June 10, 2025 • 34 mins
Hey Denver Mayor Mike Johnston: We're not addressing the root causes of homelessness: Drug abuse, mental illness & the economy.
Denver sees historic drop in street homelessness: Mayor Johnston
Denver sees historic drop in street homelessness: Mayor Johnston
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Busily trying to find my story for my Michael Brown
minute that plays as the promo for the Weekend with
Michael Brown, the nationally syndicated program that airs over on
Freedom and I came across this story on Katie VR
and the headline is Denver sees historic drop in street
(00:20):
homelessness Colon Mayor Johnston. The story goes business in Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The numbers up, but the biggest difference from past years.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The numbers up. I think that's pretty uh a sealient point,
if you will, mister Hubbard.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Here at ten, we're going to start with the number
of people experiencing homelessness in Denver. The numbers up, but
the biggest difference from past years, those who are living
on the streets is down.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Fox Everyone's Jared Dane joins this line from the newsroom
with one what the report says and what the mayor
had to say about it.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Jared, this recent survey does show an increase in the
amount of sheltered homeless indivent Jules, but also shows an
increase in the total number of n.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
H That also shows the sea the increase in the
number of sheltered homelessness and an increase in the number
of people on the streets too. Let's go back to
the headline, because I'm really confused because kdvr's website, even
this morning, still says Denver sees historic dropping street homelessness
Colon Mayor Johnston.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
The house people in our city. I spoke with some
people who tell me there is more work to be done.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
How are we as a city, as a state, as
a nation, but as a city, how are we going
to invest our resources in housing that's attainable for all?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
The point in time or pit study showed ten thousand,
seven hundred and seventy four homeless people in the Denver
metro area, up from just under ten thousand last year.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Up everywhere so far has been up, up, up up.
If you're curious, go to my x feed at Michael
Brown USA. And if you're not following me, following following
me over there, I don't know why you're not. You
should be, because ironically, this morning, I pull off A
twenty five in Bellevue to come over here to the studio,
(02:16):
and I come to the stop on the off ramp
to make my left turn, and I look closely because
for a moment I can't ascertain whether it's trash or
it's a human being. And I look closely and I realize, oh,
(02:38):
it's a human and her dog and all the trash.
So you know, I'm not violating her privacy because she's
on she's on a public easement and she's laying there,
sound asleep at whatever it was five o'clock this morning.
And and I just tweeted that out along with the
(03:00):
KDVR story and just asked Mayor Johnston, did you count
this individual? Was this individual among the people that you counted?
And then the other thing that really kind of crossed
my mind was, and I think maybe alex or someone
sent me an email of this effect, but or maybe
it was do Better Denver. If you're not following at
(03:23):
do Better Denver on X, you should be following that
account too. This point in time survey that they do first,
it's not just Denver. It includes It obviously includes Denver,
but it also includes Adams County, a Rapahoe County, Boulder County,
Broomfield County, Douglas County, Jefferson Counties, and of course the
(03:45):
city and County of Denver. It did not carve out
Denver specifically. So how can the mayor claim that, oh
it's down. Now, we're only this news package from KDVRS
two minutes thirty three seconds. We're only fifty two seconds
into it, and so far every word has been it's
been up, this is up, this is up, this is up.
They just fly out lie to you. And that point
(04:08):
in time count that I was just describing was done
in January. Now imagine this. You want to do a
point in time count to see how many people are
on the streets. So if you're going to do that,
do you want to do it on a day like today,
when you know, when when I pull up at Bellevue
in twenty five and it's you know, it's a gorgeous sunrise.
(04:29):
It's currently fifty four degrees outside, probably a low of
fifty degrees tonight or so, it's a beautiful, crisp, you know,
kind of summer like morning or you and do you
want to do the count then when that woman God
rest her or God bless her so over here at
Bellevue in twenty five is under a simple blanket, their
(04:51):
dog's all curled up asleep. Or do you want to
do that point in time count in the middle of
January on a night when it's like nineteen below zero.
So do you want to do the count then and
see how many people on the streets versus how many
you're in the shelter. My god, I'm so sick of
being lied to by these people, or sometimes not even
lied to. It's just the way they present the story.
(05:14):
They never present the story factually.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Let me just let this roll business in Denver, the
numbers up, but the biggest difference from past years those
who are living on the streets is down.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Fox Everyone's Jared Dane joins this line from the newsroom
with one what the report says and what the mayor
had to say about it.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Jared, this recent survey does show an increase in the
amount of sheltered homeless individuals, but also shows an increase
in the total number of unhoused people in our city.
I spoke with some people who tell me there is
more work to be done.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
How are we as a city, as a state, as
a nation, but as a city, how are we going
to invest our resources in housing that's attainable for all?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Is the point in time or pit study showed seven
hundred and seventy four homeless people in the Denver metro area,
up from just under ten thousand last year, and a
nine percent increase in sheltered and unhoused people from last year.
