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--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire. I'm John Bickley.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And I'm Georgia Howe.
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--:-- John Bickley: Americans are paying more for goods and services than they did a year ago, and inflation continues to be the number one concern of Americans, according to new polling. We'll take a look at the rising inflation numbers and what it means for you, the consumer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Monday, January 17th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: The immigration crisis has significantly worsened over the last year. Why are hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants being released into cities across the country with no way to trace them? We'll talk to a former Homeland Security official about the issue.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As the Omicron variant sweeps through the country, infecting millions, could it actually mean an end to the pandemic? Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody. We speak to a leading expert.
--:-- John Bickley: Plus, the latest details on the Texas synagogue hostage situation. And the Australian government deporting Novak Djokovic.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Ben Johnson: Sunday's CBS News poll found that inflation and the economy are still the top issues for Americans, and both Democrats and Republicans believe President Biden is not focused enough on these issues.
--:-- John Bickley: It's no secret to anyone who's been shopping lately that inflation is causing higher prices for a variety of products. Here to tell us more is Daily Wire reporter Ben Johnson.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Good morning, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Good morning, Ben. All right, Ben, I'm preparing myself for tough news here. What's the latest on inflation? What's the outlook?
--:-- Ben Johnson: Bad. I mean, historically bad. The government uses a few different formulas to gauge inflation. The Consumer Price Index measures how much people pay for goods, while the Producer Price Index looks at the price wholesalers charge for those goods and how much they have to pay for the materials that go into creating them.
--:-- John Bickley: Both indices are up by historic margins. On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced the Consumer Price Index rose by 7% last year. The steepest price rise since 1982. On Thursday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the PPI rose by 9.7% in 2021. The Bureau called that, quote, the largest calendar year increase since data were first calculated in 2010.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And it's even worse than it sounds because the producer price index for finished goods can predict future inflation. Think about it. If the wholesaler is charging more for goods, the retailer is going to try to pass that cost on to you.
--:-- John Bickley: Right. And how are these economic terms playing out in the real world? Well through higher prices. You see it every day. Gasoline is up 50% since 2020. Sticker prices for used cars are up by more than a third. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs are up by 11 to 13%.
--:-- Ben Johnson: So some people would point out that wages rose sharply over the last year as well. Does that mitigate this at all?
--:-- John Bickley: Not really. Even though wages grew in 2021, they couldn't keep up with prices. Wages rose by 4.7%, which is the highest rate of wage growth since the year 2000. But as we just said, inflation rose by 7 percent. So in real terms, the average person lost 2.4 percent of their income, or an average of 75 cents an hour, thanks to runaway inflation.
--:-- Ben Johnson: With this as background, what does historic inflation mean for the coming year? Well, one thing it probably means is higher interest rates. Interest rates have held at virtually 0 percent since the financial collapse in late 2008, with just a small increase right before the pandemic.
--:-- John Bickley: Of course, higher interest rates also mean less economic activity. There's also bad news for homeowners. Mortgage rates have already risen to their highest level since March 2020. Mortgages are up across the board, 30-year loans, but also 15- and 5-year mortgages.
--:-- Ben Johnson: And there's one other reason that higher interest rates are a big problem. They confirmed that America's business leaders believe inflation is here to stay, as Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said on Thursday. We've now had nine consecutive months where inflation has been more than two times the Fed's 2% target. That makes it pretty clear that inflation is not transitory.
--:-- John Bickley: Is there any good news? Possibly. If you dig deep into the weeds of the PPI, it measures wholesale prices, but it also measures the cost that producers pay for raw materials or unfinished goods like lumber or steel. The cost for unfinished goods fell for the first time in eight months, so the price of goods could come down in the future.
--:-- Ben Johnson: But what is it? The cost of intermediate services rose. You can't win them all.
--:-- John Bickley: Ben, thanks.
