Verdict with Ted Cruz - It's a Wel-fraud Wonderland, Industrial-Scale Theft in Minnesota & GDP Boom vs. Media Gloom Week In Review

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.620 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.380 Welcome.

00:00:05.080 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:00:06.720 Week in review.

00:00:08.000 Ben Ferguson with you.

00:00:09.100 And here are some of the big stories that you may have missed as you were celebrating

00:00:12.400 Christmas with your family and your friends.

00:00:15.180 First up, Wall Street Journal is now reporting there's massive fraud in the U.S. government.

00:00:21.420 Like we didn't see that coming.

00:00:23.360 But they're even admitting now it's worse than you could ever imagine.

00:00:27.100 We'll have the details of that for you in just a moment.

00:00:31.040 Also, Minnesota fraud costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

00:00:36.660 And what we're also being told is the fraud, well, it's not going away anytime soon.

00:00:42.260 So how do we stop it?

00:00:43.880 We'll explain that as well.

00:00:45.520 And finally, the media and the liberals got it wrong.

00:00:49.340 Economic data looking great for the GDP report.

00:00:53.240 And the media is now downplaying it, trying to act like it never even happened.

00:00:58.320 It's the Week in Review.

00:00:59.600 And it starts right now.

00:01:01.760 All right, Senator, I want to move to another part of this story.

00:01:04.980 And it's bigger than Minnesota.

00:01:07.040 We were talking about the fraud there.

00:01:08.420 But the Wall Street Journal came out with a very interesting report.

00:01:11.180 And I think it's worth us taking a moment to talk about it.

00:01:13.900 It's the biggest fraud in welfare.

00:01:16.000 And it just talks about how much abuse there is in the welfare system that's costing hundreds of billions of dollars to American taxpayers.

00:01:25.400 Well, and in particular, what it talks about is bogus bookkeeping that covers it up.

00:01:30.840 And this is an op-ed that was written by Phil Graham and John Early.

00:01:34.120 Phil Graham was previously senator from the state of Texas.

00:01:37.480 He's an economist.

00:01:38.320 Phil is a good friend of mine.

00:01:39.380 And it's an important op-ed that he wrote December 17th in the journal.

00:01:44.540 It's entitled, The Biggest Fraud in Welfare.

00:01:46.200 The government gives tens of thousands of dollars in benefits to the poor, which it doesn't count as income.

00:01:52.760 And so this is, in some ways, an accounting story.

00:01:55.260 And please don't go to sleep right now, particularly if you're driving.

00:01:57.660 Don't go to sleep.

00:01:58.880 It is an accounting story that matters.

00:02:01.640 So here's what Phil Graham wrote.

00:02:03.200 Something is profoundly wrong with the U.S. welfare system, a problem that runs far deeper and is more dangerous than the shocking fraud in Minnesota that has been making headlines.

00:02:13.160 Across the past half century, America has seen what in any other country would be considered a golden age, in which lower-income households have made incredible progress.

00:02:22.980 Despite the end of our post-war economic dominance around 1975, the country's real per capita gross domestic product grew by 142% from 1974 to 2024.

00:02:39.260 More than two-thirds of U.S. households have inflation-adjusted incomes today that would have put them in the top one-fifth of households in 1967.

00:02:48.660 So, used to be the top one-fifth of households in 1967.

00:02:53.160 Today, more than two-thirds of U.S. households have inflation that would put them there.

00:02:58.400 62% of all children who grew up in the poorest fifth of all households in the 70s and 80s worked their way up to a higher income bracket as adults, some all the way up to the top quintile.

00:03:10.540 Yet, even as our economy has experienced broad-based growth, real federal welfare spending has soared by, what do you think the number is?

00:03:21.260 I'm going to guess 70%.

00:03:23.420 765%.

00:03:26.960 More than twice as fast as total federal spending and now costs $1.4 trillion annually.

00:03:37.960 Incredible.

00:03:38.440 Were that money simply to be doled out evenly to the 19.8 million families the government defines as poor, each household, how much do you think each household would receive a year if you just took all the welfare payments and sent a check to each household?

00:03:54.240 Directly.

00:03:55.220 Yeah.

00:03:55.960 Yeah, I mean, I'm going to guess in the thousands.

