Back to episode — Episode 2982 CWSA 10/08/25
Context —
think the people who are dealing on the word level, even though those words do play through into polls, which would make it look like it's a closer debate than it really is on the visceral physical level, this is a blowout. It's an absolute blowout. But it won't be until after it works that 80% of the country will see it was a blowout. But you can't beat I'm going to keep you alive. You can't beat…
← Previous segment →inance minister of Mexico and he's here to pay for the wall now the finance minister belly laughs Jared laughs. I belly laugh because it was a great line. Like that the humor depends not just how clever you are, but where you say it and in front of whom. If you do the right joke in the right audience in the right time, it's magic. And that was kind of magic. It was just brilliant. But doesn't that remind you a little bit of Trump's joke to try to infer that your other party from the other country is totally on board but you're just joking about it now.
Is Trump also serious about the possibility of merging with Canada? I say yes. I would say yes. And it's not the worst idea in the world. I think it would be hugely difficult and it would come with its own risks and everything else but I think sorry cats and keyboards are a bad combination. But I think that turning that into a joke and then turning his relationship with very contentious into two dudes joking. It was brilliant. It's one of the things that Trump does better than anybody. If you're doing what he likes, he's going to go at you as hard as anybody can go. I talk about this all the time. It's great persuasion. If you don't do what he likes, he goes after you hard. But if you're at the moment doing things he likes and I guess he was getting along with Carney at the moment. You know, he makes a joke, he slaps him on the leg, they have a laugh, now he's his best friend. And he praised Carney like more than I've seen him praise other people. I mean, he genuinely seems to respect Carney's judgment and skill. So that's all good news for us and Canada. We'll see where that goes.
Meanwhile, over in Hungary, they're passing a lifetime tax exemption to mothers of three. So if you have three kids, you just don't pay taxes. Now what do you think of that idea? Is there anything missing in that story? What is it that's obviously missing in this story? And I had to go to Grok to get the context. Well, the obvious thing that's missing is what is the base tax rate in Hungary to begin with? If the tax rate was 1%, it's nothing. If the tax rate was like America, you know, up to 50%. Oh my god. I mean, that would be gigan
Context —
tic policy. Turns out that Hungary, according to Grok, their tax rate is 15% for just everything, income, investments, just 15%. So it's a lot easier to go from 15 down to zero for a special class of people, mothers, who are adding to the economy. That's a lot easier than going from rich people paying 50% to well, we'll let you get away with none. How about none? You just have an extra kid. Do you…
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