The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 449 - We Need Answers

00:00:00.000 Today on the Matt Wall Show, entire states are now going into lockdown. The economy is

00:00:04.100 grinding to a halt. Meanwhile, there's a disturbing lack of answers from people in

00:00:08.140 positions of authority. They aren't telling us the end game. They aren't giving us a timetable.

00:00:12.440 They haven't done or said enough or anything really to convince us that they've properly

00:00:16.380 balanced the threat of an outbreak against the threat of economic collapse. At what point

00:00:23.080 does the human cost of destroying the economy outweigh the cost of a potential mass outbreak?

00:00:29.420 That's a question that people in positions of authority, the government, they're not really,

00:00:33.060 they don't appear to be grappling with. At least they're not telling us. They're not giving us

00:00:35.580 the answers. So today we'll try to sort through that. And I have some questions that I need to

00:00:39.300 ask. And a few days ago, I was asking questions of the people who are in the, this is an overreaction

00:00:44.240 camp. Today, I want to ask some questions of the other side of this. Also making matters much,

00:00:51.440 much worse and making the crisis of trust, trust in our authority figures, much worse.

00:00:56.640 It appears that some senators have been engaging in insider trading based on the information they

00:01:03.060 received in private briefings about the pandemic. So while they gave us, while they were reassuring

00:01:08.040 us and telling us it's not going to be a big deal, they were dumping stock. So we'll talk about that.

00:01:12.500 And the GOP's stimulus plan has been released. It is terrible, really, truly terrible. And I'll tell

00:01:19.240 you why. Plus, five headlines, all of that and more coming up. Now, I know I said yesterday that

00:01:25.880 today on the show, it would be the no corona show. It would be a show where I don't talk about the

00:01:30.860 coronavirus. But events have changed that. Events, dear boy, events have transpired. And so I feel like

00:01:38.160 there's a lot that happened even just last night that I feel the need to address. I must go back on my

00:01:45.080 promise then and I beg your forgiveness. Instead of the no corona show, I'll try to make this a low

00:01:50.380 corona show. It'll be it'll have the coronavirus. It'll be a mild case of the coronavirus. This show

00:01:55.300 will need just a week of rest and some and a lot of fluid to get over the coronavirus. So much has

00:02:02.560 happened in the last 24 hours. We're gonna try to get through this. We begin with the state of

00:02:06.700 California issuing a lockdown order to all of its 40 million residents. Everybody is being ordered to

00:02:12.440 stay indoors in the entire state. Shelter in place. All businesses must close, with some exceptions.

00:02:19.100 I think that you're allowed to take a walk or let your kids play outside in your yard. So they'll

00:02:22.820 give you that. Very generous. But other than that, you got to stay inside. This reading now from CNBC,

00:02:28.040 it says, all dine-in restaurants, bars and clubs, gyms and fitness studios will be closed, according to

00:02:32.940 the order. Public events and gatherings are also not allowed. Essential services will stay open,

00:02:36.900 however, such as pharmacies, grocery stores, takeout and delivery restaurants and banks. According to the

00:02:42.420 order, Californians in 16 critical sectors are to continue working. Those include emergency

00:02:47.700 services, energy and food and agriculture. Newsom said that he made the decision based on some new

00:02:55.420 information and projections that came in from Johns Hopkins University. He reiterated throughout the

00:03:00.580 press conference and in response to questions from reporters, we need to meet this moment and flatten

00:03:04.240 the curve together. Meanwhile, the state of Pennsylvania has issued an order not quite as

00:03:12.060 severe, but nearly, despite the fact that there are only about 180 cases of the virus in the state,

00:03:18.340 a state of 12 million people, and that many of these people are spread out, relatively isolated,

00:03:25.300 living up in the mountains in central and eastern and western Pennsylvania. Despite all that,

00:03:30.040 the governor issued an order shutting down almost all businesses, but not all. And some of the

00:03:35.500 distinctions here, to me, seem kind of arbitrary. You tell me what you think. Reading from NBC

00:03:40.360 Philadelphia's website, it says the only businesses that can stay open are, quote, life-sustaining ones,

00:03:46.240 farms and their suppliers, food manufacturing, medical care facilities, medical product suppliers and

00:03:51.560 banks, retailers that sell food, gas, automotive parts, and building materials may also stay open.

00:03:56.320 Restaurants may continue to offer takeout. Other manufacturing and construction companies must

00:04:01.020 close, as must all other retailers, insurance companies, legal firms, employment services,

00:04:08.480 beauty salons, barbers must close their locations, accountants must close. Social services agencies can

00:04:14.620 stay open, but unions must send their workers home. Movie or music studios must close, but TV and radio

00:04:20.460 stations may stay open. Beer distributors, it is important to note, may stay open.

00:04:26.320 Well, that is very important to note, I will say. And believe me, I'm glad that beer distributors are

00:04:32.020 still open. But it raises questions. Is a beer distributor really life-sustaining? I'm a big fan of

00:04:38.740 beer. Like Brett Kavanaugh, I like beer, okay? I don't know if I would call it life-sustaining. That

00:04:45.180 might be a little bit too far. And so you have to ask the question, because beer distributors are

00:04:51.760 closed, or are open, rather. Liquor stores, though, are closed in Pennsylvania. So you close the liquor

00:04:58.660 stores, beer distributors are still open. Now, people who know how the state works might point

00:05:04.540 out that, well, liquor stores are run by the state, whereas beer distributors are privately owned.

