Transcript of Current Hantavirus Risk Levels & Gas Prices Soar As Iran Deal Unravels | 5.12.26 New

Passengers from the Hantavirus ship arrive in the U.S., sparking concerns but also strong reassurance from health professionals.

We've handled outbreaks like this before. This is not one of those things like COVID.

We look at how the Trump administration is monitoring the situation here in the States.

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive Editor John Bickley. It's Tuesday, May 12th, and this is Morning Wire.

Trump pushes to suspend the federal gas tax as he says the ceasefire is on life support. We talked to an economist about the prices at the pump and the health of the job market.

We're getting closer and closer to a point where we're going to have to start fuel rationing, and that is when prices really start to go up, unfortunately.

And as California faces yet another massive budget deficit, its proposed billionaire tax is already sparking outrage.

Everyone is leaving California.

It is because of their horrific policies. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

As an advocate for truth, you know that women shouldn't have to share locker rooms with men. Women shouldn't have to compete against male athletes, and they shouldn't be punished for speaking the truth. But across America, that's exactly what's happening. Men are being allowed to compete in women's sports, robbing girls of scholarships, medals, titles, and safety. Now the US Supreme Court has heard two cases. West Virginia VBPJ and Little V. Heckox that could decide the future of women's sports nationwide. This could be a watershed moment in the fight to protect biological reality and fairness. Alliance Defending Freedom needs your voice today. Visit joinadf.com/wire or text WIRE to 83848 to add your name to their declaration and side with truth and fairness. That's joinadf.com/wire or text WIRE to 83848. What starts in women's sports spreads to schools, medicine, and parental rights. This is our moment to push back. Stand with Alliance Defending Freedom today.

Passengers from the cruise ship MV Hondius were returned home to more than 20 countries Monday, with almost 20 passengers returning to the U.S. The Americans were flown on State Department flights and are now in quarantine facilities in Omaha and Atlanta.

Joining us now to discuss the situation is public health expert and researcher and former South Carolina city councilwoman Audity Bussells. Audity, thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

Now, we know that there were Americans on board the MV Hondius cruise ship, at least one of whom tested positive for this virus, and they have all since been repatriated. What do we know about their status?

Well, first and foremost, I do want people to know that this virus acts very differently than what you might be used to around coronavirus. This is an extremely rare virus that only has one strain that's actually been found to be transmitted amongst humans. So I know there's a lot of like scary stuff out there, but I do wanna tell people that this is not something to be extremely worried about. However, it's good to know a little bit about the virus. So absolutely, we had one person that, uh, had a PCR test, which is the test that's done to conduct, uh, and understand whether or not the virus is present, show indications of hantavirus. There's no treatment for it except for fluids, rest, anything that you would do for any sort of viral infection. Unfortunately, when you're older, if you have comorbidities, that's really where you start to see that immediate kind of consequence of potentially the virus being fatal. And so right now, this person is under, you know, good care of a hospital, and they are probably getting all the rest and the precautions in place to ensure that this virus doesn't spread.

Now, the medical professionals that are working with these individuals, are they at high risk, or is this something that's pretty difficult to transmit? Is it by contact? Is it through air particles? How does it transmit?

You have to be in very close contact of feces or bodily fluids, typically from rodents, or in this case, an infected person. And I think that these medical professionals are probably quite used to working with much more contagious illnesses that spread airborne, just being in the same spaces. And luckily, since the coronavirus pandemic, A lot of these hospitals and facilities are equipped with, you know, the protective mechanisms that all of these doctors and healthcare professionals need. So yes, there's always a risk, but I don't think that it's any more than, say, someone coming in with flu and someone treating them and potentially catching it from being too close to them and not taking those safety precautions.

Now, I was struck when I saw the photo of the American individual who's now under quarantine. He looks like a very young, healthy guy. Do we have any information about the other individuals on the ship who unfortunately passed away?

