Oct 7, 2026 · 18 min · 10 segments
On this episode of The Moon Griffon Show, Heritage Foundation senior research fellow Simon Hankinson joins Moon to discuss the growing unrest in France and whether America could face similar…
Simon HankinsonGuestMoon GriffonHost
Yeah, I mean, the, the French have said that they wanna spend more on defense, which they should.
Um, they spend right now, I think about 7% of their GDP on debt, because they have a national debt that's, I think, pretty close to what ours is, which should tell us something else about-
Sooner or later, [laughs] once the interest payments go up, you know, we're paying now 5% interest.
Once it gets up to 6%, 7%, pretty soon you're spending, uh, most of your revenue on, on interest payments on the debt.
In theory, we don't wanna have, you know, any animals, uh, not in shelters and spayed and neutered.
We don't want any human being without healthcare, without housing, without food, and so on.
And those are good aspirations to have, and as a civilized society, we can figure out ways to try to make that happen.
But what we can't do is, as you say, make a blanket promise to everybody, including people here illegally, and of course, that would draw in millions more who would want to take advantage of that generosity without massively raising taxes, which we know neither party...
Well, the Democrats might try to do it, but it's gonna be pretty hard to do.
We don't have the money to do what we're doing now, and the left is out there, and who knows, they might win the election.
But if they win the election, people that voted for them are gonna expect the Democrats to fix healthcare, and fix things, and make affordable.
Uh, Milton Friedman said it best, "Inflation comes from Washington, and it comes from spending too much money," period.
And, and what bothers me when I look at France, I'm thinking, "Man, how close are we to being like them?" I mean, you mentioned how long they've been doing it, but it don't take long...
Yeah, I mean, the, the French have said that they wanna spend more on defense, which they should.
Um, they spend right now, I think about 7% of their GDP on debt, because they have a national debt that's, I think, pretty close to what ours is, which should tell us something else about-
Sooner or later, [laughs] once the interest payments go up, you know, we're paying now 5% interest.
Once it gets up to 6%, 7%, pretty soon you're spending, uh, most of your revenue on, on interest payments on the debt.
In theory, we don't wanna have, you know, any animals, uh, not in shelters and spayed and neutered.
We don't want any human being without healthcare, without housing, without food, and so on.
And those are good aspirations to have, and as a civilized society, we can figure out ways to try to make that happen.
But what we can't do is, as you say, make a blanket promise to everybody, including people here illegally, and of course, that would draw in millions more who would want to take advantage of that generosity without massively raising taxes, which we know neither party...
Well, the Democrats might try to do it, but it's gonna be pretty hard to do.
We don't have the money to do what we're doing now, and the left is out there, and who knows, they might win the election.
But if they win the election, people that voted for them are gonna expect the Democrats to fix healthcare, and fix things, and make affordable.
Uh, Milton Friedman said it best, "Inflation comes from Washington, and it comes from spending too much money," period.
And, and what bothers me when I look at France, I'm thinking, "Man, how close are we to being like them?" I mean, you mentioned how long they've been doing it, but it don't take long...
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