00:05:10.460 Plus, Pennsylvania has all kinds of weird rules with alcohol. It makes no sense whatsoever. Like,

00:05:16.500 for example, if you buy beer at a grocery store, you can only buy, like, a certain amount of ounces

00:05:24.300 at a time. And so, which means that if you're buying beer for a party or something, you have

00:05:28.420 to make multiple trips and pay multiple times. It's stuff like that. But still, it raises the

00:05:33.160 question, because they've shut down many other private businesses. They're leaving the beer

00:05:36.160 distributors open. It raises the question of, are people more likely to pick up the virus while buying

00:05:41.900 whiskey than they are while buying a six-pack of Bud Light? Is there any science behind that?

00:05:48.940 And if not, then why not leave the liquor stores open? If it's relatively safe to go to a beer

00:05:54.660 distributor, then is it not relatively safe to go to a liquor store? And then why wouldn't you leave

00:05:59.380 that open, and so that we can keep at least that little part of the economy going? More questions that

00:06:06.380 I want to ask. But before we do, I want to take a time out here for a word from the Benham brothers.

00:06:12.740 You know, obviously, as we're talking about now, we'll talk more about in the show,

00:06:15.980 what's happening now with the coronavirus epidemic is having a huge impact on small business owners.

00:06:22.140 And it's causing a lot of small businesses to have to reshuffle on the fly. And it's been very

00:06:29.180 impressive, some of the small business owners I've talked to. And this is part of American

00:06:33.340 ingenuity. It's, you know, you meet a challenge, and there are businesses that are totally reworking

00:06:38.840 how they do things overnight to try to compensate for this. But when you start having your employees

00:06:44.180 working remote, you have to manage your workforce and your workflow really well. You know, systems

00:06:48.540 become very crucial. The Benham brothers are great at managing work teams that are all over the

00:06:53.220 country. These guys have over a dozen businesses, including a real estate empire that spans over 35

00:06:57.780 states. That name might even ring a bell. Thus, for me, the Benham brothers were slated for a

00:07:03.020 reality TV show on HGTV, and they were canceled because of their commitment to conservative

00:07:07.220 values. So these guys, these are great guys. I'm big fans of theirs. And they just, they believe in,

00:07:13.880 you know, they have values and principles, and they believe in those, and they're willing to

00:07:16.440 sacrifice for them. And I have immense respect for that. Over the last six months, these guys have

00:07:20.620 been working on a new course called Expert Ownership, How to Own a Business Without It Owning You.

00:07:25.040 In it, they teach entrepreneurs and small businesses the exact system they've used to help build

00:07:30.880 their businesses. If you're sitting at home trying to run your business right now, and you're going

00:07:34.060 through this, expert ownership was made for you. And it's what you need to check out. The Benham

00:07:38.840 brothers were slated to start advertising this course next week, but they decided to do an early

00:07:43.260 release of the course at a big discount to help small business owners and entrepreneurs who are

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00:07:52.580 slash Walsh to see a preview of the course and get a special discount. That's

00:07:55.820 benhambrothers.com slash Walsh. B-E-N-H-A-M brothers.com slash Walsh.

00:08:02.960 Okay. Other questions about this order in Pennsylvania?

00:08:09.620 If you're, and in other states too, not just Pennsylvania, but if you're leaving open all

00:08:13.300 these other businesses, as Pennsylvania is, California is, all these other states and cities

00:08:19.980 and municipalities that have shut things down, well, we've got other, there's still plenty of

00:08:23.680 businesses that are left open because they've been judged rightly or wrongly, absurdly or not as

00:08:28.720 life-sustaining. But if the virus is really as bad as you say, and it's as contagious as you say,

00:08:33.720 which it might be, I'm not saying that it isn't, then isn't it going to spread at the grocery store

00:08:37.700 and at the beer distributor and at these other life-sustaining places? On the other hand though,

00:08:42.260 if we can trust people to go to the grocery store and practice social distancing and wash their

00:08:47.140 hands and not get sick or get anybody else sick, which we need to trust them to do that apparently in

00:08:52.140 order to, we need to have the grocery stores open at least, right? Well then, if we could trust that,

00:08:57.120 then why can't we trust them to do it at, say, PetSmart or Dick's Sporting Goods or, you know,

00:09:04.720 the insurance agency? So take, you know, a random guy, Bob Smith, gets in his car, drives to the grocery

00:09:11.280 store, manages to follow all of the anti-corona guidelines, which again, we need to trust him to do

00:09:18.040 that. We have no choice. Um, doesn't spread any sickness or get sick while, while, while buying

00:09:23.220 his, his milk and eggs and pile driving old ladies for toilet paper. Okay, great. Now he gets back into

00:09:30.860 his car. Why can't we trust him to repeat that feat at, I don't know, Marshall's on the way home?

00:09:38.920 He could do it while buying eggs and buying milk. Why can't he do it while buying a pair of jeans?