It also showed an increase of around eight hundred homeless
individuals from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. Curis
(06:21):
Howard works with house Key's Action Network Denver. She tells me,
these numbers that do not reflect what we are really
seeing as a city.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Counting less people, not because there are less people on
the streets. So the count is a visible houseless people,
people that the counters know how to find.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Mayor Mike Johnson, however, says he is proud of these numbers,
releasing a statement saying, quote, Denver is proving that homelessness
is solvable so long as we are willing to put
in the work to solve it. In less than two years,
we have gone from a city that swept people from
block to block to one that treats people with dignity
and delivers real results. This policy is not only morally just,
(07:09):
but effective. Howard says she does not agree with Johnston,
saying homeless people are not getting the support they need.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
What's happened since Mayor Johnston is not that there is
now no unsheltered houseless people, or only this small number
of unsheltered houseless people. It's that those people are in
hiding and much much, much more invisible.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Howard adds, this point in time survey only shows a
piece of the puzzle, and she says she wants to
seem more funding and devoted to helping the homeless find
permanent homes in our area. In the news room at
Jared Deane A right.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So kudos to Katie vr for in the news portion
of the story giving us the truth about what's really
going on now. The headline I think is misleading. Didn't
see historic dropping street homelessness according to Mayor Johnston. Well,
that may be according to Mayor Johnston, but at least
in the body of the story, they tell you the truth.
(08:09):
The Point in Time count was released yesterday by the
Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. The survey found that across seven counties,
the rate of homelessness still increased from nine nine hundred
and ninety seven last year to ten seven hundred and
seventy four in twenty twenty five, but the rate but
(08:34):
the rate of homelessness still increased from I'm sorry, let
me go back, I got distracted. The rate of homelessness
still increased from nine nine hundred, ninety seven and twenty
twenty four to ten thousand, seven hundred and seventy four
and twenty twenty five, and then the story goes on
to say, but the rate slowed significantly compared to previous years.
(08:57):
This is the idea that the rate of inn increase.
There is still an increase, it's still increasing, but the
rate of increasing is going down. Oh so while the
rate of increase is slowing, that's supposed to tell us
that we're accomplishing something. I don't think so when the
(09:18):
raw numbers themselves show that they continue to increase. And also,
you notice in that report the reporter used homelessness and unhoused.
So if you're unhoused, that means you're homeless. You just
happen to be in a shelter, so you're still homeless.
(09:40):
So that's why the numbers are still going out. In Denver,
the count found seven hundred and eighty five people on
the streets. This is according to KDVR, which the mayor's
office said was a forty five percent drop from twenty
twenty three, when four and twenty three people were without
a place to live. Of course, because if you do
your point in time count in a you know, on
(10:03):
a cold January night, you're gonna have a hard time
finding people to count, because well, they're hiding, or they've
gone into a shelter, or you're not going to find them. Now, imagine,
I don't how many square miles city in County of
Denver is, but you take the entire metro area, which
is where the point in time count is done. How
(10:24):
many people does it take? How many alleys, how many
you know, underpasses, how many places do they really go
seek out and do this count. The reason that drives
me crazy is because I mean, KDBR is just doing
the story. And at least the televised story was pretty
(10:47):
accurate in pointing out that everything is up, this is
an increase, that's up, this is an increase, And the
written story itself is fairly close. But I think some
points are left out, particularly with regard to the point
in and this woman that you heard, Teresa Howard, who
works with House Keys Action Denver, that's some NGO that
(11:07):
says the numbers do not reflect the current state of
the city. I guess it just even though I was
going to talk about it this morning, it just really
bugs me because we're not addressing the root cause of homelessness,
which is drug abuse, mental illness, and of course, yes,
(11:29):
the economy's you have to put the economy in there
as part of the reason for it too. But when
Johnson says, Denver is proving that homelessness is solvable so
long as we're as so long as we are willing
to put in the work to solve it. In less
than two years, we have gone from a city that
swept people from block to block to one that treats
(11:51):
people with dignity and delivers real results. This policy is
not only morally but just effective. But bullcrap, what utter
bull crap? And of course that homeless advocate goes on
to say, what's happened since Mayor Johnston is not there?
But what's happened since Mayor Johnson? What's happened since Mayor
(12:13):
Johnston is not that there is now no unsheltered homeless
people or only this small number of unsheltered homeless people,
is that those people are in hiding and much much
much more invisible. She said, So what are we gonna
do well, we're not going to do anything because I'm
fully convinced that politicians aren't going to do a damn
(12:35):
thing anyway, which leads me to talk about the big
beautiful bill. I'm of the opinion, and I know you'll
disagree with me. Just pass the damn bill. Yes, I'm
beat I'm beat down. We're not going to get anything better.
(12:58):
The Senate is intractable, the President is intractable, the Doze
effort has been shoved aside. And then what really set
me off this morning was the idea that all over
the news this morning was that the bill is going
to contain what are called Trump accounts, special savings accounts
(13:24):
for American children. Have you heard about this one? Trump
has outlined his plan for special Trump accounts. This is
included in the one big Beautiful bill now kind of
making us way through Congress. These accounts will provide American
babies with one thousand dollars in savings, and those savings
(13:47):
will be pegged I guess to the Dow JO and in
industrial averages that it will be some I don't know,
some EFT or something. And anyway, from the time there
at birth, you get a Trump savings account. Here's the
language that was used yesterday. This is from the President.
