Let Me Tax Your Wallet Then Hand You A Debit Card

"Are politicians selling outrage while you pay $8 a gallon at the pump?" Our episode of The Rant Network pulls no punches as we expose how blame games have replaced real solutions in the Democratic party, with leaders more interested in finger-pointing than fixing the issues that matter to everyday Canadians and Americans alike. While some celebrate electoral wins, working families are left grappling with skyrocketing costs and empty promises. The question remains: is this really a platform, or just a distraction from the problems we face?

#BlameGame #GasPrices #DemocraticParty #TruthBomb

#podcast #therantnetwork #podcasting #TheRantNetwork #StuartBrisgel #IranBlockade #Israel #StandWithIsrael #FreeWorld #Conservative #ProIsrael #NeverAppease #China #Taiwan #Hezbollah #Hamas #Houthis #Politics #PoliticalCommentary #AntiWoke #NewsCommentary #ForeignPolicy #NationalSecurity

Transcript

Crowd Banter And Back Again

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Oh yes. Oh look at that. Crowd loves you. You're back. Crowd loves you. Oh, it's just scrape being back. Let me have a good weekend, sir. Did you enjoy the weekend?

Is Blame A Platform

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I did, I did, I did, I did. You know, let me tell you something. I gotta tell you, it's great to be back. You know, they broke the gas pump. And now they're pointing at you. Let me start with a question. Just one question. And I want you to stick with it, sit with this. If a political party spent four years doing nothing except telling you who to blame, would you call that a platform? Would you hand them the keys to your state, your city, your budget? Would you let them keep raising your taxes while they stood at a podium and pointed fingers at the other guy, the orange guy? Because that's exactly what's happening and has gone on the last nearly two years. And the victory laps are already under the way. Here's the thesis: the Democrat Party in 2025 does not have a governing philosophy, they have a grievance industry, not even a committee. They gave and gave blame to the machine running at full capacity. And the price that you and I pay is literally at the pump. Is somewhere north of eight dollars a gallon in California? Yeah. Eight fucking dollars.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

San Francisco, no north of eight bucks, people. Imagine that.