00:09:43.260 These are questions. I think they're good questions and they're questions that people

00:09:48.080 in positions of authority need to answer. It's not enough to just shut everything down. You have

00:09:53.900 to specifically, well, why that? It's a, it's a fair question. Why specifically that? And if this is

00:09:59.760 open over here and this over thing that, and this thing that you've closed down is very similar to

00:10:04.580 that, then why not leave it open? It's not like it's a small thing to just, well, we might as well

00:10:10.140 close it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not good enough. And I'm just using Pennsylvania

00:10:15.100 as an example here because I know the state very well myself, but these kinds of measures are being

00:10:19.800 taken everywhere. Of course, if not more extreme measures, but just taking this state as an example,

00:10:25.560 um, continuing along with this, there are less than 200 confirmed cases in Pennsylvania right now

00:10:31.360 out of the state, 67 or so counties, half of the counties have no cases as it stands right now.

00:10:36.680 Last I checked, many of these counties are isolated. They're up in the mountains somewhere.

00:10:42.280 Um, and most of the cases are in two counties, Philadelphia County and Allegheny County,

00:10:48.020 which includes Pittsburgh. So you take those two out along with Montgomery County and Delaware County,

00:10:52.800 which are also counties in, in, around the populous areas, um, around the urban centers of the state.

00:10:59.860 So you take out those four counties and you have a small smattering of cases stretched out across

00:11:04.440 mostly mountainous and rural regions of the state. For an example, uh, Wyoming County in Pennsylvania,

00:11:11.720 very tiny little County up in Northeastern Pennsylvania, a thousand people. It is home to,

00:11:16.340 uh, Tunkhannock, uh, to the city of Tunkhannock with a thousand people, a couple stoplights. You've

00:11:21.680 probably never heard of it. Most of the, of the country as, uh, most of the, of the county is,

00:11:26.860 is country is rural. No cases right now in Wyoming County. So why do you need to shut it down?

00:11:33.300 It's, it's, it's also not a wealthy County. These are working people. Why aren't they allowed to go 1.00

00:11:39.700 to work? They're up in the mountains. There are no cases. If nobody has the virus right now,

00:11:46.040 and there's a good chance that it will stay that way, especially if you've already locked down the

00:11:50.160 counties that have all the cases or most of them. So why lock down that County? These are questions

00:11:58.820 earlier in the week. I was asking questions of the people who think this is an overreaction.

00:12:03.480 Now I'm asking questions in the other direction. I don't have the answers. I've said that a million

00:12:07.020 times. I don't have them. I don't know. So, you know, by now, if you're looking for someone who

00:12:11.940 can confidently declare what the right answer is and what's going on, I'll tell you what's going on.

00:12:16.040 Here's what we should do. You're, you're listening to the wrong guy. Cause I don't have those.

00:12:19.340 I don't have that. And if you know someone who has that, let me know who that person is. Cause I'd

00:12:22.840 love to listen to them. I don't know, but here's the thing. If you're in a position of authority

00:12:28.160 and you're taking these drastic measures, draconian measures that will cause great hardship to many

00:12:32.220 people, uh, which maybe it's necessary, but my point is you ought to have more answers than I do

00:12:39.220 or anyone in the audience does. So I don't feel bad saying I don't have answers yet. I'm still

00:12:46.120 expecting the authorities to have some answers. The reason I expect it is because of what they're doing.

00:12:49.780 This can't be a just in case type of thing. The cost is too great. The human cost is too great

00:12:58.460 for just in case. We need to know that there is a specific science-based numbers-based reason

00:13:05.060 and that there's an end game, that there's a point where we'll know that it's been successful and we

00:13:09.780 can get back to our lives. This can't be open-ended. It can't just be, we'll shut it down for now.

00:13:14.600 We'll see how it goes. It can't be that because a lot of people don't have the luxury for that.

00:13:19.300 I have the luxury for that, uh, because I can work from home. Many people do not.

00:13:26.220 And we also need to know if we shut everything down for two weeks or two months or six months,

00:13:31.480 um, and the longer it is, the worse the effect on the economy is going to be.

00:13:36.560 Well, how do we know? How sure are we that if we shut everything down and then once we open things

00:13:41.860 back up again, how sure are we that the virus, virus won't come surging back to life? And at which

00:13:46.880 point we'll have the virus to deal with and a destroyed economy. Um, as I've been talking about

00:13:55.700 this this week and trying to work through it myself, getting a lot of emails and messages

00:13:59.800 from people who are, you know, who are affected by this or out of work or, or just are thinking

00:14:04.580 about it like I am. And I've, I've read almost all the emails I've gotten because I'm, I'm very

00:14:09.400 interested in what other people are thinking because I'm just as confused as anybody else.

00:14:16.040 But what I, the, the thing I keep hearing is we need the end game. We need to know what the plan

00:14:21.420 is. We need more information. This can't be indefinite. The things people are saying to me

00:14:26.320 are, are, you know, I'm, I'm willing to make the sacrifice, but I need to know what, where is this

00:14:30.840 headed? The other point is if this shutdown, uh, lasts for many weeks or months, the human costs,

00:14:40.560 the lives destroyed, the people who die from that, that toll may be greater than the toll that the

00:14:46.040 virus takes. I don't know if that's true or not. Nobody does, but it's a persuasive argument. At

00:14:52.140 least it's an argument that people in positions of authority need to grapple with publicly, not just

00:14:58.820 done in their heads, not in their private meetings, but they need to come in front of the American

00:15:03.980 people and explain, if you're shutting everything down, you must be pretty confident. That's not the

00:15:09.380 case. You must be pretty confident that the human toll, the human cost of the outbreak will be

00:15:14.260 greater than the very significant human toll and cost of the, uh, of, of an economic downturn or

00:15:19.680 depression. But that needs to be explained much better than it's being right now.