(14:09):
For every US citizen born after December thirty one, twenty
twenty four, before January one, twenty twenty nine, the federal
government will make a one time contribution of one thousand
dollars into a tax deferred account that will track the
overall stock market. They'll be open for additional private contributions
(14:29):
each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations,
and more. This is a pro family initiative that will
help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy
to lift up the next generation. Now, the intent is
that children should be able to accept to access their
Trump accounts at age eighteen in order to pay for education, training,
(14:51):
or their first home, and the ballots becoming available when
they turn thirty. Now, this is being back buy a
bunch of muckety mugs, including the CEO of Dell, Michael Dell,
and the CEO Goldman Sachs, David Solomon. Well, Dell's doing
it because he thinks it's something great for his business
(15:13):
and his employees, and Goldn Sacks thinks, oh, maybe we'll
get sell those accounts into our banks and we'll be
able to use those. Here's how the accounts work.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
For every US citizen born they after December thirty first,
twenty twenty four. Before January first, twenty twenty nine, the
federal government will make a one time contribution of one
thousand dollars into a tax deferred account that will track
the overall stock market. In other words, it'll be pegged
(15:46):
to an index that will pick right, Michael will pick it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
We'll pick a good when. Maybe you should be the index.
I'd like to have that these kids would be very wealthy.
If that were the case, that would be that. I
think we might do that, Michael Dell.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
These accounts will be private property controlled by the Giles
guarant guardians, and in many cases those guardians.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Will be the parents. We think probably the parents.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Will be the guardians. They'll be open for additional private
contributions each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations,
and more. Is a pro family initiative that will help
millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to
lift up the next generation, and they'll really be getting
a big jump on life, especially if we get a
(16:30):
little bit lucky with some of the numbers and the
economies into the future. In addition to the substantial financial
benefits of investing early in life, extensive research shows that
children with savings accounts are more likely to graduate high
school and college, buy a home, start a business, and
are less likely to be incarcerated. CRUP accounts will contribute
(16:54):
to the lifelong success of millions of newborn babies.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
They'll are fully in.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
This will be very interesting, I think for everybody to here.
They are fully funded through targeted reforms in the one
Big Beautiful Bill, like the one point seven trillion dollars
in mandatory savings, welfare reforms to stop wasting, fraud, a
three point five percent remittenance tax, and more.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And he goes on at least in the Fox News
report this morning to say that this will not be
a burden and will not cost the taxpayers. There will
be absolutely no cost to the taxpayers. So I started
digging into it. So this proposal for these Trump savings accounts,
(17:40):
a one thousand dollars tax deferred investment account for every
US newborn between January one, twenty five and January one
to twenty twenty nine, continues to be presented to us.
It's costing taxpayers absolutely nothing. But when you do an
analysis of the available information, it's actually much more complex
than that. In fact, I would even say that you're
(18:02):
probably not even being told the truth about it. And
then why are we as taxpayers? Why am I giving
one thousand dollars to every kid born, you know, over
a four year period, when the government continues to a
collect FICA, social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid taxes everything forcibly
(18:24):
take that on my paycheck, and then when I actually
collect a Social Security check they tax that too.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
So Musk and Doze find all this broad waste and
abuse and the big beautiful bill and Congress just basically
wasted must and dog time. They are spending money like
drunken sailors.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Which is offensive to drunken sailors because they know their limit. Yeah,
let me go back for just a quick moment. Come on,
you can, you can do this with me. We're going
to leap back to the homeless story for just a moment,
because do better, Denver, which I told you about earlier,
the tests and account you need to be following. In
(19:09):
addition to at, Michael Brown USA UH tweeted out, let's
see if I can find the I don't see the
time stamp on this anyway, They tweeted out probably last night,
Hey at nine news, why is yours the only headline
of those four, meaning the four stations here in Denver
(19:30):
who does not mention that total homelessness was up? Are
you running cover for Mayor Mikey? And here's the post
that nine News tweeted out with this headline. The twenty
twenty five point in time count reported a forty five
percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness since twenty twenty three. The
(19:56):
city said it's the largest multi year reduction in US history.
Nine News always running cover for Democrats. Just I'll go
see if I can find that in a minute and
repost that. Now, let's go back to these Trump savings accounts.
(20:20):
Here we are five months into the administration. I knew
this day would come when when Trump would do something
that I just I cannot fathom. I fully understand what
he's doing here, but I cannot fathom that he actually
believes and is saying that this is not going to
cost the taxpayers any money. And I find it as
(20:44):
some of you who have already sent me text messages,
find a defensive also, because anytime you do something like this,
somebody's going to get left out. Goober number ninety six
to twenty four mics. So my son was born on
December second, twenty twenty four. So I guess we don't
get the thousand dollars. Missed it by thirty days. Doesn't
seem fair to me? Yeah, well it sucks to be you,
(21:04):
doesn't it. M It is Trump, this is seventy to
eighty five. Is Trump funding this himself? And what about
all the people who don't have kids? And it's not
only about the people who don't have kids or don't
want to have kids, are not going to have kids.