California Gas Prices Get Explained

Red State Comparison And Tax Math

Climate Defense Then The Rebuttal

Politicians Named And Rebate Theater

SPEAKER_01 2:00

They are popping champagne glasses in Hollywood and in the Democratic Party. Stay with me on this. Let's start with the victory lap. Because that's where the audience, the audacity lives. After years of electoral losses, after voters' plays nobody expected, swung harder in the other direction. Certain Democratic leaders and the media figures have decided that's the right way to do it. The political savvy, sophisticated, deeply intelligent mood. It's doubling down on the blame the Trump game. Trump derangement syndrome on steroids. The new idea. No economic vision. No answer for the working class. Voters who used to be their base and now can't afford to be, can't afford to fill their trucks. Just Trump. Still, always Trump, Trump. Trump for breakfast, Trump for dinner, Trump at the every answer to your question that things didn't work out. And you didn't ask or didn't want to know. And it wasn't true. And look, I understand the political logic. It worked before. But theirs and here is what they won't tell you about it. Stopped working. Voters didn't abandon the Democrats because they love chaos. They abandoned them because they're broke, because her grocery bills are doubled, because her gas costs are more than lunch. And the response for the Democratic leadership was hold on, let's do more rallies about January 6th. And ask yourself why no one in the mainstream press calls that a failure of any substance. Now let's talk about the pump because that's where the receipts get receiped. California gas prices, spring 2025, were averaging between 480 and 540, depending on the county. And in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, premium blends at certain gas stations were pushing past$8 a gallon. Yeah. Eight fucking dollars. And yes, I know the national average is much lower. That's the point. That's the gap. It's not an accident. The gap is policy. Here's what they're not telling you. California drivers pay some of the highest gas tax in the nation. The state exercise tax on gasoline is 59.6 cents, one of the highest in the country. Then you add a federal excise tax, 18.4. Then you add California's cap and trade program, which adds another 15 to 25 cents. And then you add the lower carbon fuel standard compliance, another 20 to 30 cents. And depending on the formula of the season, then you add California air tax, resource boards, unique fuel blend requirements, which restrict your supply and artificially elevate the base price. And it all up, and you're looking well over a nearly$2 a gallon in government-imposed costs. It's only 15 to 18 cents being the federal government. Did you ever get the price of oil, the refinery margins, station markup? A dollar and a half to two dollars a gallon, tax regulatory compliance cost. That's not a market, that's a choice, a policy made by Democrats who have controlled California's legislative and governor's mansion for years. Governor Gavin Newsom, who let me remind you, was reportedly positioning himself for the next face of the National Democratic Party. The political wind started shifting. Not an answer for this. He's not answering for it. He's not out there talking about it. He's protecting democracy while his constituents are rationing driving. That's not a metaphor. That's Monday. Now let's compare the map because the numbers don't lie. Even when politicians do, Texas, as as the record is averaging somewhere 270 to 290 a gallon of regular unleaded. Florida range 3 to 320, depending on the county. Georgia, Mississippi,$3. The Republicans govern states with lower fuel tax. And without California, by Zane regulatory overlay, Texas has no state income tax. So does Florida. Lower the gas tax, lower regulatory burden, and somehow, somehow, Texans and Floridians are paying$3 or less per gallon. That's less than California.$3. On a$15 gallon, that's what?$45 out of your pocket. Every single fucking filler. That's not a talking point. That's$45 fucking dollars. That's not George Soros. And in another, I don't know, made up belief. Georgia State tax is around 33 cents. Florida's 43. Texas 20. California is 60% plus plus plus plus every regulatory charge that I can dream of. I listed most of them, but there's more. These numbers are public record. They're not a political bystanding spot. It's not Stuart and David making it up. They are not in dispute. But you won't hear them frame this way on CNN or MSFC, because that's framing that's inconvenient to their blame Trump narrative. That's high GAT prices. That's it. Exclusively, forever, the fault of the oil companies and whoever happens to be sitting in the Oval Office. And other, you know, the other team. Now, here's what I want to give the Democrats their strongest argument because that's how this works. The counter-argument goes: California's high taxes reflect the investment in clean air, public health, climate action. They're paying for something that the Republican states are not. The cap and trade revenue goes back to green infrastructure that the red states are not. You can't compare a state with no environmental ambitions to a state that's trying to lead climate and the climate agenda. Fine. I'll grant you the ambition. But here is what the argument and falls apart from the facts. If your climate policy is so successful, why is California still choking on wildfires? Smoke every summer? Why is the grid reliability problem getting worse, not better? Why are working-class Californians and the people who can't work from home, the people who drive 45 minutes to one hour 45 minutes, to a warehouse job, paying$8 a gallon while these designated those policies to fly private? The burden of progressive environmental policies in California fly overwhelmingly on the people, at least, that are able to absorb it. And the literally the architects of that policy are not experiencing it. They're flying private, they're not standing in line at the cell station, they're being driven by the driver. On the 405, watching the pump, clicking$60,$80,$120. That's not a climate success story. That's a class weapon wrapped in a green language by the Democratic Party. Let me name some of the names because very, very, very, very big accusations for those who don't have receipts. Representative Maxine Walters of California, 43rd District, California Congress since 1991. I don't know if she can fucking drive or has a driver's license. She's voted every single fuel tax increase, every regulatory expansion, and every cap and trade measure that came across her desk. She is not living under economic conditions. She sifted new the American people. She helped create. She issued statements about gas prices, grime grabcast relief during the 2022 spike hike. Performatively hollow. That's uh how they barely make the news cycle. Senator Alex Palladilla of California, who sits on the Environmental Public Works Committee, has championed California regulatory framework without once seriously engaging in a cost of living crisis, right? Imposed on lower-income California. Yes, there are people who don't live on fucking Beverly Hills. His constitutes the well central valley, many of whom are agricultural workers who drive long distances on fixed income and are paying pump prices that would make European wines. And I'll tell you, Governor Newsom in 2022 floated the idea of a windfall profits, rebate check for California,$400, debit card, measures to offset gas price. Yep, giving money away. But why don't you just don't charge that you don't need? Not a repeal of the tax, not a reform of regulatory structural, a debit card, a one-time payment, so you'd feel taken care of. Yeah. New some style. Let me take your money, a thousand, and give you$400. The costs remain completely inept. The policy, the politicians, the theater, the MasterCards, the logo. Here's the kicker. I want you to carry this with you. The victory lab's just not a political premature. It's morality fraudulent. You don't get to celebrate winning the argument about Trump while your constituents are deciding between a full tank, full refrigerator. You don't get to call yourself the party of the working people while presiding over the most expensive gas in industrial world. I mean, literally, the industrialized world. That's Europe included, which is insane. You don't get to run on the blame, purely on adulterated industrial scale, blame and claim credit for holding the democracy together. The platform is blame. That's it. That's all they're doing, dude. That's it.