00:03:59.840 More than $70,000 a year.

00:04:03.540 Tell me that's not a perfect example of government waste when you can just send direct checks of $70,000 a year to people.

00:04:13.220 The source of this dramatic mismatch is a fraud built into how various programs determine welfare eligibility.

00:04:20.180 The government doesn't count any refundable tax credits or benefits that aren't paid in cash as income to the recipients.

00:04:27.740 Some claim this is appropriate because the beneficiaries aren't free to spend non-cash benefits on whatever they like.

00:04:34.520 But that is a specious argument because money is fungible.

00:04:38.000 Receiving Medicaid, for example, frees up cash that would otherwise be spent on health care, allowing the recipients to spend the newly freed cash on other things.

00:04:46.200 Non-cash benefits aren't in the end that different from income, except that salaries are taxed while government benefits aren't.

00:04:52.540 And if individual welfare programs often don't even count benefits paid in cash as income for the purposes of gauging eligibility,

00:05:01.780 the government's failure to count its largesse as the recipient's income allows welfare households to blow past the income level above which a working family no longer qualifies for government help.

00:05:14.480 Take a single parent with two school-age children who earns $11,000 annually from part-time work.

00:05:20.020 The government considers this household in poverty because its income is below $25,273.

00:05:26.300 But this family would qualify for benefits worth $53,128.

00:05:34.540 It would receive treasury checks of $3,400 in refundable tax credits and $4,400 in refundable earned income tax credits.

00:05:42.980 It would also receive food stamp debit cards worth $9,216 a year, $9,476 in housing subsidies, $877 in government payments for utility bills, $16,033 to fund Medicaid, $3,102 in free meals at schools,

00:06:00.860 and $6,624 in temporary assistance for needy families, all this puts the family's income at $64,128 or 254% of the poverty level.

00:06:15.540 And look, the point, Phil Graham goes on on this.

00:06:17.300 But the point is, when they're measuring income, they exclude all the welfare and benefits that are going down,

00:06:24.580 and then they measure income and said, look how poor people are, without counting the money that is going out the door.

00:06:31.200 And by the way, this also contributes to the massive fraud we saw in Minnesota,

00:06:35.980 because the Democrats and the federal government and state government are just focusing on shoveling cash out the door.

00:06:43.840 And they're not focusing on how do you actually ensure any accountability, or even more importantly, how do you get people off welfare?

00:06:54.120 Look, one of my favorite phrases is that the social safety net should be a trampoline and not a hammock.

00:07:02.300 And by that, what it means is, listen, many people get down on their luck, they need help.

00:07:10.400 But the entire focus should be to get you back on your feet.

00:07:14.420 The entire focus should be to spring you out of the safety net and get you where you're working, where you have a job,

00:07:21.720 where you're providing for your own family.

00:07:24.000 You know, there's a dignity to work.

00:07:26.380 You look at families that are trapped in generational poverty, one generation after another after another,

00:07:32.300 and you lose the self-respect.

00:07:36.480 You know, one of the amazing successes of welfare reform, one of the amazing successes of the first term of Trump,

00:07:42.960 that saw over 7 million people go off food stamps and go into the workforce.

00:07:50.020 Is that 7 million people that get to experience the dignity of work?

00:07:56.140 I mean, that's literally a single mom who comes home from her job and is carrying two bags of groceries and puts those groceries on the kitchen table. 0.98

00:08:06.320 And she looks at her kids, and she has the self-respect of knowing, hey, I'm providing for you.

00:08:12.060 And the kids look at her and know that my mom is providing for you.

00:08:16.280 Look, God created mankind, I believe, to work and to be productive and to make a difference and to provide for your family.

00:08:24.740 And this welfare machine that the left is so invested in traps people in dependency,

00:08:33.040 and you're not doing anyone a favor by making them dependent on government.

00:08:38.020 Instead, you're sapping them of the path to the American dream.

00:08:43.140 Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation, you can go back and listen to the full podcast from earlier this week.

00:08:50.600 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:08:52.760 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:08:56.860 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:09:00.620 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:09:01.780 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:09:03.000 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:09:06.780 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:09:12.200 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:09:15.720 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:09:21.600 Now on to story number two.