I understand that part of this is trying to incentivize
people to have kids. But if you fully you know,
(21:26):
having raised two children of my own, watching my two
children raise three grandchildren, a thousand bucks, I mean, I don't.
Don't get me wrong. If if a rod offered me
one thousand dollars right now, what a joke? I'd take
it in the heartbeat, of course, I would wonder what's
(21:46):
the catch? Even with a rod, I would wonder, what's
the catch the government gives it to me? I wonder
what strings are attached. But when I I mean I
was between seeing the homeless woman this morning, knowing that
I was going to talk about homelessness, and then knowing
(22:07):
that I wanted to talk about the Trump accounts, and
then hearing on Fox News headlines that Trump said that
this would be without cost to the taxpayers. I thought
my head was going to explode. I mean, usually my
head doesn't explode until what do you think you're rod?
Usually around seven forty five o'clock that's usually when my
head explodes. But my head was exploding before I even
got in this morning. And to the talkbacks point about DOGE,
(22:35):
the Department of Government Efficiency, I want to be a
little nuanced about Elon Musk. Forget about the fight. I
don't give a rat's ask about the fight going on
between Musk and Trump, And I really don't care what
the genesis of that is. Did Musk and Scott bessn't
(22:58):
the Treasury Secretary of a fight outside the Oval Office?
May be true, it may not be true. I don't care.
Let's just focus for a moment on DOGE. We were
originally told that Musk would find two trillion dollars in saving.
Now I want you to remember that prior to COVID, generally
(23:19):
our federal budget was somewhere between say, three and a
half and four and a half trillion dollars. And then
COVID comes along, and between Trump and Biden, and most
of this is Biden's fault, our annual budget exploded to
almost double that, to in excess of seven trillion dollars. Now,
(23:43):
why can't we go back to our pre COVID spending levels,
because we have a bunch of wosses in the United
States Congress that once you I mean, if you've never
believed me before about a government program, once in place
(24:04):
never goes away. Oh, it may morph into something else.
They might change the name of it, or like they're
trying to do with THEMEA and some other you know,
projects or programs or organizations. They'll just fold it into
something else, and so it disappears on the org chart,
but it's still over there. It's just called something else.
(24:29):
Mister Brown, We're sorry to tell you, but you're dying
of metastatic lung cancer. Oh but I don't want to, Okay, Well,
then we'll just tell you you've got benign prostate cancer. You'll
be fine. We just call it something else. Just call
it something else. Everybody feels good about it. So Musk
(24:49):
tells us initially he can cut two trillion dollars out.
Now I'm not in Musk's brain, but I'm thinking that
he's probably Thinkingait a minute, So we had a for
let's just use round numbers. Let's just just stick with
me on the round numbers. Let's don't quibble about the
specific numbers. So pre COVID annual budget around four trillion dollars.
(25:14):
Post COVID around seven trillion dollars. Musk is thinking to himself,
I can surely come up with two trillion dollars in
savings by just cutting out some of the bull craft
that we passed during COVID and just eliminate that no
more spending. I can cut out two trillion dollars at
least get us back to where we were. And I
think that's a reasonable assumption to make unless you understand DC.
(25:40):
Because once the politicians have reached into both both of
your front pockets and they're playing pocket billiards with your
if you're a man, they're playing pocket billiards with you,
and they're trying to pull out everything. And if you're
a woman. Well, they're just they're just having a good time.
And they got their hands in their in your back
pockets too, and now they've pulled it out. And now
(26:01):
they've taken everything out of you, and they want to
take more. They're gonna put their They're gonna put their
hands right back in your pockets again. And this is
what Trump's doing. And it pisses me off at Trump
now again trying to be nuanced. I understand why Trump's
doing this. Trump's trying to, you know, really build on
this golden age of prosperity, and he really does care.
(26:24):
But there's nothing that scares me more than a politician
who says they care about me. You know what, Leave
me alone. I'll take care of myself. The other thing
that bugs me about this proposal is, as I said,
tried to jam it in before the break. So for
my entire work life, they have forcibly taken out FICA,
(26:48):
social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, you know, income taxes, state and
income taxes, federal income taxes, just force me pulling stuff
out of my check. Now, part of that was supposed
to go into, you know, into my Social Security trust fund.
But now that I will start drawing some of that
money out. I'll pay taxes on the taxes that they
(27:11):
pulled out. Huh. Are these are these accounts going to
be tax free? Oh? Apparently so. So let's let me
give you little details about this proposal. A one thousand
dollars tax deferred investment account every newborn born US newborn
(27:36):
between January one of this year and January one of
twenty twenty nine has been presented as costing taxpayers absolutely nothing.