Blue State Taxes And Wealth Flight

Canada Parallels And New York Politics

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Well, Stuart, the Democrats don't just like to blame. They like to show that, like they want to show that they are the party, the people. Let's go back to California for just a second. You want to know where that gas tax is supposed to go? Uh, that's a good question. Because no one can really figure it out. Like you gave the get the environmental things, but here's what California is all about. California is about spending your money so that cost of living can go up like an idiot. They're the state that went to, as of January 1st to this year, minimum wage is$16.90. However, for the fast food industry, it's now$20 an hour. What's happening? Businesses are cutting employees. They can't afford it anymore. Because between the California taxes and the bureaucracy that the Democrats just love to inundate business owners with, they're done. They're not worthy and they don't want to stay there anymore. But then let's go to another thing. You know, I don't want to just pick on California. I'm going to pick on a whole bunch of blue states there, Stuart. I would talk about California, New York, Washington State, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Connecticut. You know what they believe? They believe that all of this is not only Trump's fault, but every rich person's fault across the nation. That the wealthy don't pay taxes enough taxes. And as a result, it's time to hurt them. And in California, they passed this wonderful law, Stuart, of a one-time tax bill to billionaires, not on their income, on their net worth. So if you were worth worth one billion dollars, you just got smacked with a$50 million one-time tax bill. So what do you think rich people are going to do? Well, I'll tell you what they're doing. They're leaving the state, they're gone. And as a result, the blame will continue to be see the rich want to evade taxes. But again, my problem's here. I'm going to make you look over here. I want you to look away from where the real problem is. The Democrats were putting in these policies. Washington State, Stuart, which had never had an income tax before. One of the beautiful things of attracting why is Microsoft there and why are so many other companies, you know, the tech hub went a lot into Washington state is because there was no income tax. It made it so attractive. Has now passed a 9.9% tax on incomes over a million dollars. Guess what? Howard Schultz said but-bye. Others are going to go but by. Don't be surprised if place that companies like Microsoft and others pick up and pick and get the hell out of there. Michigan wants to amend its state constitution to oppose a 9.25% top rate on incomes over a half a million. For residents of Detroit, the combined state and local would approach approximately 12%. Ohio has a flat tax of 2.75, Indiana 2.95. Where do you think people are going to go? And it goes on and on and on and on. This is the blame game that the Democrats have put in there. They've convinced you that the rich are sucking everything out. And what's ironic, Stuart, is you've got your Bernie Sanders, your AOCs, the squads who've made millions of dollars. Elon Omar can't ignore that woman either. They've made millions of dollars off of you with insider trading, with all kinds of opportunities, and they're sitting around flying, you know, business class and private and all that kind of stuff. You they got to cross to the TSA lines. But look what they've done. They abandoned TSA for ice. And I mean, they played the game. And you know what? We blame the Republicans too to a certain extent. But what did the Democrats say? They're here for the people. So who are the people? For the second straight time, they have screwed TSA. For the second straight time, they've screwed average Americans. And yet they continue to blame Trump. Nothing could be their fault. Stuart, it's interesting because if you go back to the 2024 elections, Kamala Harris, what policies did she have? Well, apparently it's copy-paste whatever Trump had put on that looked right. But Trump suggested no tax on tips. The Democrats said that's not possible. Did you hear what you just said? The party of the people said to the minimum wage workers, and they'd make less than minimum wage because they work in restaurants, right? So they live off their tips. No, no, no, no. We can't stop taxing you. This is your Democratic Party. When Doge was exposed for the billions of dollars going to idiotic programs, and yes, the Republicans put in too, but the Democrats put in, who screamed the loudest? The Democrats to shut it down, to violate Elon Musk's price rights as an American, the way they treated him, the way they attacked him, it smashed Tesla dealerships and all that kind of stuff. And all of a sudden, now that he's not part of Doge, shh, quiet. All the tech giants, Stuart, all the tech giants that were all of a sudden at the dinner table in 2026, 2024, after or 2025, say at after the inauguration, you know, the Democrats are blaming them now after threatening them during Joe Biden's era. Again, they're blaming the tech giants of making too much money. It's fascinating to see how the Democrats don't want to go to the core of the problem themselves. The Democrats have created, and it's not just the Dems in the United States, it's the liberals in Canada. The liberals in Canada and the Democrats in the United States are very similar. We have gone from being a productive nation to being a toilet bowl. We've gone from being a country that is prosperous and a powerful G7 country to a failure. We have the worst productivity out there. Housing costs have gone up because of bureaucracy. Does this sound familiar, Stuart? I could call it the Democratic Party of the United States. And in every state, you see the same thing. So when you're going into New York City, and for example, that has these obscene taxes, okay, Manhattan is expensive. I got it. But now Mamdani wants to do even more. He wants to put a Jiza tax. You've heard of this Jiza tax? This is a tax on non-Muslims. Okay, and people are going, okay, that's a great idea. What's next, Stuart? What could possibly be next that the Democratic Party is going to put in place that people aren't going to go stop? You've got to stop.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

David, the Democrats didn't just break the gas pump, they taxed it, regulated it, and closed refineries. And now they want the credit for handing you the bill. Listen, that moron in New York, you know, listen, you can't explain crazy. There's no way. No way. You can't explain uh uh uh uh these types of people, you can't explain Mandami's life. You actually disgusting anti-Semitic.

