[00:00:04] Broadcasting live from atop the Rocky Mountains, the crossroads of the West, you are listening to the Liberty Roundtable Radio Talk Show. Israel, Egypt and Jordan, they're all on the pro-war American industrial complex dole. Not to mention, we're losing the spirit, ladies and gentlemen. Happy to have you along, my fellow Americans.
[00:00:34] I'm Sam Bushman with hard-hitting news that networks refuse to use. It all starts now. With me, Lowell Nelson, CampaignForLiberty.org, doing a phenomenal job as always. And the government kills the spirit, writes Ron Paul over at LewRockwell.com. Hi, Lowell, and welcome to the show, sir. Well, thanks for having me, Sam. It's always good to be with you on your show, Liberty Roundtable. Pretty unique show.
[00:01:01] And you're right, Ron Paul has a great column about how government is helping to kill the spirit. Well, in this case, he's talking about the spirit airlines. As you know, anybody who travels knows the cost of ticket prices have gone up because the cost of jet fuel has doubled since the most recent U.S. attack on Iran. This change in the marketplace has hurt budget airlines where margins are already thin.
[00:01:30] And particularly it hurts spirit, which went out of business last week. Other budget airlines are seeking a bailout from the government too. But spirit, they wanted to merge with JetBlue four years ago. But the government denied the merger under the guise of antitrust, anti-monopoly. Ron Paul writes, quote, this is one of many examples of how an aggressive approach to antitrust enforcement can harm businesses and consumers.
[00:02:00] End of quote. Well, the government may have okayed the merger had spirit given an ownership stake to the government. This is not something new, unfortunately. The government has ownership in a number of big companies. Nippon Steel, for example, mining companies and computer chip manufacturers. Quoting Paul again, having government owned parts. Well, just to add to this, they used to call it government motors, right?
[00:02:26] When the auto industry had kind of a meltdown and some of them took so much government money and they took stake in auto companies as well. Wasn't it government motors was kind of the joke? Yeah. Yeah, it sure was. In fact, there was a number of auto manufacturers that got bailed out. And this is before bailouts became a big thing. They got those bailouts and continued manufacturing their cars.
[00:02:49] Well, Paul says, having government owned part of what is nominally private company interferes with the efficient allocation of capital. It also means business decisions will be made to please government officials and bureaucrats instead of to meet the needs and wants of consumers. Government ownership of all or part of private businesses is the epitome of economic fascism.
[00:03:14] Congress should pass a law forbidding any part of the federal government, including the Federal Reserve, from taking an ownership interest in any private business. End of quote. And I would add, Sam, that states really, they ought to forbid the general government from accepting or taking ownership in any company that is incorporated in their state. Remembering, of course, that the states are sovereign in our federated republic.
[00:03:43] That would do a lot to stop this economic fascism that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. I mean, even in our own state, Sam, economic fascism is flourishing with these tax incentive programs, programs, these PIDs, these infrastructure, yeah, project infrastructure districts. You know what there is?
[00:04:06] They're kind of fascist partnerships between government mandated laws, rules, guidance, pretended public ownership, et cetera. And back in the 2008, 2009 crisis, for example, General Motors, ladies and gentlemen, they got the biggest bailout of anybody. The U.S. Treasury ownership of General Motors peaked at about 60.8 percent was owned by the government.
[00:04:31] The government invested roughly, what, 50 billion into GM at the time. And so they went through bankruptcy restructuring in 2009. The U.S. became the majority owner after the reorganization. Chrysler had a similar deal. Owner structure is more complicated after bankruptcy.
[00:04:56] But anyway, I don't want to get off on the card deals, except I really want you to understand this is the stuff that the government does with every sector. They're doing with computer chips now. They're doing with all kinds of companies. And I suspect more of it because, you know, they're bailing out farmers. That's kind of where they started. Farmers have been at it for a longer time than anybody. And you look at this and you go, what area won't be eventually bailed out? You got the home ownership or home government loans.
[00:05:23] Freddie May or Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, those kind of companies. You got governments in loans for students. You've got I mean, what part of the private economy does the government not have a hand in law? Yeah, I pretty much have a finger about in everything. And I misspoke earlier. PIDs here in Utah, they're actually called public infrastructure districts.