But when you do an analysis, at least from all
the available information, that's not necessarily true. In fact, I
would go so far as to say it's false. The
(27:56):
accounts are funded by a one time, one thousand dollars
contribution from the federal government, managed by the US Treasury,
invested in low cost index funds. There are very few
expenses with those kinds of funds, and an index fund
basically tracks the stock market, and you can buy index
(28:19):
funds to track you know, the the down industrials, or
the S and P or any of the other indices
you know in US markets. Now, Trump claims the money
is going to come from initiatives. That's the keyword, initiatives.
(28:42):
Within the big beautiful bill. Some of those initiatives include
a three point five percent remittance tax on money that
illegal aliens send abroad. So you know, somebody comes here illegally,
they're working, you know, in the shadows, and they go
to Western Union and they send money back to their
(29:03):
home country, back to their families. We're going to tax
that at three and a half percent. Well, first of all,
if you're going to tax something that's going to involve
the treasury with the irs, it's going to involve the businesses.
Someone's going to have to collect that tax. They're going
to be costs involved with collecting that three point five
(29:26):
percent remittance on tax money cent abroad. And that's that's
hopefully a declining amount anyway, because if we start, you know,
deporting people and getting illegals out of the country, well
there's fewer remittances. So it's kind of like, hey, we're
going to use a cigarette tax to pay for this
while we tell everybody quit smoking, and pretty assuming the
(29:46):
cigarette tax starts to dwindle. But there's no evidence whatsoever
that I can find that that remittance tax, that three
point five percent would fully fund the or cover the
programs costs without tapping into the general fund that you
and I pay into. You go back to twenty twenty
(30:08):
three data from the National Center for Health Statistics, with
approximately three point six million berths annually, I calculate the
program could cost anywhere between three point six billion per
year or fourteen point four billion dollars over the four
year pilot period, and that's assuming no additional contributions. There
(30:32):
are some estimates online that suggests a total cost of
seventeen billion dollars over a decade, factoring in all of
the administrative expenses and adjustments for inflation. So taxpayers, we
will bear the costs for this because you have to
collect the tax if there's any tax to collect, and
(30:54):
then if there's not enough tax collected, well then you
look to the general fund.
Speaker 8 (30:59):
Trump Trump accounts, Huh, how much fraud is going to
be involved with this that the taxpayers are going to pay? Additionally,
I've been thinking how many illegal aliens babies are going
to get the thousand dollars too?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Well, time will tell. That is a great point because
as long as we have birthright citizenship, I cannot find
anything that would exclude a child born to illegal aliens
on American soil. So suddenly they would get one thousand dollars. Now,
(31:39):
critics argue that federal funding, even if we're offset by
these other revenue streams like the remittance tax, it still
ultimately relies on taxpayer resources unless that remittance tax or
other measures in the Big Beautiful Bill cover the full
amount the correct the Congressional Budget Office I can find
(32:00):
anywhere they've not released a detailed breakdown confirming that the
remittance tax would suffice and cover the costs of this
plan and the bill's broader fiscal impact. And people quibble
about this, but just the CBO, and I know the
CBO doesn't always account for growth, but without growth being calculated,
(32:24):
CBO predicts that or projects that the Big Beautiful Bill
will add about two and a half trillion dollars to
the federal deficit over the next ten years. Well, if
that statement is true, then you have to have a
serious question about the no cost claim about this plan.
And if you do, like I do, I often go
(32:46):
on to X because I've a list of different news sources,
and so I look through some of those news sources
and it varies. There are some people who claim that
Trump's assertion that's cost free really is true. Others call
it an unfunded promise, but none of them really cite
any evidence. I think so far. I'm million one is
talking specifically about the three point five percent remittance tax,
(33:07):
but let's just be honest. Government programs rarely come without
any taxpayer burden, and there is no transparency about the
funding specifics to suggests that the thousand dollars seed money
will not involve taxpayer dollars, either directly or indirectly, despite
what the President says. Now, practically the bill still requires
(33:33):
centate approval and the details may shift, but as it
stands right now, the funding mechanism is not substantiated to
be independent of taxpayer support. As I said at the
very beginning, which most of you have probably already forgotten,
I actually support passage of the Big Beautiful Bill in
its current iteration. You know why, because if we don't,
(33:57):
and the tax rates revert back to prior to twenty seventeen,
before the Trump tax cuts took effect, that will destroy
the economy and quite frankly, will destroy the Republican Party
because not one Democrat will lift a finger. They'll let
that bill fail. Those tax increases will take place, and
(34:19):
the Democrats suddenly will be able to point to every
Republican can say Yep, he raised taxes on everybody, even
though at the same time public or democrats are arguing that, oh,
all these taxes just favor the rich. Well, they just
say whatever they need to say whenever they need to
say it to please whatever constituency or side they want
(34:42):
to be on. Yeah, I pretty much despise all politicians
this morning.