--:-- Ben Johnson: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: Coming up, the immigration crisis is now affecting much more than just the southern border. The wisdom of the Bible has stood the test of centuries, and reading it is well worth everyone's time. But having time to read anything these days is increasingly difficult. Dwell is a five-star app that makes it easy to get into the Bible by providing a world-class listening experience of this timeless book. And today, you can try Dwell for free by going to dwellapp.io slash morningwire. That's dwellapp.io slash morningwire.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Since President Biden first took office, the country has experienced an ongoing immigration crisis at the southern border. Based on limited data released by the federal government, the crisis may be even worse than we first imagined.
--:-- John Bickley: Here to give us further insight into the problem is Daily Wire's Ian Howarth.
--:-- Ian Howarth: So first off, Ian, what new data do we have?
--:-- John Bickley: Well, according to a report provided by the Department of Homeland Security to Senator Ron Johnson, more than 270,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the country, and more than 50,000 of them have failed to report themselves to authorities as required in just a five-month period last year.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Senator Johnson announced that, quote, between March and August 2021, as a result of the Biden administration's failed border policies, over 270,000 illegal aliens have been dispersed into the United States with little chance for removal.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, you talked to former acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf about the border and the immigration crisis. What did the secretary have to say?
--:-- Ian Howarth: Yeah, I spoke with Secretary Wolf and was able to ask him about the root causes behind the crisis and why the Biden administration is refusing to accept the crisis even exists. I asked Secretary Wolf why ICE hasn't released its annual report detailing arrests and deportations. It usually comes out in December each year and now we're well into January and still no numbers have been released.
--:-- John Bickley: Secretary Wolf said that it's likely a matter of optics for the Biden administration. So I suspect that that report will come out in the coming weeks but they're going to release it in a way that they're going to try to bury it, bury it in the sense of it not getting a lot of news coverage.
--:-- Ian Howarth: He then explained what's behind the data Senator Ron Johnson shared. During the Trump administration, we used what we call ICE air, which is a fleet of planes that are run by contractors to move individuals all over the country in detention facilities because clearly there's not enough along that southwest border.
--:-- John Bickley: Unfortunately, what the Biden administration is now doing is using those same air assets. But instead of flying them around to hold these individuals until we can remove them, they have chosen to not put them in detention, but instead simply release them into the interior of the country and into communities all across this country.
--:-- Ian Howarth: And then he added that they're trying to move illegal immigrants in secret. And they're doing that largely in the middle of the night. They don't want to publicize what they're doing because they know it's unpopular with the vast majority of Americans.
--:-- John Bickley: And in terms of policies, he argued that the Biden administration's root opposition to key and often successful fixtures in the Trump administration's arsenal, such as remain in Mexico and border walls, would prevent Biden from making any real progress if he does hope to quell the explosion of illegal immigration we've witnessed for over a year.
--:-- Ian Howarth: We left them a playbook of policies that do work. I think there's some element that want to implement some of these policies, but they can't because they have been so, you know, anti-Trump. Anything that President Trump was for, they're against. Whether it's works, whether it's effective or not, they're against.
--:-- John Bickley: So whether it's building a border wall, the Remain of Mexico, the asylum agreements, whatever it might be, they're against. And they've painted themselves, you know, into a corner, unfortunately. And they've done that at the, you know, on the backs of the American people.
--:-- Ian Howarth: Well, John, thanks for digging into this topic.
--:-- John Bickley: My pleasure.
--:-- John Bickley: After months of attempting to mask and vaccinate our way out of COVID, authorities, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, are now saying Omicron is inescapable. Here to discuss what we've heard from health officials that signals a change in approach is Dr. Human Hamati.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: So we've heard some head-turning statements from the administration on COVID in recent days, including from Dr. Fauci, who basically described Omicron as inescapable, saying it will find just about everybody.
--:-- John Bickley: What does this reveal and how might it change COVID policies?
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: That's a very good question, John. First, what it does is this shows you that Dr. Fauci is realizing that he cannot escape the truth. The government can't continue to preach that we can mask and vaccinate our way out of this pandemic and out of the Omicron variant in particular.