We do know that those who did pass away, they were elderly, uh, and they did maybe have a compromised immune system or other health conditions we may not know about. Unfortunately, in the process of transferring them and getting them to better care after being disembarked from the cruise ship, they passed. And so I'm not gonna sugarcoat that there isn't a higher risk of early mortality or death because of this virus, but it's extremely rare in terms of being transmitted. So I want to caution Americans that we need to keep practicing healthy habits. But, you know, unless you're going to areas where this cruise ship was and where people expect that patient zero began, you really should be okay.

All right, well, Aditi, thank you so much for coming on today.

Thank you for having me.

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With gas prices hitting a new high at just over $4.50 per gallon, the most in over 4 years, President Trump is pushing for Congress to suspend the federal gas tax. The move comes amid new data that's presenting mixed picture of the economy.

Joining us now to make sense of this economic moment is E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. E.J., thanks for coming on.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

So let's start with the most immediate news, what we're all right now feeling at the pump and what we're seeing in the stock market. There's been hope of a deal being reached by now with Iran, but with the ceasefire now being on life support, as Trump put it, gas prices have spiked again. What are we seeing right now economically?

Well, just more volatility. Unfortunately, it's just all sheer uncertainty. Nobody has any idea which way this is going to go, how this is possibly going to conclude. And it's not just a matter of folks don't know how soon the Strait of Hormuz will be open. For example, a lot of people don't even know if the US even has an off-ramp at this point. So as the world's crude supplies continue to dwindle, as we continue to burn through those reserves to make up for the one-fifth of oil supply basically that's missing from the globe right —now we're getting closer and closer to a point where we're going to have to start fuel rationing. And that is when prices really start to go up, unfortunately.

Trump's certainly hoping it never comes to that. And there's certainly a sense of urgency from our side to get this thing settled. Now, broadening out a little bit, we just saw some new job numbers that came in better than expected. We added 115,000 jobs last month, but there's mixed headlines with some layoffs at big companies as well. How do you see the labor market now?

Well, there's, there's a lot of conflicting data. And so what, what we do essentially is we take all of the metrics that we have and we try to weave a story together that explains all of them. So here goes. The, the number of jobs increased much better than expectations. So that's good last month. But at the same time, in April, the number of people employed actually fell pretty substantially, over 200,000. And if we look at other internals of the report, what we find is that people increasingly took on multiple jobs. So people who already had a full-time job took on a part-time job. Some people who already had 2 jobs took on a 3rd, let's say. And the number of people who actually had full-time work declined. All the net job growth last month came from part-time jobs. So it really seems like people in response to the higher cost of living from gas and diesel prices going up so much clearly went out and got 2nd or 3rd jobs. And, and the result of that again is you can, I think, square the circle on all these seemingly conflicting conflicting data points.

A lot of this sounding pretty doom and gloom, but we do try to look reality in the face on this show. But given that, where do you see, you know, fertile ground for new opportunities in this current economy?

Well, you, you know, you're right. The, the economy does have some major, major headwinds. Energy is the big one, right? But what are some tailwinds? You know, AI is both a headwind and a tailwind here. Yes, it's going to eliminate some jobs, but it's creating others. This is just like any other technological development. Think of the smartphone, how many, uh, App developers were there before the smartphone existed. Things like Uber and Lyft weren't even possible before the smartphone. So all— there are all kinds of jobs that get created just as jobs get eliminated. Anytime you get these new technological developments, aggregate demand is a fallacy. Demand is infinite. And so again, yes, you're gonna have some jobs eliminated, but you'll have even more created. That's the result. The probably the biggest tailwind though for this economy right now is still the effects of the big beautiful bill, the surge in investment that we have seen along with productivity growth. All of those things are going to, I think, try to help keep this economy afloat even as we have to fight through $100 oil.

Yeah. And Trump trying now to bring that number down as fast as possible. E.J., thank you so much for the insight as always.

My pleasure. Thank you.

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netsuite.com/morningwire. California's budget woes are back in the spotlight with a ballot measure that could slap a 5% tax aimed directly at billionaires, but critics warn it could actually cost the state in lost revenue.

Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here now to explain. So Megan, California already has the highest personal income tax in America. What would this new measure do?

Yeah, so what it would do, Georgia, is impose a one-time 5% tax on the total net worth of anyone who was a California resident on January 1st, 2026, and also happens to be worth more than a billion dollars. So if a billionaire leaves the state before the measure passes, supporters still want to tax any wealth accumulated while they lived there. So backers say that this money would help close California's budget gap and also fund things like healthcare, education, and anti-poverty programs. But on the other side, critics are arguing that California doesn't have a revenue problem so much as it has a spending problem. In fact, Morning Wire spoke to Andrew Wilford of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, and he points out that California already taxes top earners more heavily than anywhere else in the country.

14.4%, which again is, is more than double most other states. When you're looking at the state of California and they're saying, oh, we can't make our, we can't make our budget balance, the reason's on the spending side.

And then on top of that, Wilford argues that this isn't just another income tax. It's a fundamentally different concept where the government taxes assets that people already own. So things like stock holdings, businesses, investments, even if they haven't sold them yet. So he and other critics say that this could trigger an exodus of entrepreneurs and investors. And, you know, to a pretty large degree, California is already seeing that. So Google co-founder Sergey Brin, for instance, fled the Soviet Union as a child. And he told The New York Times that he compares this proposal to Soviet-style socialism. And he has already moved assets out of the state. So has Google co-founder Larry Page. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, PayPal's Peter Thiel, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and even others beyond them. So they've either left California or they're relocating companies and homes to places like Florida, Nevada, or Texas. And reports suggest that nearly 30% of the potential tax base that this new tax would be targeting has already departed before that January 1st deadline.

Now, Gavin Newsom has tried to distance himself from this proposal. Is that going to help him or is that going to be a liability in his future political endeavors?

Well, you know, that's an interesting question because he obviously feels that it would harm him if he backed this proposal. And so he doesn't. And several Democrats running to replace him have also distanced themselves from this proposal, including people like Katie Porter, Javier Becerra, and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan. And part of the concern is that there's really no limiting principle here. So people like Wilford are arguing that wealthy residents know that once a state starts taxing accumulated wealth, lawmakers can always come back for more the next time California faces a budget shortfall.

Sure, it might be 5% now, but in the future, next time there's a budget deficit, it's gonna be 5% again, and then 5% again, and 5% again.

And then on top of that, because of the retrograde nature of this particular proposal, trying to tax people who left the state before the law was enacted, there's also a real question about whether this could even pass constitutional muster.

Now, shifting gears a little bit here, waste, fraud, and abuse have really become of huge interest to the American people recently, particularly in California where there's a lot of concern about corruption and how this taxpayer money is being spent. We recently saw Spencer Pratt sit down with CBS News. He's making this a huge plank of his campaign. Um, that interview, uh, didn't go as expected. So Megan, what happened there?

Yeah, Pratt, who lost his home last year in the California wildfires, has really surprised some people with just how explosively popular he's become. And to a large degree, he's built that primarily with his social media savvy that's directly tapping into the broader frustration driving this budget debate. Because after that CBS segment aired, Pratt accused CBS of turning the interview into what he called a comical hit piece. He said they used old clips from his reality TV days on The Hills rather than focusing on his criticism of how California leaders are spending taxpayer dollars. So that backlash eventually became so large that CBS did in the end release the full, uh, 30-minute video.

Nothing with the national politics has anything to do with why our streets aren't working, why they don't feel safe, why our tax money is being stolen, why drug addicts are running the streets.

And so I think, you know, Pratt's focus is hyper-local. He's accusing city leadership of squandering that tax money through government corruption and incompetence. So he's really tapping into this larger question of how California is managing its budget.

Well, and his popularity in deep blue California shows there is a hunger for this, even with those voters. Megan, thanks for reporting. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for waking up with us. The reporting that fuels this show is only possible because you tune in every day and because all of our Daily Wire subscribers.

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