00:15:23.700 Now we were told 15 days at first, 15 days to slow the spread. They said, well, it's, it's,

00:15:33.640 you know, if it's only 15 days, we're halfway through it now. I think most of us can agree.

00:15:36.760 All right, we can do that. The economy can recover. I don't think 15 days is going to destroy the

00:15:41.340 economy. It's going to be serious hardship. I'm not downplaying that, but I think we can recover

00:15:45.080 from that. But now we're being led to assume that this will last much longer than 15 days.

00:15:49.780 Okay. Well then again, how long, what is the end game? We all need the information that the

00:15:54.620 government has, whatever they got, whatever information they're basing this on, tell it to

00:15:58.100 us. So you get the sense they're not telling us everything. And we need to know that the people who

00:16:03.840 are, who are in, in power, appreciate the enormous, truly inconceivable suffering and hardship that will

00:16:09.280 be caused by a long-term indefinite shutdown of the whole economy. Now the city of Los Angeles is

00:16:15.620 completely locked down. And now the state is too, of course, but LA has been locked down for a week

00:16:21.160 or week or so already. The mayor of Los Angeles was on CNN last night and he was given an opportunity

00:16:28.780 to provide answers to some of these questions that I'm asking and that you're asking. His answer that

00:16:35.940 he gave pissed me off. I have to be honest with you. And if, when you hear it, it may not be

00:16:43.060 immediately obvious why it's so infuriating. But we'll talk about that in just a second. First,

00:16:48.700 you know, in this quarantine, everything, everyone's looking for things to do. I was at the store the

00:16:51.820 other day and I was looking for a, trying to get a board game and the board games, and there's now

00:16:55.780 a run on board games. They're all cleared out. So we're all looking for things to do. I think now's

00:16:59.620 a great time to read a really good book. Don't just sit there watching the news and scaring yourself

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00:17:08.860 draws from extensive research and real life meetings with world leaders for his fact-based

00:17:12.840 fiction. Joel's books have been read by Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo,

00:17:17.880 White House Foreign Policy Advisor Jason Greenblatt. So it's, you know, the people who know about this

00:17:24.060 stuff are reading these books and, you know, and to them it's very compelling because they know how

00:17:29.600 realistic it is. Joel's new novel, The Jerusalem Assassin, centers around a fictional American

00:17:34.260 president who's ready to roll out a Middle East peace plan at the time. As the time draws near to

00:17:38.780 announce the peace plan in Jerusalem, high-ranking American officials begin to be assassinated

00:17:42.720 one by one. CIA operative Marcus Riker has spent his career studying killers. Now he must think like

00:17:47.920 one to stop a deadly threat. It's just a great book. It's absorbing and entertaining. And even

00:17:54.860 though it deals with some serious subject matter, it's at least going to take your mind away from

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00:18:02.000 Assassin by Joel C. Rosenberg are available at your favorite retailer's website. Through the end of March,

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00:18:22.860 Promo code Walsh for an additional 10% off. Now, the mayor of Los Angeles was on CNN last night

00:18:30.360 and he was asked some of these questions. And as I said, his answer made me angry.

00:18:38.040 Maybe you can tell why. Watch this. The big pushback is the cost, that this tanks the economy. And how

00:18:45.300 can it be worth it? This isn't the plague. It's just the flu. 80% of the cases are okay.

00:18:51.520 Why isn't this going too far? I started with the premise tonight that human life is precious.

00:18:57.220 If we don't start there, I don't know where we ever start. What's the price of that life of that

00:19:02.760 loved one who's battling cancer or who has a preexisting condition of your parents or

00:19:07.580 grandparents just because they're older and they're going to have a 1 in 8 chance of dying,

00:19:11.200 unlike your child who might only have a 1 in 10,000 chance of dying if they get it.

00:19:15.600 I think that we, hopefully as human beings, believe that all human lives are precious. And by the way,

00:19:21.520 I think it's a false dichotomy. The blow to the economy of us letting this continue to go

00:19:27.880 forward, of us not treating this with the seriousness, these companies, these places

00:19:33.260 will be under anyway. If we have all of our doctors and nurses sick, they will not only be

00:19:38.060 able to respond to this crisis, but to the other health crisis that threaten people's lives. And we

00:19:42.140 will lose lives in that scenario too and cripple our economy when people in key sectors can't even

00:19:47.280 come to work. Yeah, that ticks me off and it scares me. And here's the reason. He's asked a good

00:19:56.740 question. The question so many are asking, is this an overreaction? Are you, aren't you crippling the

00:20:03.340 economy? Isn't that going to be worse than whatever the virus would do? His answer is life is precious.

00:20:12.580 That's his answer. Life is precious. Yes, life is precious. But you know, Mayor, that's a cliche.

00:20:22.060 That's a platitude. That's something you put on a bumper sticker. It's not an explanation that you

00:20:27.600 give to Americans who are now out of work and not able to eat or feed their children. You don't give

00:20:33.620 them bumper stickers. You don't give them patronizing slogans about life is precious. They already know that.

