and get the spending and the debt under control. We had a full-year continuing resolution that reduced appropriations compared to the economy. President Trump has requested rescissions, which is canceling appropriated spending that's wasteful that we don't need. The House has passed that. It's sitting in the Senate. That should be the next thing they take up and pass, cut wasteful spending.

There's more rescissions requests coming. There are savings the Trump administration could do on its own just by changing some of the regulations for some of these programs. And then there's fixing the whole system. You know, the federal budget system is totally dysfunctional and broken. It's amazing that we can get the good things that we're getting this year given that. But imagine if we had...

a functional budget system, like all the incredible things that Congress could actually deliver along with President Trump for the American people. Let me ask you about this. I know that there are some congressmen and maybe justifiably so, and I understand it. But on the other hand, it is what it is that are frustrated. They weren't up all night talking to senators as I was.

And I'm just telling you, I'm giving you, you know, how the sausage is made. We did not have the votes at 8 a.m. this morning. And then finally push came to shove. And it was like, OK, finally, they got the last vote that they needed. I'm not going to get into personality. So the changes that were made, correct me if I'm wrong, this bill in the Senate, which never in my lifetime can I think of another instance where this happened, saves more money than the House bill.

And some Republican congressmen are upset that any changes were made. But the problem is the Senate has this

parliamentarian and this process called reconciliation which caused them to have to make some changes not really much different in my view from what the house passed yeah there are a lot of great savings in the house past version there are a lot of great savings in the senate past version there have been so many changes that we're still digesting what they've all been

and of course we need to wait for the scorekeepers to come out and say how much each provision saves or costs or whatever uh... but there's a lot of really good important things and are you touched on the the border security and the other defense pieces one of the things that's really important about that is that it avoided having to make a deal with the democrats when we get the four-year continuing resolution earlier here that would have been crazy expensive

and so we're able to get those resources where they were needed without having to make a deal there are a lot of things that will have dynamic effect their expansions in health savings account direct primary care that will help to transform our health care system over the coming years and decades and of course there's just so much more that needs to be done we do have too much spending uh... but there are narrow margins in the house and the senate and so this was

probably the best that could have been agreed to under these circumstances.

And it's also important to compare that to what would have happened if these tax cuts had to be extended in a bipartisan deal at the end of the year. A lot of the great reforms that we're seeing would be totally impossible. There'd be no way you could get rid of the Biden green energy stuff. You couldn't make the substantive changes to health care. You couldn't overhaul the student loan program. You couldn't expand the provisions that will lead to more investments in

that make americans better off so passing they're not passing this bill would end up being who would end up leading to a far worse deal because it would have to be done with democrats and on every dimension whether it's fiscal or the policies or anything else it would be inferior to what is currently on the table of going to the house

- No, I totally agree with you. And again, there are opportunities and I'm not gonna count on it. I'm not gonna be naive 'cause I've followed this process for far too long, but there's a window of opportunity here to get all these good things in the bill from border security and deportation money and defense spending that is desperately needed for the next generation of weaponry to energy issues, to tax cuts that are permanent,

to really looking out for working men and women in the service industry. And it just, it has a lot of good things in there. The energy sector is another one. Those are things that are desperately needed. I'll take those as a win now, and hopefully they'll come back and do even more.

That's right. Take the win. Keep coming back. And there's just a lot more work to do, but this is something that is right there, ready to go. So let's do it right now, and then let's keep working at it. I mean, Congress is not, you know, we've done the one thing and now we're done. No, no, no. There's a lot more on the agenda that will need to be done in the coming months and years.

I totally agree with all of that. We appreciate your time. Anyway, Kurt Kouchman, Senior Fellow, Fiscal Policy, Americans for Prosperity. Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me, Sean. Good to be with you.

Let's talk photos, not just storing them, showcasing them. You've got images that matter. Whether you're a photographer, a business updating your followers, or just someone who wants to share life's moments the right way. So why hand them over to Big Tech's one-size-fits-all cloud? Big Tech companies are the fast food of photo sharing. Quick, easy, but not exactly gourmet. And what about your data integrity? Jalbum.net is the photo sharing solution that puts you in control.

