Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, at the very end of your segment with Representative Barrett, he gave the things that for him, why he’s here. Do we need to spend this money? If we do need to spend this money, how are we going to pay for it? Why are we even doing it in the first place?
Those are all extremely valid reasons for an elected person to go through that process before deciding to spend money. But that’s not how it’s done in Washington now. In fact, in Washington, it’s pretty much the opposite of that. And the train wreck in Ohio, for me, is kind of a metaphor for the Biden administration.
The whole thing. Myorkas apparently was on with Chris Wallace and couldn’t even define a secure border as what it is that’s secure. He just says what it’s not, but then he calls the border secure. But you look at how the Biden administration has handled this train wreck, and the answer is they ignored it for two weeks.
Now they’re trying to figure out what to do about it. All of the damage that could have been done has now already been done, apparently by decisions from the Biden administration officials who were on the scene. And Buttigieg is completely absent from the scene. He’s absent from the discussion.
And his answer is, there are three derailments a day. I can’t be responsible for every derailment. Well, there are derailments that don’t matter, and they’re derailments that are catastrophes. A catastrophe is a catastrophe, not just merely a derailment.
And so Buttigieg has no sense of what should be a great concern. I look at the national economy, and that’s why the metaphor on the train wreck is so appropriate. The automobile payments are a really good indicator of how the economy is and which direction the economy is headed in.
And the quintile of lower income, more credit risk, car payment, that population, when that starts to spike, it’s not a good sign for the economy. The rate of delinquency in the worst quintile of creditworthiness is spiking at a rate that we have literally never seen.
It’s even worse than the rate of ascent. And ascent is bad when you get up to a 9, 10, 11, or 12 percent delinquency when it moves from 5 percent delinquency to 9 percent delinquency, and it does it in a period of 120 days, that’s much faster than the rate of increase in 2009 and 2010.
And so the signs for our national economy, the cracks are beginning to appear. Now, here are a few other little tidbits that are really interesting. First of all, first-time mortgage applications are at a 40 or 50-year low. So people are not applying for mortgages because they can’t afford them.
This is from a friend of mine who sends this out every Friday and would-be homebuyers. 87 percent do not have the income to afford the average home in their market. 50 percent of Americans say their finances have gotten worse, versus a year ago, versus 35 percent who say they’ve gotten better.
New car prices in 2020, a new car costs $33,500. This past December, $47,000. And then the interest rates on a car payment have doubled. And so what you have is you have these terrible trends within the economy, especially for the bottom half of income earners, and that has to do with car payments and even if they’re not delinquent in the amount, they’re having to pay home payments.
Young people are getting killed by the Biden policies. But what does Biden care about? What does he care about? Because he says, this is what he cares about, diversity and inclusion within his own administration. All he talks about is that his administration is the most inclusive, the most diverse administration ever.
It’s not about competence. It’s not about policy. It’s about what you look like or what your essence is that determines whether or not you have a chance to be beneficial within the administration. So automatically, as soon as you’re hired, automatically, the bar of low expectations is already there because you’re not hired.
Because Biden says, I’m looking for the most competent people. He says I’m looking for the most unusual people. I’m looking for people who fit all these unusual categories. Remember that fellow that really enjoyed using his spare time stealing luggage at airports?
He was in a very, very important position, but he was picked because I’m not sure exactly how you describe his essence, but he was a weird guy, but he just liked to steal bags. And as far as the Biden administration was concerned, they didn’t care whether or not he was competent.
And so if we look at what we have in store for us economically and nationally over the next six to nine months as we go into this next election season, the data and the trends are just not good.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House. Background Photo “East Palestine Train Wreck” by City of East Palestine, Ohio.