00:09:23.780 Senator, there's another big story that I want to get to, and that is the out-of-control fraud.

00:09:27.720 We have now got a number, and it could go higher.

00:09:30.980 At least $9 billion was looted from the Minnesota Medicaid programs.

00:09:36.000 Plus, there was welfare fraud as well, and a bombshell report coming from the Wall Street Journal.

00:09:42.140 This does not look good for the governor there.

00:09:44.420 And a lot of mayors have now sent him a letter saying, we are in trouble, and it's your fault.

00:09:50.200 Look, the level of fraud we're seeing, welfare Medicaid fraud in Minnesota, is staggering.

00:09:56.960 It is an order of magnitude greater than we've seen.

00:10:01.120 And here are the basic facts.

00:10:05.500 Federal prosecutors alleged Thursday that Minnesota may have lost billions of dollars to fraud in its Medicaid program.

00:10:12.740 The latest development in an ongoing investigation.

00:10:14.880 As much as half, half, 50% of the roughly $18 billion Minnesota has spent since 2018 on 14 Medicaid programs, particularly vulnerable to abuse, may have been siphoned off by fraudsters, according to U.S. Assistant Attorney Joe Thompson.

00:10:34.380 Thompson made the remarks as prosecutors announced additional charges in the ongoing investigation of the staggering industrial-scale fraud engulfing the state.

00:10:47.960 Quote, the fraud is not small.

00:10:50.160 It isn't isolated.

00:10:51.620 The magnitude cannot be overstated.

00:10:54.760 What we see in Minnesota is not a handful of bad actors committing crimes.

00:10:59.300 It's a staggering industrial-scale fraud.

00:11:02.760 It's swamping Minnesota and calling into question everything we know about our state.

00:11:09.400 The level of it, half of Medicaid for years, that's in Minnesota.

00:11:15.500 By the way, if you watch the corporate media, you've seen very little about this.

00:11:19.280 They don't want to cover this at all because it is the complicity of the Democrats in office.

00:11:25.540 And understand, Minnesota is a one-party state.

00:11:27.760 It is governed by Democrats.

00:11:29.180 Democrats are in charge.

00:11:30.620 They look the other way.

00:11:31.820 Why did they look the other way? 0.96

00:11:33.220 Well, much of this fraud was carried out by Somalis. 1.00

00:11:36.140 We covered in a previous verdict how the single largest contributor to al-Shabaab.

00:11:43.080 Al-Shabaab is a radical Islamist terrorist organization in Somalia.

00:11:48.360 The single largest contributor to al-Shabaab are the Minnesota taxpayers.

00:11:52.120 That's the level of the theft that went on.

00:11:57.300 And Democrats, elected Democrats, in Minnesota, they happily looked the other way.

00:12:01.900 Why?

00:12:02.220 Because they were buying votes.

00:12:03.720 And you know what?

00:12:04.360 If they actually watched the taxpayer dollars and didn't let the criminals steal it,

00:12:08.760 well, somebody might be upset if they had even the tiniest modicum of scrutiny.

00:12:14.200 It is shocking.

00:12:15.620 Well, and you know what?

00:12:16.900 You mentioned something a moment ago, and that is that the media has not been touching this.

00:12:19.900 Luckily, local media has.

00:12:21.980 CBS, for example, locally in Minnesota, they did a report on this that was just kind of

00:12:28.440 throwing their hands up in the air like, this is so egregious.

00:12:32.040 We need you to know the national media, completely silent, no accountability for the governor there

00:12:39.560 or those in leadership under him.

00:12:41.320 I want to play this for people.

00:12:42.840 This is, again, the local CBS affiliate there talking about the fraud crisis.

00:12:46.500 Take a listen.

00:12:48.220 Minnesota's fraud crisis is growing.

00:12:50.620 Today, prosecutors charge more people for billing the state for social services they did not provide.

00:12:55.600 The federal prosecutor says it's possible half or more of the $18 billion billed to 14 programs since 2018 is fraudulent.

00:13:05.140 We have team coverage, starting with Jonah Kaplan, with more on what we've learned about these latest charges.

00:13:09.680 Jonah, so we've gone from maybe a billion dollars to possibly $9 billion or more?

