The State of Our Union & An Interview with Gene Ho

Episode 42 Show Notes- The State of Our Union & An Interview with Gene Ho ║ The P.A.S. Report

Gene Ho with President Trump

Episode Description

This week, Professor Giordano gives his insight on the State of Our Union. Looking at the economy, as well as domestic and foreign affairs, Professor Giordano provides an honest analysis of the current health of the United States. He also explores what’s ahead for 2020. Gene Ho also drops by The P.A.S. Report to discuss his work with President Trump and his book, Trumpography. Visit The P.A.S. Report website, and be sure to sign up for The P.A.S. Report newsletter.

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Intro

Welcome to another episode of The PAS Report Podcast. This is your host Nick Giordano and I want to thank you for tuning in. I hope you’re having a great week.

There’s a lot going on this week and we are going to mix it up a little here at The P.A.S. Report. Usually, on Wednesdays, I provide my commentary on the critical issues impacting you, and I will still be providing these insights, but I also have a great guest coming up with Gene Ho. Gene was President Trump’s photographer throughout the campaign and he has really unique behind-the-scenes insights into the President. But before I introduce Gene, I want to provide some updates on important stories and issues.

Iowa Caucus

We had the Iowa Caucus on Monday night and what a disaster it turned out to be. Democrats have been complaining about Russian election interference and the sanctity of elections for the last three years so guess what these geniuses tried to do? They decided to have Caucus goers vote through an app. Needless to say, this was a dismal failure. If they really cared about the legitimacy of elections, why would they go with an app that can be subject to glitches, coding errors, and be hacked fairly easily? Making it worse, there are now reports that Clinton campaign officials were the ones that developed this app. Amazing how everything circles back to the Clintons. Do they want people to believe in conspiracy theories? Even when the results come out, everyone is going to question the legitimacy of the results. Especially if I am someone like Joe Biden and I had a poor showing.

This was sheer and utter incompetence and the Iowa voters are the ones who are now disenfranchised. These people can’t even run elections, but we are supposed to pretend that they can take over and run the entire healthcare system? Elections are not that complicated and they can’t even do that right. In any event, I will continue to monitor this story, but Democrats better hope this isn’t foreshadowing what’s about to come.

Impeachment Update

We also have the president being acquitted by the Senate which is anticipated to happen by Wednesday evening. This is not really a surprise and I predicted that it would end this way when Speaker Pelosi first announced impeachment. Once again, when you weaponize the impeachment process for partisan purposes, and you cannot clearly articulate the impeachable offenses, it’s a losing battle. You would think this would be a lesson to the imbecile Schiff and his ilk, but no, we are already hearing rumblings about a possible impeachment 2.0. If they try to impeach President trump again, I believe we will see the Democrats suffered in 2020. It will be humiliating. I think the American people are tired of this nonsense and want the elected officials to work together to solve problems.

State of the Union Address

The President is giving the State of the Union Address as required under Article 2, Section 3. For those of you that aren’t aware, the President has to give this speech before a joint session of Congress, and he lays out the past year’s accomplishments, and what he wants to achieve this upcoming year.

I have to be honest with you, I hate this speech. I don’t care who is giving it. But when the President speaks, we have to listen. The reason I despise this speech is that it lasts anywhere from a 1:20-1:45. If the President is Republican, all the Democrats sit there looking miserable. If the President is a Democrat, the Republicans look miserable. After nearly every line, the political party in power will stand and applaud. Why not just hold the applause until the end? They time the applause and it adds 20-30 minutes.

And everything is usually pie in the sky. You never hear a President say, “Wow, we really f’ed up that policy.” The policy provision they layout for the upcoming year is usually so grandiose and will never get done.

So, I am going to provide you with my analysis of the current State of the Union.

Economy

The economy appears to be firing on all cylinders. Unemployment is at all-time lows for every demographic. Wages and household income continue to increase. In 2015, the median income was $56,516 (CNN). In 2019, the median income rose to $63,688 (Seeking Alpha). That’s a 12% increase. Consumer confidence is at all-time highs. People’s 401(k)s and IRAs have been on fire.

The state of our economy seems to be strong, but what concerns me is our debt. Neither political has proposed any type of meaningful spending cuts or plans to begin to tackle the debt. Our debt is out of control $23.3 trillion dollars. We spend approximately $378 billion dollars in interest per year just to service the debt. The President has not really spoken about the debt to my disappointment. We are bankrupting the country. What’s worse is that you have candidates proposing programs with astronomical costs adding $3.2-$6 trillion dollars per year. It’s as if the debt doesn’t really exist. If we don’t start to put in fiscal restraints and reign in the debt, we will come to regret it. We either make moderate cuts now and feel some pain, or we will have to gut entire programs. And this will happen relatively soon. This is something that’s not 20, 30 or 50 years off.

Another thing that concerns me is GDP growth. GDP has been relatively sluggish over the last decade since the great recession. The last time we saw GDP growth over 3% was in 2005, and the last time we saw 4% growth was in 2000. (The Balance)

So, while the economy appears to be strong, there are issues we need to address.

Foreign Affairs

We have seen some major successes on the international front as well. We now have the USMCA which was long overdue, and we have a new agreement with China where they will be importing billions of dollars more of U.S. products. Not to mention trade deals with South Korea and Japan. These are clear victories, and we cannot underestimate their potential impact. And now that Britain is free from the European Union, we can potentially get another huge trade deal.