00:20:39.280 They're worried about the lives of their children, their families. You especially don't give them a

00:20:46.320 slogan that you yourself clearly don't believe considering as the mayor of Los Angeles, I assume

00:20:51.400 you're pro-abortion. And besides, the lives that will be destroyed and the people who will potentially 0.59

00:20:59.560 die in a Great Depression, if that's where this goes, are also precious. So we need a real answer.

00:21:04.660 We need numbers, science, statistics, evidence. The answer scares me. And so much of what I'm

00:21:11.840 hearing from these government officials scares me because it sounds either like they don't know the

00:21:16.600 answers, they don't have great reasons, and they're doing this anyway because they don't appreciate what

00:21:22.580 it costs, what it's doing to people, or they do have answers and reasons that they aren't telling us.

00:21:28.400 Either way, it's not good leadership, to put it mildly. We deserve to know, and you need to tell

00:21:36.020 us. Listen, as I said now a million times, I'm confused myself. But if these state officials are

00:21:43.440 as confused as me or you, then they shouldn't be shutting down the economy for an indefinite period

00:21:48.240 of time. Because then they're flying blind and they're just potentially causing a Great Depression 0.59

00:21:57.260 almost at random or on a coin flip. It can't be that. This can't be, I could go either way, flip a

00:22:03.960 coin, okay, shut down the economy. It can't be that. I'm sure that that is not the right answer.

00:22:10.360 If they have good, solid reasons, reasons that balance the cost of the outbreak against the cost

00:22:14.920 of an economic collapse, we need to hear them. They need to be explained in great detail

00:22:19.360 from these people in positions of power. And if they have it figured out to that extent,

00:22:28.360 then they need to be able to tell us what success looks like and how we'll know we've gotten there

00:22:33.460 and when the end date is, or at least a ballpark estimate. Because the other problem is people can't

00:22:38.640 budget, they can't navigate their way through this if they have no idea how long it's going to be

00:22:43.320 until they get their next paycheck. And then you read about these senators who allegedly dumped 1.00

00:22:48.620 stock after private briefings on the virus outbreak back in January. According to reports,

00:22:55.200 Feinstein, Burr, and Loeffler, probably among others, but those are the names that are out there

00:23:01.520 right now, allegedly were told how bad it would be in private briefings in January. Then they went and

00:23:07.840 sold their stock while telling the public that everything would be fine. At least Burr and Loeffler

00:23:12.580 went out shortly after that and they were downplaying it. When they knew that wasn't the

00:23:18.380 case because they were dumping their stock. Now, if this is true, of course, these people should be

00:23:22.480 publicly flogged and thrown in a cage for the rest of their lives. But this is devastating to hear 0.54

00:23:27.280 right now, especially now because it further erodes what little trust people have in the

00:23:31.000 institutions that are making these decisions. That's a powder keg. When you've got people making

00:23:37.620 these kinds of decisions and affecting people's lives in such a dramatic way, and we can't trust

00:23:42.560 them, powder keg. I mean, you're asking for chaos. According to these reports, lawmakers were keeping

00:23:50.620 the truth from us or obfuscating it, watering it down while they went off to profit off of what they

00:23:55.980 knew. Where else is that happening or something like it happening? This is why platitudes won't cut

00:24:02.500 it. We need answers, real answers, real data, a real plan. This is not a game for people.

00:24:07.740 If I didn't have an income right now, I keep thinking about if I didn't have an income

00:24:10.300 right now, I've got four kids to feed. What the hell would I do? I would be at a point very soon

00:24:15.580 where I would say, even if the China virus gets 10 times worse than it is now, and even if the

00:24:21.300 mortality rate is 10%, I still might have to work. It's worth the risk to me to work because I got to

00:24:29.180 take care of my kids. What am I going to do? What choice do I have? Now, by the grace of God,

00:24:33.680 I don't have to make that calculation. A lot of people do and will, and who knows, if the entire

00:24:37.720 economy comes collapsing down, then maybe eventually I will too. There are very few people who are going

00:24:43.240 to be insulated from it completely. I don't think I'll be one of them. So who really knows?

00:24:49.960 We just need a better, we need better leadership, more information, and a better plan. Speaking of

00:24:54.140 needing a better plan, Republicans unveiled their stimulus plan, their plan to help American workers.

00:24:58.040 And it is, look, I'm sorry to keep the outrage flowing through these segments, and I'm sorry

00:25:05.180 to be so negative, but their plan is outrageously, outrageously bad. Let me read the report from CBS.

00:25:12.520 And in fact, before I do that, I want to check in and tell you about Honey. Now, I've told you about

00:25:18.960 Honey before. It's just, it's a great service that, especially these days, everyone needs to save

00:25:25.100 money. So I implore you, there's no reason not to have Honey. And you know, you go back, you remember

00:25:30.700 the days of having, of coupons. I never really did the coupon thing myself, but I can remember back

00:25:35.680 in the, back in the old days, going to the grocery store with my mom or something, and she's got,

00:25:39.820 she pulls out her pocketbook and is rifling through all the coupons. Well, that's gone now. You don't

00:25:45.240 ever need to do that again, thanks to Honey. You know that Honey is a free online shopping tool that

00:25:49.180 automatically finds the best promo codes and applies them to your cart. I just, I want you

00:25:54.820 to imagine how great it would feel to save money with Honey. When you, when, when you know that

00:25:59.440 you're, you know, that you're getting more bang for your buck because all you did was take advantage

00:26:05.880 of this free service. Did you know that Honey supports over 30,000 stores online? That's including

00:26:10.780 Macy's, Target, Sephora, Best Buy, and more. And they're adding more every day. Honey has found it's

00:26:16.240 over 18 million members, over $2 billion in savings. And again, um, these days when you need,

00:26:23.680 when every, every penny really counts. And so this is a way to save money. Using Honey feels pretty

00:26:28.100 great. Think of it as a little, a little daily victory. Although I would say, you know, they call

00:26:32.940 it a little victory. I think they're underselling it. I think it's a, it's a pretty large victory now.