00:13:15.080 Well, we've heard from the new U.S. attorney, Frank, that we're not even at the end of the beginning of this investigation,

00:13:21.400 and now we know why.

00:13:23.100 Feeding our future was just the tip of the iceberg.

00:13:26.600 The fraud is not small.

00:13:29.100 It isn't isolated.

00:13:31.040 The magnitude cannot be overstated.

00:13:32.920 Prosecutors on Thursday indicting six people, including one already charged in another case.

00:13:38.280 The five new defendants are all accused of defrauding a state program meant to provide housing assistance to the disabled

00:13:44.500 and those dealing with addiction.

00:13:46.680 Two people charged aren't even from here.

00:13:48.580 According to officials, Anthony Jefferson and Lester Brown came from Philadelphia to Minnesota,

00:13:53.940 looking for an opportunity to make money.

00:13:56.060 They set up two fake companies and collected $3.5 million.

00:14:00.380 This is an instance of what's essentially fraud tourism.

00:14:05.320 Mr. Jefferson and Brown were residents of Philadelphia who had no connection to Minnesota,

00:14:10.880 except for they heard that Minnesota and its housing stabilization services program was easy money.

00:14:16.980 The state already cut off the housing stabilization program because of suspected fraud,

00:14:21.780 but it's one of 14 social programs now under federal investigation.

00:14:25.860 Together, they billed $18 billion since 2018.

00:14:29.360 We asked how much could have been fraud.

00:14:31.160 You know, I don't make these generalizations in a hasty way,

00:14:35.320 so when I say a significant amount, I'm talking in the order of half or more, but we'll see.

00:14:39.760 One of the new indictments accuses a fraudster of exploiting a program to help children with autism.

00:14:45.060 Court documents say Abdi Najib Hassan Youssef used some of the $6 million he stole to buy a Freightliner semi-truck.

00:14:52.460 Governor Walz, in a statement, said he applauds the new indictment, saying, quote,

00:14:57.480 this is exactly the type of strong action we need from prosecutors to ensure fraudsters are put behind bars.

00:15:04.060 Frank, this is not going away anytime soon.

00:15:06.660 I love the end there.

00:15:08.660 Frank, this is not going away anytime soon.

00:15:11.280 Well, if Democrats have their way and the governor, this will just be like a one-time report,

00:15:15.560 and then we just move on, and hey, if it goes from $9 billion to $12 billion or $15 billion,

00:15:19.940 who knows where the number could end?

00:15:21.260 And that was what they were referring to there at CBS Local.

00:15:23.460 They're like, hey, we went from $1 billion to $9 billion, and that may not be the final number.

00:15:30.860 Well, and Tim Walz says he applauds the indictments.

00:15:33.640 Well, my question is, where was Tim Walz?

00:15:36.200 Where was the governor?

00:15:37.580 He was like, where's Waldo?

00:15:39.540 He was popping up everywhere he could.

00:15:41.220 He was following Kamala Harris on the campaign trail, but he was not actually doing his job as governor.

00:15:46.700 And listen, there is a political reason.

00:15:49.180 And, Ben, I'm going to make a prediction right now.

00:15:51.880 I love it when you do this, because usually you're right, so pay attention, everyone.

00:15:55.960 As horrific as this fraud is in Minnesota, and it is staggering, it is historically bad,

00:16:01.960 I'm going to make a prediction that it is worse, that there is even more fraud in New York, California, and Illinois.

00:16:11.940 So you don't believe this is an isolated incident to there.

00:16:15.200 Follow the money.

00:16:16.440 I do not.

00:16:17.420 I think in bright blue states, where the Democrats control all of the levers of government, all of the machinery,

00:16:25.360 I think the same incentives that cause the Democrat politicians in Minnesota to try to buy votes by allowing people to rob the taxpayers blind,

00:16:35.100 I think those exact same incentives are playing out in New York, I think those exact same incentives are playing out in Illinois,

00:16:41.400 and I think those exact same incentives are playing out in California.

00:16:44.700 So I'm calling on the Trump administration to audit.

00:16:48.180 Audit every state, but start with the big blue states, because I think that is where you are most likely to find.

00:16:55.640 Find the fraud where the pattern is the same.

00:16:58.760 And I got to tell you, people like Gavin Newsom are sweating right now.