--:-- John Bickley: And now that it's obvious to pretty much anybody that the Omicron variant is inescapable, they're beginning to really change what they're putting out in terms of their messaging from the administration and admitting it.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: And even Janet Woodcock, who's the acting FDA commissioner, said that this week as well. And the way that this changes things in terms of COVID management policy is that it's causing agencies, whether at the federal, state and even local levels now, to understand that we have to deal with this virus as something that we have to manage rather than something we have to fanatically prevent.
--:-- John Bickley: That change is going to cause us to perhaps begin to peel off some of the measures that we've been taking before, peel off the school closures, peel off the university campus closures, peel off restrictions on events, peel off some of the distancing.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: And now even with the Supreme Court decision some of the mandates as well for vaccines and other things.
--:-- John Bickley: Another notable messaging shift we heard came from the L health director who insisted the Super Bowl would end up staying in L and that despite concerns it would have to be moved.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: That's actually a significant prediction. What's the takeaway there?
--:-- John Bickley: Dr. Ferrer came out actually in a very surprising move. And she said that she is, quote, confident that the Super Bowl can be held here in Los Angeles.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: And what does that mean? It means that she is now predicting that things will be so different in another month or so that we won't need to institute those measures.
--:-- John Bickley: The other thing that she's pretty much admitting is what anyone who's attended an NFL game in that stadium has seen. And I think they're acknowledging that everyone's going to get it, like Dr. Fauci said.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: So at this point, they know that everyone's going to get it regardless of how hard we try to prevent that. And they also know that by then, the infection rate may be so low that it won't make a difference.
--:-- John Bickley: And I think that's a very positive sign. So this all comes down to the concept that we've been hearing more and more, living with the virus. But what does that mean? What does it mean for us to live with the virus going forward?
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: You know, I'm very glad you asked. Living with a virus is no different than living with a flu. Every year we have a seasonal flu. And what do we do with a seasonal flu? We vaccinate those who are at risk. We make sure that every person who is older, elderly and even older adults are vaccinated against it.
--:-- John Bickley: We make sure that anyone who is sick isolates themselves from everyone else. And we make sure that we immediately seek medical attention should we have somebody who is very sick.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: That's something, again, we've done it with the flu. Why not do it now with the pandemic as it stands? We now know how we can prevent against severe infection or hospitalization. We also know what kinds of therapeutics work and don't work against this. We have great data.
--:-- John Bickley: And in fact, we also now have oral therapies, which are pills that should be coming online much more available than they have been since they got recently otherwise by the FDA.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: So with a combination of all these factors and all this information, we now should be able to target those who are at risk and isolate them as needed, mask them as needed, and make sure that they get tested and treated very quickly once symptoms develop.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, it's nice to hear a lot of people coming to that consensus. Dr. Hamadi, we appreciate you coming on again and talking to us.
--:-- Dr. Human Hamati: My pleasure. Thank you.
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. Officials have identified the suspect who held four people hostage in a synagogue in Texas on Saturday. The suspect was a 44-year-old British national who demanded the release of a terrorist known as Lady Al-Qaeda, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted in 2010 of attempting to kill U.S. Army officers in Afghanistan.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The standoff with law enforcement lasted more than 10 hours. All four hostages were able to get out alive while the suspect was shot dead by police at around 9 p.m.
--:-- John Bickley: The FBI said in a statement that there's no indication that anyone else was involved, but has not yet provided a motive.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Novak Djokovic has left Australia after the government there revoked his visa for a second time.
--:-- John Bickley: The Australian government announced Sunday it was denying his visa appeal in the interest of, quote, health, safety and good order.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Djokovic is unvaccinated, and the government reportedly viewed his vaccine skepticism as a threat to public health.
--:-- John Bickley: In response, Djokovic says he respects the decision, but is, quote, extremely disappointed with the court ruling.
--:-- Georgia Howe: If you like this episode and are interested in hearing more, subscribe to Morning Wire on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listening, and give us a five-star review.
--:-- John Bickley: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back tomorrow with the news you need to know.