00:26:36.040 Uh, plus it's free to use and install in just a few seconds. Get Honey for free at joinhoney.com

00:26:41.900 slash Walsh. That's joinhoney.com slash Walsh. All right. Republicans unveiled

00:26:46.220 their stimulus plan. Reading from CBS, the phase three bill unveiled by Senate Republicans on

00:26:50.480 Thursday includes rebates of $1,200 for most on individuals who reported less than $75,000 on

00:26:55.840 their $75,000 on their 2018 tax returns. So $1,200 if you reported less than $75,000 on your 2018 tax

00:27:05.340 returns or $2,400 per couple who filed their taxes jointly in 2018 and made less than $150,000.

00:27:12.780 Another $500 will be added for every dependent child, low income Americans with at least $2,500

00:27:17.540 of qualified income, but who do not earn enough to pay income tax, get a smaller benefit of $600

00:27:22.300 or $1,200 for couples. The payments will be gradually phased out for individuals with income between

00:27:27.980 $75,000 and $99,000 at which point payments cut off. And then also from what I've read, it phases out

00:27:34.380 completely for couples at $198,000. This is terrible. They're going to send you $1,200 to compensate for

00:27:44.380 all the lost wages as long as you didn't make more than $75,000 two years ago. What if you made $80,000

00:27:52.400 two years ago, but you make $65,000 now and you've been out of work for two weeks? Well, you're out of

00:27:57.760 luck. What if you're a single parent with three kids who makes $100,000 and lives in a place like New York

00:28:03.380 where the cost of living is extremely high? A person in that situation is not anywhere close

00:28:09.060 to wealthy. They're essentially living paycheck to paycheck, but they're out of luck, apparently.

00:28:15.580 Now, it's not entirely clear to me. They say that if you're joint, if with a joint income, then the

00:28:19.740 phase out limit is $198,000. If you're filing jointly, well, what if you're a single parent,

00:28:25.920 you're filing as head of household, but you're not filing jointly because you're not, you don't have a

00:28:30.060 spouse. Are you at the $198,000 threshold or are you at the $99,000 threshold? That's not entirely

00:28:37.200 clear. It looks like you're at the $99,000, but either way, it's terrible. What if you're a family

00:28:42.200 of six making $200,000 a year, but your business has taken a massive hit and it might not ever recover

00:28:47.080 and you're burning through your savings? Out of luck. Sorry. So we're going to give money to a single

00:28:53.620 person making $70,000 in Vermont, meaning this person has, is, is basically well off. They have

00:28:59.420 no dependents, low cost of living. In fact, imagine a, a, a, a, a, a, a single person making $70,000

00:29:05.720 low cost of living and is working from home right now and hasn't lost any income. They're going to

00:29:12.260 get a check, but a family that loses everything and lives in a high cost area may get nothing.

00:29:16.720 Does this make any sense? Now, if you really wanted to means test this thing, which is what

00:29:23.440 they're trying to do, you would need to know where people live, if they're single parents,

00:29:29.140 how much they're making now, not two years ago, how much they've lost in the last two weeks,

00:29:34.320 how much they're expected to lose over the next few months, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

00:29:37.700 It's impossible to know all of that, which is why you need to give money and a lot more of it

00:29:42.300 to everybody, you know, and let people who don't need it, donate it. That should be the plan.

00:29:50.020 Give money to everyone. Let them donate. I've already said, we don't need the money. Give it

00:29:53.480 to me. I will give it to somebody else. I'm not alone in that. I'm not some super generous,

00:29:58.040 charitable guy. Americans like to donate. Why do you think there's a viral GoFundMe campaign

00:30:04.360 every day in this country? Many times for frivolous reasons. And it's like, it's, that's why it's so

00:30:09.400 easy. It's unfortunately, there's a, that's the bad side of being so charitable as Americans.

00:30:13.000 We're very easily scammed. Anyone could come up with a scam GoFundMe and make a million dollars

00:30:17.360 just because we'd love to donate. So what do you think Americans are going to do? You get a,

00:30:22.180 you get a campaign going, you send checks to everybody. You get a campaign going,

00:30:25.400 already suggested, hashtag pass the buck, encouraging people, get all the celebrities,

00:30:29.360 instead of singing John Lennon, imagine, get, get them to encourage, you know, they can take

00:30:33.360 videos of themselves, whatever, passing their money along to someone, whatever it is.