00:17:03.300 They don't want anyone looking at the fraud in California, because the incentives are identical,

00:17:10.800 and I suspect you're going to see the very same pattern playing out over and over and over again.

00:17:17.460 You know, you mentioned that they don't want you looking.

00:17:19.760 There was a very interesting playbook.

00:17:21.420 When Democrats get in trouble, they usually just start playing the race card, throwing down the race card.

00:17:25.480 Tim Waltz had a press conference, and he was asked about the fraud in the Somali community,

00:17:29.460 the money going back to the terrorist organization al-Shabaab, and how much just total pure corruption there was.

00:17:36.960 And then he was asked about ICE raids in Minnesota.

00:17:40.120 He's obviously against that.

00:17:41.740 They are a welcoming state, as he describes it.

00:17:44.180 They're a sanctuary state.

00:17:46.020 And what Tim Waltz had to say back, it really did kind of make me laugh, because it's so predictable,

00:17:51.720 and yet it's the classic playbook they've been using.

00:17:54.260 You question them on anything they get wrong. 0.98

00:17:56.120 They're like, oh, well, you're a racist, a bigot, a homophobe, xenophobe, the list goes on and on. 0.98

00:17:59.820 Well, now it's white supremacy if you actually enforce the law of the land with illegal immigrants in a state. 0.98

00:18:06.540 Here's how he put it, Tim Waltz, in Minnesota.

00:18:09.240 So this is what happens when your own federal government wages war against you.

00:18:14.920 This is what happens when they target communities for their own benefit.

00:18:18.360 This is what happens when they scapegoat.

00:18:20.100 And this is what happens when they no longer hide the idea of white supremacy,

00:18:24.300 when you hear the vice president of the United States talk about now white people won't have to apologize for being white. 0.99

00:18:29.800 That's never happened once in my whole damn life. 0.98

00:18:32.660 And I think everybody in this room knows what they're doing. 0.98

00:18:35.320 So we're here today to say enough of this.

00:18:38.040 We're here today to stand that Minnesota will protect their neighbors.

00:18:41.500 Minnesota will protect their neighbors.

00:18:42.920 And this is what happens when they target.

00:18:46.120 Yeah, and rob them blind.

00:18:47.260 Nine billion that we know of, right?

00:18:49.300 And he says, we're not going to allow them to hide the idea of white supremacy when you hear the vice president.

00:18:55.240 I mean, this is the classic Democratic playbook.

00:18:58.140 Don't look at what I'm doing. 0.98

00:18:59.700 I'm going to yell you're a racist. 0.95

00:19:01.180 Like, he has literally overseen the biggest recorded fraud in U.S. government history. 0.92

00:19:09.000 Not just a fraud on the taxpayers that defrauded the taxpayers of Minnesota, that defrauded the taxpayers of every state, federal taxpayers,

00:19:17.480 but also that saw the federal tax dollars diverted to illegal immigrants, to Somalis, who sent it to Al-Shabaab, a radical Islamic terror organization.

00:19:30.900 So it's fraud funding Islamist terror. 0.51

00:19:34.880 And what is Tim Walz's response to scream white supremacy, white supremacy?

00:19:40.320 At some point, those talking points get a little tired, and it's a clear and transparent effort just to avoid any accountability and to avoid being held responsible for what he allowed to happen.

00:19:55.200 As before, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation on this topic, you can go back and download the podcast from earlier this week to hear the entire thing.

00:20:03.480 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

00:20:10.640 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:20:14.360 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:20:15.540 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:20:16.760 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:20:20.540 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:20:26.260 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:20:29.240 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:20:35.360 I want to get back to the big story, number three of the week you may have missed.

00:20:39.940 Senator, there was a Christmas gift that was given to all Americans.

00:20:44.000 It didn't matter if you're rich or poor.

00:20:45.420 It didn't matter if you were black or white or Hispanic or anything else in between.

00:20:49.380 We got some new economic data.

00:20:52.140 And it was, I tell you what, if there's anybody that had coal in their stocking, it was the media.

00:20:56.700 There was an article that came out by the New York Times predicting the complete opposite of what GDP reports showed. 1.00

00:21:03.740 Of course, they're not going to retract it, but they do look like idiots. 1.00

00:21:06.660 And again, you've got to ask yourself this question. 1.00

00:21:09.120 Are they really willing and wanting to hurt Americans?