Busily trying to find my story for my Michael Brown
minute that plays as the promo for the Weekend with
Michael Brown, the nationally syndicated program that airs over on
Freedom and I came across this story on Katie VR
and the headline is Denver sees historic drop in street
(00:20):
homelessness Colon Mayor Johnston. The story goes business in Denver.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The numbers up, but the biggest difference from past years.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
The numbers up. I think that's pretty uh a sealient point,
if you will, mister Hubbard.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Here at ten, we're going to start with the number
of people experiencing homelessness in Denver. The numbers up, but
the biggest difference from past years, those who are living
on the streets is down.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
Fox Everyone's Jared Dane joins this line from the newsroom
with one what the report says and what the mayor
had to say about it.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Jared, this recent survey does show an increase in the
amount of sheltered homeless indivent Jules, but also shows an
increase in the total number of n.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
H That also shows the sea the increase in the
number of sheltered homelessness and an increase in the number
of people on the streets too. Let's go back to
the headline, because I'm really confused because kdvr's website, even
this morning, still says Denver sees historic dropping street homelessness
Colon Mayor Johnston.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
The house people in our city. I spoke with some
people who tell me there is more work to be done.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
How are we as a city, as a state, as
a nation, but as a city, how are we going
to invest our resources in housing that's attainable for all?
Speaker 4 (01:42):
The point in time or pit study showed ten thousand,
seven hundred and seventy four homeless people in the Denver
metro area, up from just under ten thousand last year.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Up everywhere so far has been up, up, up up.
If you're curious, go to my x feed at Michael
Brown USA. And if you're not following me, following following
me over there, I don't know why you're not. You
should be, because ironically, this morning, I pull off A
twenty five in Bellevue to come over here to the studio,
(02:16):
and I come to the stop on the off ramp
to make my left turn, and I look closely because
for a moment I can't ascertain whether it's trash or
it's a human being. And I look closely and I realize, oh,
(02:38):
it's a human and her dog and all the trash.
So you know, I'm not violating her privacy because she's
on she's on a public easement and she's laying there,
sound asleep at whatever it was five o'clock this morning.
And and I just tweeted that out along with the
(03:00):
KDVR story and just asked Mayor Johnston, did you count
this individual? Was this individual among the people that you counted?
And then the other thing that really kind of crossed
my mind was, and I think maybe alex or someone
sent me an email of this effect, but or maybe
it was do Better Denver. If you're not following at
(03:23):
do Better Denver on X, you should be following that
account too. This point in time survey that they do first,
it's not just Denver. It includes It obviously includes Denver,
but it also includes Adams County, a Rapahoe County, Boulder County,
Broomfield County, Douglas County, Jefferson Counties, and of course the
(03:45):
city and County of Denver. It did not carve out
Denver specifically. So how can the mayor claim that, oh
it's down. Now, we're only this news package from KDVRS
two minutes thirty three seconds. We're only fifty two seconds
into it, and so far every word has been it's
been up, this is up, this is up, this is up.
They just fly out lie to you. And that point
(04:08):
in time count that I was just describing was done
in January. Now imagine this. You want to do a
point in time count to see how many people are
on the streets. So if you're going to do that,
do you want to do it on a day like today,
when you know, when when I pull up at Bellevue
in twenty five and it's you know, it's a gorgeous sunrise.
(04:29):
It's currently fifty four degrees outside, probably a low of
fifty degrees tonight or so, it's a beautiful, crisp, you know,
kind of summer like morning or you and do you
want to do the count then when that woman God
rest her or God bless her so over here at
Bellevue in twenty five is under a simple blanket, their
(04:51):
dog's all curled up asleep. Or do you want to
do that point in time count in the middle of
January on a night when it's like nineteen below zero.
So do you want to do the count then and
see how many people on the streets versus how many
you're in the shelter. My god, I'm so sick of
being lied to by these people, or sometimes not even
lied to. It's just the way they present the story.
(05:14):
They never present the story factually.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Let me just let this roll business in Denver, the
numbers up, but the biggest difference from past years those
who are living on the streets is down.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Fox Everyone's Jared Dane joins this line from the newsroom
with one what the report says and what the mayor
had to say about it.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Jared, this recent survey does show an increase in the
amount of sheltered homeless individuals, but also shows an increase
in the total number of unhoused people in our city.
I spoke with some people who tell me there is
more work to be done.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
How are we as a city, as a state, as
a nation, but as a city, how are we going
to invest our resources in housing that's attainable for all?
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Is the point in time or pit study showed seven
hundred and seventy four homeless people in the Denver metro area,
up from just under ten thousand last year, and a
nine percent increase in sheltered and unhoused people from last year.
It also showed an increase of around eight hundred homeless
individuals from twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. Curis
(06:21):
Howard works with house Key's Action Network Denver. She tells me,
these numbers that do not reflect what we are really
seeing as a city.
Speaker 5 (06:29):
Counting less people, not because there are less people on
the streets. So the count is a visible houseless people,
people that the counters know how to find.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Mayor Mike Johnson, however, says he is proud of these numbers,
releasing a statement saying, quote, Denver is proving that homelessness
is solvable so long as we are willing to put
in the work to solve it. In less than two years,
we have gone from a city that swept people from
block to block to one that treats people with dignity
and delivers real results. This policy is not only morally just,
(07:09):
but effective. Howard says she does not agree with Johnston,
saying homeless people are not getting the support they need.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
What's happened since Mayor Johnston is not that there is
now no unsheltered houseless people, or only this small number
of unsheltered houseless people. It's that those people are in
hiding and much much, much more invisible.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Howard adds, this point in time survey only shows a
piece of the puzzle, and she says she wants to
seem more funding and devoted to helping the homeless find
permanent homes in our area. In the news room at
Jared Deane A right.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So kudos to Katie vr for in the news portion
of the story giving us the truth about what's really
going on now. The headline I think is misleading. Didn't
see historic dropping street homelessness according to Mayor Johnston. Well,
that may be according to Mayor Johnston, but at least
in the body of the story, they tell you the truth.