00:30:37.260 People like to also be charitable and brag about it on, on, so take advantage of that too. This

00:30:41.140 will be very easy to do. You don't have to means test. We're not relying on the government to decide

00:30:45.820 who deserves it and who doesn't. Local communities can decide that. I know who in my life and who I

00:30:52.020 know that, that needs the money. The government doesn't know. I do. So give me the money. I'll pass

00:30:57.140 it along. And it's not like I'm saying, give me your money or give me, no, no, give me my,

00:31:02.960 it's my money. I'm a taxpayer. I work. I, I support the system. So that's my money. Give me some of my

00:31:10.920 money back and I will pass it along. And for the people who are out of work and need it, that again

00:31:16.280 is their money and not just $1,200. They're going to need a lot. What's, what the hell is $1,200

00:31:21.160 going to do? You know, for most people that doesn't even pay rent. If you've got three kids,

00:31:27.640 you get 1200 bucks and you're not working, that money is gone like that. You're going to decide,

00:31:32.240 am I paying rent or am I buying food for a month? Or am I doing a little of both? Well, a little of

00:31:37.640 both doesn't work, does it? Because paying half of your rent's not going to work. Feeding half of your

00:31:41.240 kids won't work. This is, I have to try very hard not to, not to, I'm trying to control my language so I

00:31:52.640 don't start dropping vulgarities. This is a family show. It just makes me angry. This is not,

00:32:00.320 you, this is not good enough. You're telling people you, you are shutting down. Whether it's

00:32:06.320 justified or not, you are doing this. You are taking people's money. That's their money they

00:32:11.000 have in the first place. You know, we're, we're the ones supporting the system. It's our, our money,

00:32:14.620 give it back to us. And I don't want to hear that we can't afford it. You know, billions of dollars

00:32:19.920 are wasted every, billions are wasted every year on, on programs and agencies and, and initiatives

00:32:27.160 and everything that are entirely superfluous and that exist only to provide money and income to

00:32:32.260 federal employees. Get rid of those. What about all the foreign aid we're sending everywhere to 0.99

00:32:37.460 other countries? Well, we need that now. We need the foreign aid. We need aid for ourselves.

00:32:41.100 You know, maybe instead of sending a, you know, a $3 billion in cash to some other country,

00:32:48.120 some foreign government, maybe give it to your own people. We've got military bases all across

00:32:53.860 the globe. Maybe shut a few of those down. I mean, there's, there's plenty of money out there.

00:32:59.960 The government makes $4 trillion a year, $4 trillion, and they waste most of it.

00:33:06.400 They could afford, and when I say they, I mean, we could afford to give checks of

00:33:13.400 much more than $1,200 to everybody.

00:33:20.200 All right, let's go to, uh, headlines. I said, this would be a low Corona show,

00:33:26.160 but I've talked about coronavirus for 30 minutes. So you can't trust me,

00:33:31.180 especially when I get emotional, I start screaming. You never know when it's going to end.

00:33:36.400 But, um, I am going to try to at least give you five headlines that have nothing to do with

00:33:39.640 coronavirus. I will try to do that. So these are five non-Corona headlines. I'm a man of my word,

00:33:45.400 partially at least. I'm partially a man of my word. Um, okay. So five non-Corona headlines.

00:33:50.600 There are other things happening in the world. Okay. It's not just this. Number one headline,

00:33:55.800 Oprah Winfrey has not been arrested for sex trafficking. This is, this is a headline because

00:34:02.400 there was a rumor online that Oprah Winfrey has been arrested on sex trafficking charges.

00:34:05.600 Turns out that was just a rumor was made up by a 4chan or somebody. And, um, she sent out a tweet

00:34:11.120 yesterday saying, no, I haven't been arrested on sex trafficking charges. So it turns out that she

00:34:14.780 hasn't been. That's the story. I guess every single headline could just be famous people who were

00:34:22.700 not arrested on sex trafficking charges. Um, headline number two, Nick Nolte has not been

00:34:32.320 arrested on sex trafficking charges. No, uh, reading now from the daily wire, Marvel comics is

00:34:37.960 finally debuting. It's long promised non-binary superhero as part of their new warriors reboot.

00:34:42.620 And, uh, the name of this individual is snowflake, an obvious jab at transphobic detractors bounding

00:34:50.320 into comics, uh, revealed their trailer for the Marvel's new warriors reboot earlier this week,

00:34:55.400 and both snowflake and their twin safe space feature prominently. The original new warriors

00:35:01.900 debuted in the early 1990s as a selection of rebel mutants, somewhat junior to the more experienced

00:35:06.580 Avengers. They came along at a time when Marvel was trying to retool a number of its characters

00:35:10.760 for a younger audience used to edgier, more relevant stories. And so now we're going to have

00:35:15.480 a non-binary superhero. I'm glad that look in the middle of everything that's happening. I, at least 1.00

00:35:22.680 Marvel is working on the important thing. This, this is what we need in these times. I hear from people

00:35:30.040 all the time. So many American workers are saying, I'm out of work. How do I feed my family? What I need

00:35:38.240 is a non-binary superhero. And so I'm glad that Marvel is answering that call. Number three,

00:35:44.460 according to the mirror reputable publication, a herd of elephants have broken into a home in a village

00:35:49.580 and gotten drunk on whiskey. That's it. It's a headline. Okay. That's like you want to note and

00:35:57.660 you wanted non Corona news. This is, this is, this is what you get. Number four, a pig in England

00:36:03.200 swallowed a pedometer. That's one of those, a step tracking things like a Fitbit. He was given a

00:36:08.040 Fitbit, I guess, so that he could get his fat butt into shape. But as gluttonous as pigs tend to be, 0.99

00:36:13.260 he, he ate it, pooped it out. And then, uh, and then it started a fire after it came out of his,

00:36:21.140 out of his butt. So that happened in England fire because of a pig. I, I get, I get, I tried. That's, 1.00

00:36:29.000 that's all I got. I can't even do five. That's all I could find. That's really, I spent hours

00:36:33.260 scavenging through the internet to find five stories. I had nothing to do with coronavirus.