Kitchen Table Costs And Victory Laps

SPEAKER_00 19:15

You can't explain actually parents. You can you can't explain how do you explain it? Okay, it's because listen, it's the shiny penny, and here is a guy who goes to a bunch of people. Look, we've we've educated or mass, like badly educated an entire generation that capitalism is bad, that socialism is good, and so at a certain point, guess what? They've become a more powerful voting block, and then people in New York who may not have been are fed up of look at the people who've run New York, it has not really been a success and cost is too expensive. And here comes the shiny penny who says, I can make it better, and he gives you the right messages with the right things, and it doesn't matter that he's an anti-Semite, and it doesn't matter that he's a racist and his wife is is the same. It doesn't matter because what matters is that socialist beautiful thing. That's why Bernie is getting, you know, people love Bernie and people love AOC, even though the program is a failure, it doesn't work. But that's what's happened. The Democratic Party no longer has a platform, it has a bunch of ideas that they're just trying to see if it sticks. Whereas on this side, you've got a group of people who fix immigration, fix the border, fix crime, fixing all kinds of things in the economy, and they're literally getting stuff done, whether you like it, but the policies or not. The blame game, David. No, but stupid. But the only policy that the Democrats have is blame Trump and any Trump supporters. And I'll give a and I'll tell you, Stuart, and this is what I sent you the uh last night. You know, it's just fascinating that Senator Warnock um says, pro anybody who's a Trump Christian leader, pro-Christian a leader. If you're a Christian, you're a leader, well, that's like those who you the leaders who used scripture to defend slavery back in the 19th century. This is what they're doing. There's no policy. It's if you support Trump, you're a racist. If you support Trump, you're a bigot. If you support Trump, there's something wrong with you. This is the only thing that the Democrats could say. But when you get to brass tax, when you get to the what's the kitchen table issue, Stuart, right? That you and I always talk about, right? Putting food on the table, gas prices, all this stuff. I wanted to ask you this question. Why is why are blue states not going, wow, let's protect our people, let's let's freeze the gas tax. Do you know countries, Stuart? You weren't here Friday, but I ranted about this. On Friday, I ranted about this that there are states, there are countries in Europe that have frozen the state tax, the government tax, so that people won't. Pay so much. Okay. But why not in the United States? Why not in blue states? Because then you can't blame Trump. Yep. So you get him suffer. Make him suffer so that you can blame Trump. This is what they're going to convince you. And they're, and by the way, Stuart, from James Carville to other you know, Democrats, they're all taking their victory lap already. They're rubbing their hands, going, We've won the November election. Okay. We're not even close. We're not even six months to the election. But they're already saying they're they've won, yeah, and that Trump's gonna resign after the midterms. Why? Because that's it, he can't handle losing. And this is the mindset of the Democrats. Not a single policy, not a single thing that we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

You know, Dave David, you remember in in in in sports when we were kids, you know, that that's in the day where participation awards didn't exist. Yeah, and and but however, class did, you played hockey, your boys played hockey. What's one thing they do at the end of every game? Shake hands. They they they punch, they they they they they fist bump, they they slap hands. You know what, you know what's missing, you know what's missing in the Democratic Party? There's they just want victory last.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Listen, Stuart, they're they they they they they just want what they want. There is no such a thing as compromise. Both parties are guilty very often of doing this. So I saw this back in the Republicans did it with Obama. So I'm not suggesting that this is just the Dems, but we're in a cr you're in a crisis situation. You didn't care during COVID, and you don't care now. Two major crises during your time of ability to affect change, and you did nothing but blame the GOP.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Okay, David, you know what that means?

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Get out of here, Scripture.

Sign Off And Where To Watch

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Get out of here. All right, everybody. That's it. We're calling it a day. We'll see you every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, noon Eastern, or one of our billion little things crawling into your feeds. We love you. WW The Rand Network, get the whole podcast, and yes, we do this literally unedited, unprepared, because we send it out to the real world. David, any last words? My people, see you later.