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All right, let's get to our busy, busy telephones. All right, let's say hi to Cody in Alabama. Didn't like the big, beautiful bill. What's up, Cody? How are you? Glad you called. Oh, thank you, Sean, for taking my call. It's my first time I've ever gotten on. I'm just concerned about the increased deficit, and I hear up to $4 trillion in the

spending cuts are delayed to after supposedly after Trump's second term. But no, that's not actually true because the spending cuts are ongoing with Doge and they're trying to weed out in every department. And Doge has not stopped since Elon Musk left all waste, fraud, abuse and corruption. And, you know, last week, for example, they came up with billions of dollars in discoveries. I mean, it's insane.

What concerns me from what I'm reading is that Social Security will be cut by 23% for everybody. Who told you that? That's not true.

88% of seniors, no, they're not getting cuts. They're getting increases, and they won't pay taxes on Social Security. Well, no, they're talking eight years down the future. I'm asking a question. Where did you hear this? Who's telling you this? Wall Street Journal and I checked it out with the New York Times. Both of them said the same thing. Well, the New York Times isn't worth the paper it's printed on, number one. Number two. I agree with that.

I agree with that, but yeah. Look, there is an assumption, and I think this is where a lot of people make mistakes, is that when you cut taxes, and I think you would agree, cutting taxes...

on hardworking Americans is a good thing, right? I believe that. Eliminating tax on tips and social and overtime, or at least reducing them greatly, I think that's a good thing. Would you agree with that? Yes, yes. And making the tax cut permanent, that's a good thing, rather than the largest tax increase in history, which would happen if this bill expired. My biggest concern is increasing the debt to another $4 trillion, supposedly. Right.

But here's here's you're right. And I see the numbers like you do. Let me tell you what's not factored in. Tell me what happened when Reagan dropped the top marginal rate from 70 to 28 percent. What happened to revenues to the federal government while he was president? You know, they yeah, they increased. No, they didn't increase. They doubled. OK, well, and

And and and we ended up with 21 million new jobs and the longest period of peacetime economic growth in history. When Trump first implemented the tax cuts in 2017, what happened to the economy? We had three incredible years with record low after record low unemployment because of all the money that was being invested because it was saved.

And then that results in more revenues to the government. The problem is they take in more money and then Congress spends more money. Now, there's more that they can do, but to not take the tax cuts and to not take the money invested in securing our border, getting rid of criminal illegals, not putting reforms in Medicaid, etc.,

not bringing out the next generation of weaponry and investing in defense and energy dominance, I think would be a mistake. The opportunity would be missed. And I would just tell you, having been up all night, that this is the best they were going to get out of the Senate or your calls on the other side. All right, let's get to our busy telephones. Kelly in my free state of Florida, alligator Alcatraz, the big Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis were there today. It was great.

What's going on? How are you, Kelly? Hey, I'm doing great up here in the red of the red of Fort Myers. Anyways, I just wanted to call. I love Fort Myers. I know you guys got whacked really hard as the city come back after that hurricane wiped out a lot of the coastal areas.

A lot of it, surprisingly, yes. It's going on two years now, but the downtown area is back up and running. A lot of business are going on. I'm glad to hear that. I really am. The people in Fort Myers are great. Yes. So I just called to sit there and say, hey, your show was great on Saturday night. I enjoyed it. Thank you.

I sat two rows behind this wonderful bombshell blonde. I think her name is... I wonder who.

But, yeah, it was an excellent show. It's a shame that people on the East Coast couldn't see it. But, you know, Saturday. No, we're rescheduling that. We'll probably do it because a lot of people go away for the summer. We'll probably do it in the early fall. But we're definitely doing it. Just had unforeseen circumstances. Life happens, unfortunately. And I feel bad that people were, you know,

I just feel, I never want to let anybody down, ever. We're doing it. We're definitely going to do it. Great. Yeah, and you know, hey, maybe next time down here in Fort Myers, I'll tell you this, whatever, and you'll handle, you probably won't have the two protesters which were sitting out there Saturday night. Hey, you had it. Oh, there were two protesters outside? Yeah, you had two protesters. Oh.

