Ben Shapiro pushes back against Jason Calacanis's assertion that military spending is a primary driver of the U.S. national debt.
Opinion
Shapiro: China uses TikTok as a psychological operations weapon
“I just look at how China has utilized TikTok as a PSYOP weapon in a myriad of ways, gathering data, putting out its own propaganda.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shapiro: Federal gridlock will permanently shift political power to state governments
“I think that actually this is not going to get solved at the federal level. I think what's actually going to happen is that the federal government is going to lock up and it's going to be essentially rotating elected quasi-dictators until, until the end of tim…”
Assertion Supported
Shapiro: Qatar gave Hamas $2B and U.S. universities $6.3B recently
“They gave two billion dollars to Hamas over the course of the last several years. And have funded the American university system to tune a 6.3 billion dollars for a country that has a grand total of 2.6 million citizens.”
Assertion Contradicted
Shapiro: All net U.S. taxes are paid by the top income quintile
“All net taxes in this country are paid by the top quintile, all of them, because below the top quintile, you're getting as much back from the government or more than you are paying into the system.”
Assertion Partly supported
Shapiro: DOGE is avoiding means-tested welfare, the main national debt driver
“The systemic drivers of our national debt are not actually being touched at this point by Doge. I mean, it's the means-tested welfare programs that are really the systemic long-term drivers of our national debt.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Shapiro: A U.S. recession will trigger populist revolts against free-market capitalism
“And if the, and if it goes sideways, then what you're going to get is a populist revolt on the left and a populist revolt on the right that is going to take down everybody who is even remotely connected with this idea of free market capitalism.”