(08:09):
The Point in Time count was released yesterday by the
Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. The survey found that across seven counties,
the rate of homelessness still increased from nine nine hundred
and ninety seven last year to ten seven hundred and
seventy four in twenty twenty five, but the rate but
(08:34):
the rate of homelessness still increased from I'm sorry, let
me go back, I got distracted. The rate of homelessness
still increased from nine nine hundred, ninety seven and twenty
twenty four to ten thousand, seven hundred and seventy four
and twenty twenty five, and then the story goes on
to say, but the rate slowed significantly compared to previous years.
(08:57):
This is the idea that the rate of inn increase.
There is still an increase, it's still increasing, but the
rate of increasing is going down. Oh so while the
rate of increase is slowing, that's supposed to tell us
that we're accomplishing something. I don't think so when the
(09:18):
raw numbers themselves show that they continue to increase. And also,
you notice in that report the reporter used homelessness and unhoused.
So if you're unhoused, that means you're homeless. You just
happen to be in a shelter, so you're still homeless.
(09:40):
So that's why the numbers are still going out. In Denver,
the count found seven hundred and eighty five people on
the streets. This is according to KDVR, which the mayor's
office said was a forty five percent drop from twenty
twenty three, when four and twenty three people were without
a place to live. Of course, because if you do
your point in time count in a you know, on
(10:03):
a cold January night, you're gonna have a hard time
finding people to count, because well, they're hiding, or they've
gone into a shelter, or you're not going to find them. Now, imagine,
I don't how many square miles city in County of
Denver is, but you take the entire metro area, which
is where the point in time count is done. How
(10:24):
many people does it take? How many alleys, how many
you know, underpasses, how many places do they really go
seek out and do this count. The reason that drives
me crazy is because I mean, KDBR is just doing
the story. And at least the televised story was pretty
(10:47):
accurate in pointing out that everything is up, this is
an increase, that's up, this is an increase, And the
written story itself is fairly close. But I think some
points are left out, particularly with regard to the point
in and this woman that you heard, Teresa Howard, who
works with House Keys Action Denver, that's some NGO that
(11:07):
says the numbers do not reflect the current state of
the city. I guess it just even though I was
going to talk about it this morning, it just really
bugs me because we're not addressing the root cause of homelessness,
which is drug abuse, mental illness, and of course, yes,
(11:29):
the economy's you have to put the economy in there
as part of the reason for it too. But when
Johnson says, Denver is proving that homelessness is solvable so
long as we're as so long as we are willing
to put in the work to solve it. In less
than two years, we have gone from a city that
swept people from block to block to one that treats
(11:51):
people with dignity and delivers real results. This policy is
not only morally but just effective. But bullcrap, what utter
bull crap? And of course that homeless advocate goes on
to say, what's happened since Mayor Johnston is not there?
But what's happened since Mayor Johnson? What's happened since Mayor
(12:13):
Johnston is not that there is now no unsheltered homeless
people or only this small number of unsheltered homeless people,
is that those people are in hiding and much much
much more invisible. She said, So what are we gonna
do well, we're not going to do anything because I'm
fully convinced that politicians aren't going to do a damn
(12:35):
thing anyway, which leads me to talk about the big
beautiful bill. I'm of the opinion, and I know you'll
disagree with me. Just pass the damn bill. Yes, I'm
beat I'm beat down. We're not going to get anything better.
(12:58):
The Senate is intractable, the President is intractable, the Doze
effort has been shoved aside. And then what really set
me off this morning was the idea that all over
the news this morning was that the bill is going
to contain what are called Trump accounts, special savings accounts
(13:24):
for American children. Have you heard about this one? Trump
has outlined his plan for special Trump accounts. This is
included in the one big Beautiful bill now kind of
making us way through Congress. These accounts will provide American
babies with one thousand dollars in savings, and those savings
(13:47):
will be pegged I guess to the Dow JO and in
industrial averages that it will be some I don't know,
some EFT or something. And anyway, from the time there
at birth, you get a Trump savings account. Here's the
language that was used yesterday. This is from the President.
(14:09):
For every US citizen born after December thirty one, twenty
twenty four, before January one, twenty twenty nine, the federal
government will make a one time contribution of one thousand
dollars into a tax deferred account that will track the
overall stock market. They'll be open for additional private contributions
(14:29):
each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations,
and more. This is a pro family initiative that will
help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy
to lift up the next generation. Now, the intent is
that children should be able to accept to access their
Trump accounts at age eighteen in order to pay for education, training,
(14:51):
or their first home, and the ballots becoming available when
they turn thirty. Now, this is being back buy a
bunch of muckety mugs, including the CEO of Dell, Michael Dell,
and the CEO Goldman Sachs, David Solomon. Well, Dell's doing
it because he thinks it's something great for his business
(15:13):
and his employees, and Goldn Sacks thinks, oh, maybe we'll
get sell those accounts into our banks and we'll be
able to use those. Here's how the accounts work.
