Friday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon broadcasted interviews with Joe Lonsdale, Rep. Jodey Arrington, Rep. Beth Van Duyne, and David Trulio from the first annual Reagan National Economic Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. *** First, they discuss the future of AI technology and populism with Joe Lonsdale, the founder/managing partner of 8VC and one of the original founders of Palantir. “I think a lot of us wanted a competitor to Davos that had a different point of view, maybe a more freedom-oriented World Economic Forum,” Lonsdale said. Carl Cannon asks: “If AI puts 80 million Americans out of work, how would populism survive such a thing?” “That depends on how quickly that happens and what happens alongside it,” Lonsdale said. “We’re looking at some beautiful farmland outside. In the old days, it took twenty times as many people on those farms. I think we’re all happy that’s not the case.” “If you want to attack us arrogant tech guys, you might say productivity hasn’t gone up at all in the last 30 years. You think you’re changing everything, but you’re just distracting people,” he said. “There’s a give and take, where you don’t want everyone out of work at once, but you really need productivity to go up.” *** After that, at timestamp 10:30, they speak with Texas GOP Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, about how he shepherded Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful” bill to pass the House. “It was the most challenging endeavor of my political career,” Arrington said. “Reminding folks that no faction or caucus is going to get everything they want. I’m a budget hawk, you can’t cut enough spending for me. I know we’re borrowing $ 6 billion a day, and that will double in ten years. I know we’re spending more to service the debt than we are for national defense.” “But to achieve almost $ 1.7 trillion, which is twice the largest spending cut in the history of our country, is a start,” he said. “We won’t crawl out of this debt hole in one reconciliation bill. We’re going to have to rinse and repeat this process for years and decades to come.” “You’ve got to work on both the numerator and denominator when it comes to our nation’s fiscal health,” he said. “I’m talking about debt-to-GDP, which is at World War II levels right now. The major focus of this bill was on growth, with a minor focus on fiscal reforms.” “If Trump does the job I believe he will and holds discretionary spending at least flat, that’s another $ 1.5 trillion in spending reduction. We are bending the curve on the deficit, overall with the reconciliation bill, absent tariff revenue, we bring the debt-to-GDP down by 10%, mainly because we’re going to be growing faster than we’re taking on debt or inflation,” he said. “It’s an important and meaningful step, but we’ve got to do more.” *** Next, at minute 25, they interview Rep. Beth Van Duyne, from the 24th district of Texas, about President Trump’s China policy and political dysfunction in Washington, DC. “We gave China the opportunity several decades ago to play fair, to have access to our markets and businesses, and they’ve taken advantage of it,” Rep. Van Duyne said. “They stole our IP, infiltrated our universities, and have taken every advantage to move businesses to China. President Trump is correct to say we have to get control of this sooner rather than later.” “Trump is playing chess, not checkers,” she said. “Four years goes by really fast.” “The tariff play is not just for China, but is an overall strategy to be able to combat China. It’s not just China we’re dealing with, it is their influence around the globe.” *** Finally, at minute 36, they speak to David Trulio, the president and CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, on findings from a new RNEF poll on public attitudes about the economy. “There are surprises to get into, but we saw the sort of stereotypical partisan split on regulation and energy abundance,” he explained. “But there are some pleasantly surprising areas of agreement in the survey. An overwhelming majority of Americans, 76%, believe as President Reagan did that ‘Government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem.’ And that included majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and independents.” “An overwhelming majority, 86%, support free trade agreements with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam to counter China, and that included 87% of Trump voters,” he continued. “So the notion that ‘America First’ means America alone is not borne out by the data.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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