[00:05:45] And then you've got these tax, these TIFs called tax increment financing arrangements where taxpayers flip the, basically taxpayers fund the development of public infrastructure and or, you know, homes and, you know, tax increment financing.
[00:06:08] The taxpayers will fund the development instead of having the developers go to a bank and borrow money to fund the development. You know, the taxpayers don't really vote on this either. They've got to put a system in place where they just crank it up and people don't even know that it's happening really, right?
[00:06:26] You could even move into a PID without knowing it and your payment to the PID, the tax on you because you belong to a PID might exceed your monthly mortgage payment. I mean, or you might exceed your annual your annual property tax assessment. I mean, these are huge outlays required of the taxpayers and it's oppressive. And we're trying to get the word out to as many Utahns as possible to watch out for these PIDs, public infrastructure districts.
[00:06:56] If you're going to move into an area, you better check with a county clerk to see whether or not the area you're buying is is really a PID or not. Ladies and gentlemen, look, the cost of jet fuel has doubled since the most recent attack on Iran. Gas costs on the average now $4.52 a gallon. And they say it's going to go up more low. Yeah, they sure do. And so that's crushing the airlines. We've talked about Spirit Airlines.
[00:07:23] Now, the interesting thing is James Hickman, his co-founder of Shift Sovereign, he sent he sends me an email like every week or so. I like reading what he writes. He's he gave me a real practical. Well, inside baseball, maybe is what you might call this. This thing happened to Spirit Airlines.
[00:07:42] And he first talks about the reasons for the passage of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, because that was the law that prevented Spirit from merging with JetBlue. Ostensibly, anyway. That's the reason the government threatened to prevent the merger.
[00:08:01] And he writes, quote, for starters, it's important to point out that the officers, managers, boards of directors, and shareholders of both JetBlue and Spirit Airlines all agreed to the merger. This was four years ago. But then do-gooders like Elizabeth Warren opposed the merger. Hickman called them idiots. I was a little more polite than that. But ultimately, the case was decided in federal court by Judge William Young.
[00:08:30] And James Hickman read the entire 113-page opinion. And he has this to say about the opinion. You know, he basically summarizes it saying that Judge Young questioned whether it was appropriate for JetBlue to take on such a large amount of debt to consummate the merger. I mean, what in the world? I mean, it's a business decision. Why would a judge step in like that, Sam, and stop a merger?
[00:08:57] If JetBlue is willing to purchase Spirit and to take on that amount of debt, why not let them? I mean, it's a business decision. But that's the problem is the government thinks they need to be involved in everything. And here's what happened as a result. They created a moral hazard by the government manipulating the market. Now you've got basically spirit that has melted down. I'm sure the taxpayers are going to take a beating over that. So are the investors and everybody else.
[00:09:22] Now JetBlue, the second this happened, JetBlue started launching flights, literal flights. Adam, I think it's... Anyway, it's in southern Florida. I'm trying to remember the city now. I keep thinking of Fort Worth, but that's Dallas. So it's... But anyway, the major city where Spirit operated from is in Florida. And so JetBlue just started now announcing a ton of flights.
[00:09:50] And so what they're really doing almost, in a sense, is, hey, bankruptcy, let the taxpayers and the investors and everybody else kind of take the... Now JetBlue, instead of taking on some of that debt and being responsible for their actions, now they're going to kind of carte blanche, get the benefits of, hey, we'll just launch up a bunch of flights and fill the vacuum. So they grow really at the expense of the decision of the judge now, right? Exactly right. And so... Four years ago...
[00:10:16] I'm sorry, two years ago, when the merger was almost complete, JetBlue was willing to pay $3.8 billion for Spirit Airlines. But now, with this decision by the judge, they get to buy it out of liquidation, right? And so instead of paying $3.8 billion, they're going to pay, I don't know, maybe only millions for Spirit Airlines. All right, hold on. We've got to take a quick break. We'll do it. We'll do it. We'll be right back. Okay.
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[00:12:12] We'll be right back. We'll be right back. That's JBS.org forward slash SLC26. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. This is Lowell Nelson riding shotgun this morning with Sam Bushman, your host here of Liberty Roundtable Live.