We had the one liberal inside. I kept going at him until he finally said, all right, I give up. I'm a conservative. I agree with you. That was funny. But, yes, excellent, excellent show. And I hope that poor guy got his jacket back from Jimmy after Jimmy mugged him for it. That's probably – Jimmy is a pro. And –

Look, I did my level best on the comedy side and had fun doing it and love being around great Americans like you that make the country great every day. Hey, you're very welcome. What a beautiful, what a beautiful hall. Ruth Eckerd Hall was beautiful. Packed to the brim. It wasn't an empty seat in the house. It was great. Nope. Oh,

All right. All right, my friend. God bless you. Appreciate it. All right. Well, this is going to be interesting. Mac in Texas, a Marxist Mondani supporter. What's up, Mac? Tell me why you support the Marxist and global antifada. And there shouldn't be any billionaires. And we should take over the means of production. I've got a new cut we're going to play on TV tonight. Apparently wants to buy up...

large parcels of land and have community you know communes for people hello sir uh the uh the reason i called in is i think you were being way too hard on him because uh he at least he comes out and he tells you what he is he tells you that he's a socialist communist anti-semite

Anti-capitalist guy. And too many rhinos in the Republican Party. You don't know who they are until they get elected. And then they screw up the works. I am not a supporter of Zoran Mamdani. I just, I just, I do admire him for coming straight out and saying what he is.

Yeah. But he really doesn't come straight out. I mean, he had three opportunities over the weekend to condemn. Like, for example, if I asked you, but Mac into Texas, do you condemn racism? Yes, I do. Of course. Of course you do. If I asked you, uh, do you condemn antisemitism? Yes, I do. But also here in America, well, he was given three opportunities to do so. And based on some of his other previous remarks, uh,

and events that he attended, I think it's pretty obvious where he stands. And that makes him, as far as I'm concerned, you know, a guy that is radicalized and extreme to the maximum level. And you're just applauding his honesty. But then, you know, here's the danger we have as a country is that this is what the Democratic Party as a whole now has evolved into. That scares me.

That is true. There are a lot of anti-Semites in the Democratic Party. That's why he doesn't denounce it. Those people are voting for him. And well, that's that's the bigger picture. I'm trying to get people to understand. But his party is now run by Mamdani. Marxist Mamdani is run by AOC. Jasmine Crockett.

The squad, Grandpa Bernie Pocahontas. And there's a reason why you don't hear from Hakeem Jeffries or Chuckie Schumer is because they're scared to death of their own face and where they would previously in a past life, they would have condemned it outright. The party now is just owned by the radicals, which maybe is a good thing.

The American people see it. We learned a lot about Kamala Harris. And, you know, in the last election, we saw Joe Biden leave wide open borders and then lie to us, lie about his cognitive state, lie about the economy.

And we see with Kamala Harris, she wants taxpayer funded sex change operations for illegals. Her running mate wanted taxpayer funded education, college education for illegals. Also wanted to put tampons in boys bathrooms and schools and grammar schools and also supports gender affirming care without parental consent. That is the party on top of the Marxism and statism and

you know, radicalism, you know, the party that tolerated no problem, you know, tolerating violence against Elon Musk, the party that remained silent in the summer of 2020. And the case of Kamala didn't just remain silent. She stood in solidarity with the rioters.

And the party that, you know, is it's tolerating virulent anti-Semitism. And I just think as long as the American people are fully aware of who they are and how bad they've gotten, you know, I don't think I've done a good enough job. I've got we've got to we've got to spread the word because we have a midterm coming up in 18 months.

And you may think that's a long way away. It's going to be here in a blink of an eye. And we'll be doing our election countdown in six months. And this is going to be probably the most important midterm in our life. Otherwise, we're going to spend the two the two years after the 26th election, you know, dealing with impeachment, impeachment, impeachment. Not good. Anyway, my friend, appreciate the call. Todd, Louisiana next on the Sean Hannity show. What's up, Todd?

Good afternoon, Sean. I was just like watching the whole debate thing and Schumer and the fact that he just sits there and lies and lies and lies. If a Republican had done that, I mean, you would have helped him run a model out of Washington. But Schumer sits there for decades.

Tell him the lies about Biden for four years, basically. And then he comes back and he gets caught in a bald-faced lie. And they ask him about it. He says, well, we're just ready to move on now.

They don't tell you the truth. I mean, that's that's the bottom line. And if you want to know why the Democratic Party, this is an amazing thing. They're like scratching their heads and they have no idea why they lost the last election. And I just ran through a series of reasons why they're the party of woke elites. We saw this on display in the Senate. They claim to be the party of working men and women. Then why? Why did they vote for the largest tax hike in American history?