00:36:38.840 And that's all I could find actually only three because the elephants who got drunk,

00:36:42.200 that happened because they broke in, they broke out of a preserve or a zoo or something

00:36:46.240 when the country was locked down. I don't know. I didn't actually read the whole story, but, uh,

00:36:50.480 so I gave you three. All right. This has been a successful segment. That's why I'm a professional.

00:36:55.580 Now let's move on to your daily cancellation. And I, I, you know, I, I figure it's a very

00:36:59.700 difficult week. Let's end on a positive note. So I'm going to, I'm going to, what I'm going to do

00:37:04.040 here, and this is a first may never happen again. Um, but I am going to, I'm going to reverse cancel

00:37:10.820 someone. This is the opposite of canceling. This is bestowing an honor rather than heaping scorn on

00:37:17.660 someone. And, uh, what I want to do is I want to recognize a great achievement, a great artistic

00:37:22.420 achievement. It is, it is Corona related, but I think it's worth it to see this. You'll, you'll

00:37:27.100 enjoy it. The department of health actually has put out a PSA about the outbreak, very helpful PSA.

00:37:33.060 And though it's a little bit aggressive, frankly, it also is a work of art. I believe, uh, maybe one

00:37:38.120 of the great governmental PSAs of all time. Take, take a listen to this.

00:37:42.200 Move, you got coronavirus. Oh, you got coronavirus. We ain't finna do this coronavirus. I ain't

00:37:48.580 finna take a trip with this coronavirus. Move, you got coronavirus. You got coronavirus. We 1.00

00:38:00.200 aint finna take a trip with this coronavirus. I'ma chill at the crib cause I'm safe here.

00:38:05.600 I ain't even about to drink me a Corona beer. I'm about to stay at the crib for about a year

00:38:10.300 and i ain't coming back out until this clear i done bought me a mask and a lot of gloves

00:38:15.520 and i still feel like that it's not enough i ain't shaking no hands i don't want a hug

00:38:20.460 make sure you wash your hands with a lot of love so if you got that cv they gonna find you 1.00

00:38:25.460 if you coughing i ain't trying to be around you i ain't even trying to stand beside or behind you

00:38:30.560 i'm gonna try to help them mother find you there you go i believe the lyrics were written by dr

00:38:37.540 fauci that's from what i read if you got that cv they gonna find you dr fauci circa march 2020

00:38:44.940 direct quote now actually credit where it's due that was written by the rapper and poet uh g mac cash

00:38:50.860 which may be dr fauci's rapper name i don't know nobody knows it's a mystery all i can say is that

00:38:57.780 it's good to see you know there are so many great things about this and and you know frankly that's 0.79

00:39:02.680 my jam as the kids would say that's lit dead ass okay um really made me want to raise the roof 0.90

00:39:10.020 frankly uh but all i can say is i think it's good to see hip-hop culture embracing snitching 0.92

00:39:17.000 at least as it pertains to diseases because you heard he said in the song you know if you if you

00:39:22.400 got if you got the cv if you got coronavirus i'm gonna tell them i'm gonna tell them other

00:39:26.460 efforts where to find you so if you commit a crime right if you kill someone if you sell drugs

00:39:31.880 we're not going to snitch that's where that is an occasion wherein the snitch will get the stitch 0.87

00:39:37.680 uh or the snitch will wind up in the ditch proverbially but if you're sick sorry bud you're

00:39:44.260 on your own that's and i appreciate that i appreciate the ethic there i'm not really sure what the ethic is

00:39:49.840 but i appreciate it anyway you know that ben shapiro always says that rap rap isn't music

00:39:56.220 well what do you say now ben what do you say now you think mozart composed anything that could

00:40:02.820 remotely compare to what you just listened to right there facts don't care about your feelings

00:40:08.200 neither does the coronavirus and we will leave it there i think you guys i think it's probably enough

00:40:14.920 um i hope you guys have a great weekend as great as it can be please do stay safe out there and um

00:40:21.780 god bless and godspeed

00:40:24.200 if you enjoyed this episode don't forget to subscribe and if you want to help spread the

00:40:31.160 word please give us a five-star review tell your friends to subscribe as well we're available on apple

00:40:35.480 podcasts spotify wherever you listen to podcasts we're there also be sure to check out the other daily

00:40:40.520 wire podcasts including the ben shapiro show michael knowles show and the andrew clavin show

00:40:44.760 thanks for listening the matt wall show is produced by sean hampton executive producer jeremy boring

00:40:50.100 supervising producer mathis glover supervising producer robert sterling technical producer austin

00:40:55.740 stevens editor danny domico audio mixer robin fenderson the matt wall show is a daily wire production

00:41:02.500 copyright daily wire 2020 if you prefer facts over feelings aren't offended by the brutal truth and you

00:41:08.420 can still laugh at the insanity filling our national news cycle well tune in to the ben shapiro show

00:41:12.980 we'll get a whole lot of that and much more see you there

The Matt Walsh Show - March 20, 2020

Ep. 449 - We Need Answers

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