[00:12:42] We've been talking about the way the government has killed Spirit Airlines and the fact that JetBlue was willing to pay $3.8 billion for Spirit Airlines just two years ago. But because of the decision of this judge, William Young, who stopped the merger from happening now, that put Spirit Airlines into bankruptcy. And now JetBlue is picking up the routes and rehiring the people.
[00:13:12] And basically, it's a windfall for them. They're picking up a $3.8 billion company for pennies on the dollar. Yeah. Think about it. If I own a company and Lowell owns a company and I'm melting down, so I say, Lowell, do you want to purchase me? And you say, sure, that'd be great. I could grow and I could save your bacon and we could save the investors and everybody else. Then all of a sudden, the government says, nope, nope, no, no deal. So then I melt down.
[00:13:36] And then Lowell just basically picks up all the good pieces and all the bad pieces are left with the taxpayer and everybody else holding the bag. By the way, it's Fort Lauderdale. Just so everybody knows where that I was thinking of Fort Worth, but it's Fort Lauderdale. That's where Spirit Airlines. So JetBlue is just adding tons of flights now and just gaining all that business. And basically what they did is pick up the pieces for free because of the judge. Yeah.
[00:14:01] It's almost like JetBlue stockholders or maybe some JetBlue executives got a hold of that judge and maybe bribed him to make that decision. Who knows? Maybe we'll never know. But JetBlue stock went up 8% since Judge Young killed the deal. But the bottom line for us is we need to understand that this is not capitalism. This is cronyism, what just happened here.
[00:14:29] Hickman writes, quote, capitalism is supposed to be an economic system built on freedom in which all participants get to decide what's in their best interest. More often than not, a capitalist system produces win-win deals that are in everyone's best interest. And both JetBlue and Spirit decided four years ago that a merger was a win-win deal. This same law was not applied to the four largest companies in the industry. He's speaking there of United, Delta, American, and Southwest.
[00:14:58] Those are the four big airlines right now in the industry. And this law was not applied to them. For the past 20 years they've been doing mergers and acquisitions, those four airlines. And yet this law wasn't applied to them. And so you can see how unfair this was to Spirit Airlines and to their stockholders, most of which, by the way, were owned by mutual funds and pension funds.
[00:15:25] In other words, this was not some evil billionaire owning Spirit Airlines. This airline was owned by people, you and me, like firemen and teachers and just normal Joes who have money in mutual funds and pension funds. And so it wiped them out, basically. $3.8 billion wiped out of the middle class.
[00:15:52] And absolutely nobody is going to be held accountable for this travesty, Sam. It's just terribly unfortunate. And we need to repeat this reality. Congress needs to pass a law forbidding the government, including the Federal Reserve, from taking ownership of these private businesses. We also need the states to prohibit the federal government for accepting or taking ownership of any company that's incorporated in their states.
[00:16:21] We really need to make that difference, folks. Ron Paul's right. James Hickman's right. This is a serious, serious issue, ladies and gentlemen. And again, whether it's vehicles, I'm just telling you, transportation, waterworks, anything that, internet, anything that becomes core to society. The government thinks that it's got to take control of. But what they really do is create a moral hazard as they jettison free market principles. Every time you see the failure.
[00:16:51] And President Trump right now is trying to do that with AI. You'll see a bunch of bad actors in AI because you're going to see a fallout. You're going to see a correction. I'm calling it .com 2.0 AI style or AI 2.0 .com style, whatever you want to call it, where, you know, we're going to see a bunch of people merge and people are overspending. I'm telling you right now. And when it happens, the government's going to feel like, oh, my gosh, we got to pick up the pieces of this or that or whatever. They don't. They need to get out of it.
[00:17:21] Let the people fail. You say, well, what if JetBlue and Spirit merged? And what if, you know, they got together and then they couldn't handle it and they both melted down? And my response is that would be fine because you've got smaller airlines like Allegiant and others that are up and coming that could grow if they managed their portfolios correctly. When the ones that don't, why should JetBlue if it can't manage its money, for example, and can't manage its decisions? Why should it get to stay alive?
