CPI REPORT: Inflation RISES As Gas Prices SOAR Right Before Midterms

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: This morning, the CPI is out with new inflation numbers. We can put the first element up on the screen. To nobody's surprise, things are getting significantly worse for everybody. Consumer prices rising at a 3.7% annual rate, driven primarily, again, unsurprisingly, by energy costs. Gasoline rising at 9.1%. That accounted, according to the analysis, for half of the increase. Obviously, this is the main driver of the kind of political earthquake that is hitting Republicans all over the country. And for people who don't follow Vermont politics, they might be surprised to know that for many years, they have had a quite popular Republican governor named Phil Scott. He cruises to re-election every two years. They have the elections quite frequently. This time, though, he's actually struggling. A super PAC that backed Phil Scott when he first ran has, I think for the first time in many years, had to surge its way back into Vermont. The Republican Governors Association is pouring money into this Phil Scott super PAC because Manage Anew, a populist Democrat, won the Democratic primary. And we put up this next element, is, according to polls, giving Phil Scott a real run for his money. If Phil Scott is in danger, there is almost no Republican out there who is safe. And so joining us now from Vermont is Manage Anew, Democratic nominee for governor. Amanda, thank you so much for being here. [00:01:44] Amanda: Well, thanks for having me. [00:01:46] Speaker 1: And so I wanted to get your reaction to the latest CPI numbers this morning and also get your take on, you know, how it's affecting people in Vermont, especially as we're heading into the winter and the time that people are trying to, you know, stock up on heating oil, which is effectively a version of diesel. [00:02:09] Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I'm not surprised to see the rise in inflationary numbers. I think, you know, obviously the spike in the price of oil and gas, like that has ripple effects throughout the entire economy, as it is the energy, right? That drives that as well. I'm worried about food. I'm worried about people heating their homes. And I think when we look at inflationary numbers, also, we can't ever forget about the large section that housing accounts for. And so in Vermont, we're definitely experiencing this. We have a major cost of living crisis and it's, you know, it's around the basic needs, healthcare, housing, food, energy. And when the basic needs are unaffordable, it's that's why you need government intervention because you have a scenario where they can charge as much as they want until people reach their breaking point. And I think we're at that breaking point now. [00:03:05] Speaker 3: And genuinely curious, because I know what one of your opponents of tax is about tax hikes. And so I'm curious, like when you're talking to people, how they balance that question of, are you going to make me pay more in taxes or are you going to make my life more affordable in general? How do you have those conversations with folks? [00:03:21] Amanda: Yeah, well, it's fascinating because I think in some ways, Phil Scott, his argument has been that affordability means tax cuts. And I think there is a certain amount to which people have accepted that argument because I think they've lost faith that the government can make anything else more affordable. And so at least they feel confident that the government could reduce that price pressure. And it's true. We've had really large increases in property taxes in recent years. And when we look at the impacts that are going to come from the big, beautiful bill, like states are going to be in a really tough situation. And so this is a moment when we really need to be thinking a lot more upstream, like starting to move, for example, towards universal health care. Like, I think it's, we've reached a point where we recognize a profit-oriented health care system is a terrible idea. We need to really focus in more permanently affordable housing, not just subsidizing the insanely unaffordable housing we already have. and really think about how do we increase the production of renewable energy, increase more food production, etc. So we're ensuring no matter what, everybody's basic sort of needs are safe and secure. [00:04:32] Speaker 1: And to ask a kind of out of left field Vermont question, and viewers know I lived up there during the pandemic, love that state. I've always wondered though, like why aren't the mountains responsible, the ski mountains in Vermont responsible for creating housing [00:04:50] Speaker 4: for their staff? [00:04:52] Speaker 1: And why isn't the state kind of working with them to provide that? You know, most of the people that work on the mountains are in their 20s. And our seasonal workers like would be happy with really like a dorm type situation. Vermont does not lack for water, does not lack for land. Like, it seems to me that it would just make sense to just basically the state and the mountains to get together, build some dorms basically for these kids. Instead, you've got them, kids that are in their 20s, you've got them competing with locals who are there year round and massively driving up housing prices. So is there any outside the box thinking going on in kind of in that direction? Or what can you do to like alleviate this housing crisis? [00:05:38] Amanda: Yeah, I really love that question. Because I do think in some ways it gets to the heart of a lot of the reason I'm running and also I think the heart of our affordability crisis because I do believe like Phil, it's not just Phil Scott. I would say the dominant economic playbook that we've been using for decades now, I will, the way I'll describe it is often starting from this deficit mindset of assuming that we're poor, we're struggling because we lack something. We lack the right businesses, we lack the right people, we lack the right investment. And so we orient a lot of our incentives and policies towards attracting those businesses, investors, people from the outside rather than starting with what do we have? What are our strengths, innovations, businesses, resources, etc. that we can invest in as the starting point? And so as a result, we have become way too dependent on tourism. We focused a lot on, you know, attracting folks to come move here rather than really making sure the folks who are here are good to begin with. And so some of the proposal is both about, yes, how do we ensure we're building more permanently affordable housing? Like we have a great tradition in Vermont around like community land trusts and, you know, co-ops and non-profit housing, but also how do we increase taxation on like private equity, short-term rentals, luxury second homes that become so dominant in our housing market so that we can reduce the burden on residential Vermonters and hopefully free up