00:21:12.260 They want Americans to suffer just so Donald Trump looks bad?

00:21:15.340 Because that's what their reporting seems to look like.

00:21:17.660 Well, listen, the news that broke just this week is the economy is booming, that the latest GDP numbers show 4.3% GDP growth, which is terrific GDP growth.

00:21:30.880 And let me read from the Wall Street Journal.

00:21:32.660 Consumers power strongest U.S. economic growth in two years.

00:21:36.920 A long-delayed government report shows third-quarter GDP grew at an annual 4.3% rate.

00:21:44.500 Robust spending by U.S. consumers drove greater-than-expected economic expansion in the third quarter,

00:21:49.840 and the strongest growth rate in two years.

00:21:52.920 Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced across the economy,

00:21:58.080 rose at a seasonally and inflationally adjusted 4.3% annual rate from July through September, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

00:22:07.760 The report was delayed nearly two months by the government shutdown,

00:22:11.140 and looks back at the period before the shutdown was in effect.

00:22:14.920 It does, however, offer a snapshot of an economy that has managed to keep humming along for much of the year.

00:22:21.940 Growth picked up from 3.8% in the previous corner,

00:22:26.520 and easily beat the 3.2% forecast among economists polled by the Wall Street Journal.

00:22:32.780 That's big, by the way.

00:22:34.700 It's over a point higher than expectations.

00:22:38.180 That's a big deal.

00:22:39.520 As the Journal said, it was the strongest expansion since the third quarter of 2023.

00:22:44.600 Rising consumer spending was partly driven by health care, including outpatient services,

00:22:48.740 and at hospitals and nursing homes.

00:22:50.900 International travel, legal services, and spending on products like personal computers and software also contributed.

00:22:58.620 Artificial intelligence-related spending helped, too,

00:23:02.000 though the pace of growth appeared to cool from the second quarter.

00:23:05.520 Overall, business investment growth slowed to 2.8% in the third quarter,

00:23:09.920 from 7.3% in the prior three months.

00:23:13.180 This is great news.

00:23:15.160 And listen, when GDP is booming, what that means is it means there's more jobs.

00:23:21.220 It means there's more productivity.

00:23:23.100 It means the stock market is going up.

00:23:25.220 It means 401ks are going up.

00:23:27.680 It means wages are likely to rise.

00:23:30.000 And so GDP growth, it's not always immediate.

00:23:33.180 Are there still people struggling?

00:23:34.840 Yes.

00:23:35.180 But GDP growth is driven.

00:23:37.860 And I'll tell you, one of the things we're seeing is the Christmas spending numbers are very, very strong.

00:23:43.680 And so that's one of the signs of consumer confidence, that if you're worried,

00:23:47.480 if you're scared about not being able to pay your rent or your mortgage,

00:23:51.160 then you don't necessarily go out and do some big shopping for Christmas time.

00:23:55.720 We saw the record-breaking numbers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

00:24:00.140 And that was as the Democrats were saying that we were in a tailspin,

00:24:03.180 and this was a disaster of an economy,

00:24:05.420 and they were trying to say Donald Trump is ruining your Christmas.

00:24:08.080 I'm like, well, the data says that people, as you just mentioned,

00:24:11.860 they're going out and spinning at record numbers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

00:24:15.360 So that tells me that someone's lying.

00:24:18.780 That's exactly right.

00:24:20.240 And here, I want to show you, you talked about the press being dismayed.

00:24:25.060 And I got to say, the corporate media is utterly corrupt. 0.95

00:24:28.860 They are dishonest.

00:24:30.040 I just want to read to you two tweets.

00:24:33.040 The first tweet is from October 30th, 2024.

00:24:36.480 Now, what was happening right after October 30th, 2024?

00:24:40.140 The election, presidential.

00:24:42.120 There was a presidential election.

00:24:43.420 And who was president in October 2024, at least nominally?

00:24:46.360 Well, the auto pen, but if you're an actual person with a heartbeat, we'll go with Joe Biden.

00:24:50.920 Okay, so here's what ABC News tweeted.

00:24:53.720 Tweeted, October 30th, 2024, one week before the presidential election.