[00:17:48] And so that's kind of what you see is you see the government protecting bad actors and rewarding bad behavior. And what the real penalty is, is upstarts like Allegiant and others that are doing really, really well. They're not able to prosper because of this very discussion we're having. Right. Absolutely right, Sam. Yeah. You know, I had there. The marketplace is for the market, you know, for for players in the marketplace is not for government.
[00:18:17] They don't allocate assets in the way that you and I would allocate assets. I mean, we're very sensitive to the cost of things. And so when we have a product or service we put in the marketplace, we are getting the, you know, the very best products for the very best price we can get and then passing those on to purchasers in the marketplace.
[00:18:41] Well, when government gets involved and they attempt to regulate the marketplace or they stop, you know, business deals from happening, it just distorts the marketplace. And it's bad both for the producers and for the consumers, as we can clearly see in this case of the Spirit Airlines and JetBlue. It's true. Terribly unfortunate, Sam. And we just need government to butt out of these, of the marketplace.
[00:19:11] And since bad actors in government won't rein in themselves, it's up to you and I to rein them in, ladies and gentlemen. Think about that come midterms. Think about that whenever you think about the proper role of limited constitutional government. Ryan McGitche in the news. He's got some important things to say as the war continues to go on and sadly, possibly even escalates. Lowell? Well, you know, and we mentioned this last week, the Ron Paul Institute of Peace and Prosperity Spring Conference just two weeks ago.
[00:19:41] Some excellent speakers. And one of them was Brian McGlinchey. And I found in his speech several just gems, important gems worth talking about this morning. And we're going to run out of time, obviously, because we don't have time to cover this whole article. And so you are welcome, you know, after I drop off at half past the hour to continue on with this.
[00:20:03] But a couple of things that I wanted to point out while I'm with you, Sam, is that this Brian McGlinchey has firsthand knowledge of something that happened 36 years ago when he first began to learn the true nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship, which he characterizes as a very strange relationship.
[00:20:27] Well, it turns out that in December of 1989, the United States invaded the Republic of Panama to oust its leader, General Manuel Noriega, who had outlived his usefulness to the empire, meaning the U.S. empire. And at that point, it was the largest, this invasion of Panama was the largest U.S. military operation by far since the end of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, right?
[00:20:55] So this 30 years later, here we invade Panama. And it marked the beginning of an era of endless regime change wars that continues to this very moment, Sam. And they called it Operation Just Cause. Before it was over, 23 American service members laid dead, 325 wounded. And so it wasn't, you know, it wasn't millions of people dead, but 23 still is too many when it was unnecessary.
[00:21:25] And then 325 wounded. Now, Brian McGlinchey was in the Army's military police and his platoon went to Panama after the invasion to sort of patrol Panama City. Well, he had a very interesting conversation with a major in the Panamanian Army who was in the battle on the night of the invasion. And what did this major tell Brian McGlinchey? He told him, quote,
[00:21:53] End of quote. Wow. And so Panamanians, they knew that the American invasion was about to occur because the Israelis tipped him off. Well, I mean, this U.S.-Israel relationship is weird. It's a strange relationship.
[00:22:12] In fact, the Israelis were the ones that attacked the USS Liberty in 1967, killing 34 service members, wounding 170. You know, and we look back on this now and we think, oh, it must have been a mistake. But Brian McGlinchey says straight out, quote, This was not some ill-considered shot in the middle of the night.
[00:22:39] This was a prolonged multi-wave attack on a clearly marked ship in broad daylight using a succession of bombers and torpedo boats. End of quote. You know, and so this is certainly a very strange relationship for the United States to be in bed with Israel,
[00:23:02] who is now, you know, this little country hosting 0.12% of the population of the world. And there the tail is wagging the dog, the U.S., the big dog that the U.S. is, right? Well, and so this McGlinchey, he was talking at the conference two weeks ago, and he was talking about these things. He says, quote,
[00:24:05] End of quote. Sam, and McGlinchey goes on and on. You're welcome to carry forward on this article when I drop off, but I'm telling you that McGlinchey shares a number of important gems in his speech to the Ron Paul Institute conference two weeks ago. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I just caught the ball over the middle. We shall continue. I'm Sam Bushman. Thank you, Lowell Nelson. CampaignforLiberty.org. I'm Sam Bushman.
[00:24:33] God save the Republic of the United States of America.