some of the existing housing stock for folks who live here all year round. [00:07:15] Speaker 3: And what do you hear? I mean, Ryan and I were talking earlier in the show about how some of the polling in Maine back in 2020 was, it ended up being really skewed and it had Susan Collins losing by a significant margin. She ends up winning by a significant margin and a lot of pollsters look back on that and said, we were undercounting rural voters. And so I just wanted to hear your experience right now talking to rural people on the campaign trail, what their concerns are and how those conversations are playing out. [00:07:43] Amanda: Yeah, I mean, it's been really cool, I guess, within this whole campaign because, you know, my background has always been in policy and advocacy. Like I'm an economic policy sort of nerd. And so politics is a newer dimension to me. And so a lot of the standard political maybe approaches of just going to the high-density voting areas wasn't my approach. And so I've gone all over the state talking to folks. And the first question I always ask is like, what are the things you're most proud of in your community? Because I do believe the solutions are here. They're being practiced and the role of the state should be to like nurture and support them. And what I hear over and over again, I think, is that people want to protect the things that they love here, like our strong communities, our small schools, our general stores, our natural beauty. And they want to ensure that they have access to the kind of, you know, small businesses and, you know, health care and affordable housing, et cetera, that they need locally. And so there's a desire for doing things a little bit differently. in the sense that they want to have a voice in this moment to feel agency and power over the future because everything feels a little overwhelming, like the compounding crises we're facing. And so feeling like we all have something to give in this moment and that together we're going to be okay, I think that's the major thing. [00:09:08] Speaker 3: I also, I'm curious, like my sense is that pollsters may not fully understand how much rural voters who perhaps swung for Trump at one point or another have swung against Trump for some of the same reasons they liked him in the first place. [00:09:23] Amanda: Oh, absolutely. And I don't know. I mean, I think that in some ways also people are a little bit tired of the partisan politics. So I think a lot of folks don't even necessarily identify as much with party as with this sense that politics has become really divorced from live reality. And so, at least in Vermont, I think the major thing is that people just don't want these top-down directives. They don't, they want to feel like there is some bottom-up decision-making that the decisions that are being made are on the basis of the priorities for people and that they have more resources and control to advance the types of solutions that work for their towns and their communities because there are unique differences across, but I also think there's some shared values that can orient us as a state. [00:10:14] Speaker 1: And I also wanted to ask about kind of the future of the state. When I lived up there, my kids went to Dover Elementary School which had pre-K through six and I think it had 85 kids in it. [00:10:26] Speaker 4: Yeah. [00:10:26] Speaker 1: My fourth grader had four students in her entire class which is, you know, that's very nice, I guess, for parent-teacher ratio but it's also like insane and unsustainable and schools are closing constantly. There are a decent number of, you know, families that don't have any elementary school at all. And so, long-term, what does Vermont do? Because I think Vermont is kind of on the leading edge of this kind of population collapse that we're going to be seeing over the next 10, 20, 30 years. So what is the state going to do basically to not die? [00:11:04] Amanda: Wow. I'm a bit strong, you know, but I mean, I think that the, when we talk about education, first of all, because that has been probably the focus this whole past year and a lot of it, honestly, this proposal to close a lot of these rural schools is not popular and I would honestly just say it's a thinly veiled attack on public education and people really value these schools not just for their kids' education but as the center of community life. And so, we piloted and you will probably be familiar with some of the great examples across the country of community schools where you actually integrate a wider range of non-profit or social services like child care or after-school programs, continuing adult education, food banks, et cetera, so that you are providing a more holistic sort of wraparound services that the kids need to thrive but also the families and community need in order to thrive because I think the reality is more people will come here. People keep coming here and it's because Vermont's great, right? And I think the important thing is for us to be able to be ready for folks to come. We need to make sure that the people who live here are good. And so that's where, you know, the housing crisis, the healthcare crisis, you know, I've proposed, again, doing things the Vermont way like bringing back small-town doctors and nurses and mental health providers and having them as just public employees and starting to lay that foundation towards universal healthcare, like people will come for that. And if we, you know what I mean, really advance some pretty, you know, I would say, yeah, strong housing reform, we can get to the root of our housing crisis, which is actually the financialization of housing. We're treating houses like investments and not like homes. And that has to be the starting point of like our goal not being the number of units we build, but that everybody in Vermont has housing. [00:12:59] Speaker 1: So last question for me, like, so what's your kind of elevator pitch that you're making in your campaign? Like what does manage anew for governor mean? [00:13:11] Amanda: So my elevator pitch to folks has really been, you know, I'm a manager anew, I'm running for governor because I refuse to accept that collapse is inevitable or that the best a governor can do is just manage decline. And so I believe that we can protect what we love and produce what we need in this moment to bring each of our unique gifts, energies, creativities to this, you know, the state and our vision for a better future and make sure that we not only weather the storms ahead but actually inspire a different way forward. [00:13:43] Speaker 1: All right, well, Amanda Nhu, thanks so much for joining us. Democratic candidate for governor of Vermont, really appreciate it. [00:13:50] Amanda: Thanks for having me. [00:13:51] Speaker 1: You got it. [00:13:52] Speaker 4: Hey, if you liked that video, hit the like button or leave a comment below. It really helps get the show to more people. 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