Why wouldn't they vote to cut taxes on working men and women? No tax on tips, no tax on overtime. Why wouldn't they vote for those things? Why did they leave the border wide open and lie to us? Why do they support or champion the rights of men to play women's sports rather than protect women? You know, why are they the party that's against energy dominance, but they're perfectly fine with us importing energy? I mean, it's the lifeblood of the world's economy.

Why are they the party that that depleted our defense department and put us in a hole that we have to now dig ourselves out of a gap of vulnerability that like when Reagan was president? I mean, it's on every one of these issues. They're radical and they're wrong and they just care about wokeness and getting pronouns and and gender affirming care and all these other issues.

And then I'm focused on the people, the vast, overwhelming 99 percent of Americans that just want a better life for themselves and their children. Yeah. And on the pretty spectacular. Yeah. What? And on the border, they they're coming out and they're saying, oh, Trump is against border security because he didn't want to go. He didn't. He told everybody to vote against her boondoggle of a bill. And then he's already proven it, that they were lying, that they were not.

not even trying to secure the border. They were just gaslighting the American public. And I'm just thankful that we got places to go to listen to somebody that actually makes sense. I mean, every now and then you have to give an econ 101 lesson to some of your listeners, which I don't understand. Oh, I mean, for example, you know, we shouldn't have billionaires. Think about that. Yeah. Now, if you really look at this, you know,

Anybody that I, I don't know people that inherited money in their life. I really don't. But I have met millionaires and I have met billionaires in my life. And in every case, they earned it the old fashioned way. You know, they work their ass off. Number one. Number two, they were they were providing goods and services that people wanted, needed and desired and that they freely paid for them.

And I would argue the world is better off because we now have computers and and phones at our disposal at all times. And, you know, I think we're better off that Elon Musk is is doing all of his work. I don't I don't care about his politics, about the big, beautiful bill.

I never got a job from a poor person. When I worked in restaurants, poor people can't afford to go to a restaurant. They just can't. And so the people that were paying my salary at a point when I needed that job to pay my rent, I'm glad they came, I'm glad they had the money to buy and leave me a tip if I did a good job. When I did construction, I was not hired by poor people. I got hired by people that could afford my services.

And, you know, my entire radio and TV career, I got hired by people that own radio and TV stations. And I'm very grateful to all of them. And I don't hate them that they're successful. And the American dream is supposed to believe in freedom. They don't believe in freedom or pro choice, except we want to tell you what car to drive, what stove you can or cannot use, what refrigerator and freezer you cannot and cannot use, what washer and dryer you cannot and cannot use and what

what straw you can and cannot use. Give me a break. All right, quick break. Right back to our phones. Our toll-free number is 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. Right back to our busy phones, 800-941-SHAWN if you want to be a part of the program. David in Arizona, I have about a minute and 20 seconds. It's all yours. Hi. Hey, Sean. Thanks for taking my call. Appreciate it. Thank you. I just was thinking about the left, how they are with...

how they were so against us sending bombs over to Iran and taking care of what needed to be taken care of. And then after it was said and done, how they are complaining that the bombs weren't big enough.

that they didn't destroy enough of what we went over there to destroy. They just can't figure out what they want to do, the left. They are so lost, that whole Democratic Party. Look, I could tell you right now, this is what they are. And in spite of them, in spite of everything they threw at Trump,

The media was ignored. Democrats were ignored. And the American people saw through it. And the American people have embraced the cause of American greatness again. And we saw that on display with foreign policy and taking out Iran's nukes, a very dangerous, bold decision by the president. Incredible decision.

you know, professionalism of the greatest military on earth. You know, he's doing the same thing with the borders, the same thing with the economy, same thing with law and order, same thing with our defense department, same thing with energy. These are all big, big ideas, and he's implementing them. And the most conservative agenda I've seen in my lifetime, there was a poll out today that Republican voters now give Trump a higher approval rating than they did Reagan.

I mean, you know, 63 percent rating among Republican voters as of Tuesday. Fake News CNN reported this. Anyway, I appreciate the call, my friend. Eight hundred nine four one. Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, our friend Chris Hahn is going to join us. This is going to be interesting. Chuckie Schumer's protege. This is an I Heart podcast.