You have several major terrorist leaders that were killed. Hamza bin Laden of al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIS, and Qassem Soleimani of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard/Quds force. These targeted killings were huge and certainly hurt these organizations. In addition, secondary leaders were killed. These targeted attacks severely hampered their operational capabilities. However, we cannot take the threat lightly, and these organizations will continue their Jihad against the United States.

NATO members are now kicking in more.

However, there are still problems in the international arena. North Korea has not made any advancements towards denuclearization, and it appears there has been absolutely no movement. I said to my students for the last two years that I do not see North Korea giving up its nukes, and it appears I may be correct. It’s the one thing that prevents Kim Jong from losing power. While it’s certainly good news that North Korea has been less aggressive, I do fear they will ratchet it up soon.

As far as Iran, I think President Trump did the right thing by taking out Soleimani, and the sanctions have really hurt Iran. However, as the Iranian regime continues to become more desperate, I worry that they lash out and make a big miscalculation. I think we need to start applying more pressure on Russia and China to see if we can get some movement. We should also be supporting an opposition figure to the mullahs.

What really concerns me though, is South and Central America. South America continues to see civil unrest and I will be providing updates in the next week or two. We continue to ignore this unrest to our own detriment. As I have said before, it’s the one place we generate trade surpluses, and if South American countries continue to collapse, it will be a disaster on the Southern border.

We also continue to see the rise of the Cartels in Mexico gaining more and more power. The Mexican government has refused to work with the United States to combat the cartels. However, this is a national security issue that is having a major impact on the United States with 100% of meth being imported from Mexico, and 90% of Heroin and Fentanyl being imported. This is killing Americans to the tune of 73,000 people a year and no one seems to care.

Domestic Front

On the domestic front, for the first time in four years, life expectancy has slightly increased. Due to the opioid epidemic, life expectancy was dropping in the United States. This could be a sign that the opioid epidemic has peaked, and perhaps we are making a difference in the fight against addiction. At least, I hope so.

Criminal justice reform has granted thousands of Americans with a second chance. These Americans faced long prison sentences due to the Rockefeller laws of the 1980s during the crack epidemic. Many believed that these harsh penalties did not match the crime. Alice Marie Johnson has become the face of criminal justice reform and illustrates that second chances can lead to productive citizens. While criminal justice reform has been pushed under the previous two administrations, it was President Trump who was able to bridge the divide and get it done.

Opportunity Zones is also another success that gets little to no attention. In the tax cuts bill in 2017, Congress and the President created opportunity zones in some of the hardest-hit low-income neighborhoods. There are 8,700 opportunity zones in the United States. Opportunity zones encourage entrepreneurship, and private investment is now flowing to these low-income areas in an effort to rebuild neighborhoods. While the numbers aren’t in, and we cannot yet judge whether these opportunity zones will be successful, it is a good thing that we are finally focusing on these areas.

While we are seeing positive signs on the domestic front, there are also some failures that continue to exist and no one is addressing. One of the main failures is the collapse of our education system. Our education system ranks poorly in the industrialized world, and the average proficiency rating in the subject materials of graduating seniors is only about 22-23%. I did an entire episode on this so check it out.

Another challenge we face is how several states are out of control, and while the federal government has a limited role to play, they should start using grant funding in order to change state policies. Several governors and members of state legislators hate this President so much that they feel the need to go to some of the most extreme policies. Take New York where we have a state that’s falling apart. We have an exodus of people leaving the state. We are going to lose Congressional representation next year. Yet over the course of the last year, New York State pushed free college and driver licenses for illegal immigrants and bail reform which has been an epic disaster. They didn’t tackle the high cost of living, property taxes, utilities, infrastructure, and roadways, or the failing education system.

But the biggest problem on the horizon is something that government can do nothing about. It’s our culture and how we treat each other, and the current political divide. We no longer look at each other and respectfully disagree. Instead, we retreat to our factions and view each other as adversaries and enemies. How can you negotiate and comprise with someone you view as an enemy? It used to be that we didn’t let politics infect all aspects of our lives including relationships and work. Now, our political ideology defines us.

While there is hate on both sides, there is no doubt the leftists are trying to silence and control anyone who dissents from their viewpoint. They will label you. They will assault you. They will attempt to marginalize you if you against their preconceived beliefs. This is a danger to everyone in America especially at a time when we are hearing calls to amend the 1^st and 2^nd Amendments.

Gene Ho

That’s my take on the State of the Union, but I don’t want to take too much time. I want to introduce a guest who worked with President Trump prior to and throughout his campaign. Gene Ho is someone who has rare insights into the President, both personally and professionally. He wrote a book, Trumpography, to correct the record and pushback against the media narrative.

Closing

I want to thank Gene for joining us. He is a fantastic person and a fantastic guest. Be sure to check out his website geneho.com, and purchase his book Trumpography. Also, if you’re going to be in the Queens neighborhood, Gene will be speaking at the Queens Village Republican Club meeting on February 7. The event is open to the public.

As always if there is a topic or issue you would like me to focus on, send an email to podcast@pasreport.com. Take a moment and write a review, and don’t forget to share this episode with others.

Thank you for joining us, stay safe, and I’ll be back next week.

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