00:24:59.700 Just in, the U.S. economy grew at a robust 2.8% annualized rate in the third quarter,

00:25:07.060 slowing slightly from the previous quarter,

00:25:08.840 but continuing to dispel any concern about a possible shutdown.

00:25:14.240 This report comes just ahead of the presidential election.

00:25:17.600 All right, so that was a year ago.

00:25:19.460 Now, that was 2.8%.

00:25:20.720 What do you think ABC News said about 4.3%?

00:25:26.700 What was it?

00:25:28.800 Just in.

00:25:29.720 The U.S. economy expanded more than economists expected over a recent three-month period,

00:25:36.400 recording robust growth despite concerns about sluggish hiring and cash-strapped shoppers,

00:25:42.700 federal government data showed.

00:25:44.200 So, 2.8% is robust and fantastic, and yay.

00:25:49.900 4.3%, well, we're really worried about sluggish hiring and cash-strapped shoppers,

00:25:54.920 and yeah, okay, I guess it is like almost twice as high, but damn it, we don't like those numbers. 0.92

00:26:00.700 That is not news, and I literally, whoever wrote that tweet should be fired. 0.95

00:26:06.280 Like, if ABC pretended to be a journalist, you'd say, okay, go work for the DNC because you want to be a partisan parrot.

00:26:17.300 That's who they are, and it's why people don't trust the news.

00:26:20.700 Now, I want you to listen to Kevin Hassett.

00:26:22.260 Kevin Hassett is the head of the National Economic Council in the White House.

00:26:25.720 Listen to Kevin talking about these recent GDP numbers.

00:26:28.800 You know, it's a fantastic report, 4.3%.

00:26:31.640 It's just about as good as GDP numbers get, and especially coming, you know, on the heels of the CPI report,

00:26:39.140 Consumer Price Index report we got, which you actually showed some interesting data that it's consistent with,

00:26:44.600 that showed that quarter inflation is all the way down to 1.6%.

00:26:47.780 And so I think that these numbers are showing that President Trump's trade policy and his supply-side policy,

00:26:54.840 which is really increasing new factory production and so on, is having a big effect, as is his trade policy.

00:27:01.360 So if we abstract from the reduction of the trade deficit, then the 4.3% number would only be 2.6%.

00:27:08.840 So Trump's trade policy is really working as well.

00:27:11.300 You know, as they mentioned trade policy, because that was one of the other big lies this year in 2025,

00:27:17.100 which is the shelves were going to be empty at Christmas.

00:27:19.700 The toys you wanted for your kids were going to be not on those shelves.

00:27:23.360 You're not going to be able to afford basic things.

00:27:25.180 Half of the store is going to be gone at Walmart and Target and Costco and Sam's Club.

00:27:29.700 None of that happened.

00:27:30.660 And they said there was going to be massive spikes in prices for everything that you couldn't afford.

00:27:36.380 Again, that didn't happen either.

00:27:38.260 While we collected record number of tariffs and cash, the President's trade deals seem to actually be working,

00:27:44.740 and the leverage seems to be working, and they don't want to admit that this has not been a disaster.

00:27:49.260 Well, listen, there's still some volatility when it comes to trade policy.

00:27:52.740 And as you know, I've been advocating that the President uses trade policy as leverage to open up foreign markets,

00:27:58.840 and he's been doing that.

00:28:00.100 That has been very, very successful.

00:28:01.960 This also underscores basic supply-side principles, that when you cut taxes, as we did,

00:28:07.360 and when you repeal job-killing regulations, as President Trump is doing,

00:28:11.440 it results in more investments, more jobs, and the economy is booming.

00:28:15.360 This is basic cause and effect.

00:28:17.340 As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you.

00:28:22.560 Don't forget to download my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast every other day

00:28:26.160 if you're not listening to Verdict, or each day when you listen to Verdict afterwards.

00:28:29.580 I'd love to have you as a listener to, again, the Ben Ferguson podcast,

00:28:33.100 and we will see you back here on Monday morning.

00:28:35.740 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:28:38.480 Guaranteed Human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - December 27, 2025

It's a Wel-fraud Wonderland, Industrial-Scale Theft in Minnesota & GDP Boom vs. Media Gloom Week In Review

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