Speaker 6 (15:25):
For every US citizen born they after December thirty first,
twenty twenty four. Before January first, twenty twenty nine, the
federal government will make a one time contribution of one
thousand dollars into a tax deferred account that will track
the overall stock market. In other words, it'll be pegged
(15:46):
to an index that will pick right, Michael will pick it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
We'll pick a good when. Maybe you should be the index.
I'd like to have that these kids would be very wealthy.
If that were the case, that would be that. I
think we might do that, Michael Dell.
Speaker 6 (15:59):
These accounts will be private property controlled by the Giles
guarant guardians, and in many cases those guardians.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Will be the parents. We think probably the parents.
Speaker 6 (16:08):
Will be the guardians. They'll be open for additional private
contributions each year from family, friends, parents, employers, churches, private foundations,
and more. Is a pro family initiative that will help
millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to
lift up the next generation, and they'll really be getting
a big jump on life, especially if we get a
(16:30):
little bit lucky with some of the numbers and the
economies into the future. In addition to the substantial financial
benefits of investing early in life, extensive research shows that
children with savings accounts are more likely to graduate high
school and college, buy a home, start a business, and
are less likely to be incarcerated. CRUP accounts will contribute
(16:54):
to the lifelong success of millions of newborn babies.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
They'll are fully in.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
This will be very interesting, I think for everybody to here.
They are fully funded through targeted reforms in the one
Big Beautiful Bill, like the one point seven trillion dollars
in mandatory savings, welfare reforms to stop wasting, fraud, a
three point five percent remittenance tax, and more.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And he goes on at least in the Fox News
report this morning to say that this will not be
a burden and will not cost the taxpayers. There will
be absolutely no cost to the taxpayers. So I started
digging into it. So this proposal for these Trump savings accounts,
(17:40):
a one thousand dollars tax deferred investment account for every
US newborn between January one, twenty five and January one
to twenty twenty nine, continues to be presented to us.
It's costing taxpayers absolutely nothing. But when you do an
analysis of the available information, it's actually much more complex
than that. In fact, I would even say that you're
(18:02):
probably not even being told the truth about it. And
then why are we as taxpayers? Why am I giving
one thousand dollars to every kid born, you know, over
a four year period, when the government continues to a
collect FICA, social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid taxes everything forcibly
(18:24):
take that on my paycheck, and then when I actually
collect a Social Security check they tax that too.
Speaker 7 (18:30):
So Musk and Doze find all this broad waste and
abuse and the big beautiful bill and Congress just basically
wasted must and dog time. They are spending money like
drunken sailors.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Which is offensive to drunken sailors because they know their limit. Yeah,
let me go back for just a quick moment. Come on,
you can, you can do this with me. We're going
to leap back to the homeless story for just a moment,
because do better, Denver, which I told you about earlier,
the tests and account you need to be following. In
(19:09):
addition to at, Michael Brown USA UH tweeted out, let's
see if I can find the I don't see the
time stamp on this anyway, They tweeted out probably last night,
Hey at nine news, why is yours the only headline
of those four, meaning the four stations here in Denver
(19:30):
who does not mention that total homelessness was up? Are
you running cover for Mayor Mikey? And here's the post
that nine News tweeted out with this headline. The twenty
twenty five point in time count reported a forty five
percent decrease in unsheltered homelessness since twenty twenty three. The
(19:56):
city said it's the largest multi year reduction in US history.
Nine News always running cover for Democrats. Just I'll go
see if I can find that in a minute and
repost that. Now, let's go back to these Trump savings accounts.
(20:20):
Here we are five months into the administration. I knew
this day would come when when Trump would do something
that I just I cannot fathom. I fully understand what
he's doing here, but I cannot fathom that he actually
believes and is saying that this is not going to
cost the taxpayers any money. And I find it as
(20:44):
some of you who have already sent me text messages,
find a defensive also, because anytime you do something like this,
somebody's going to get left out. Goober number ninety six
to twenty four mics. So my son was born on
December second, twenty twenty four. So I guess we don't
get the thousand dollars. Missed it by thirty days. Doesn't
seem fair to me? Yeah, well it sucks to be you,
(21:04):
doesn't it. M It is Trump, this is seventy to
eighty five. Is Trump funding this himself? And what about
all the people who don't have kids? And it's not
only about the people who don't have kids or don't
want to have kids, are not going to have kids.
I understand that part of this is trying to incentivize
people to have kids. But if you fully you know,
(21:26):
having raised two children of my own, watching my two
children raise three grandchildren, a thousand bucks, I mean, I don't.
Don't get me wrong. If if a rod offered me
one thousand dollars right now, what a joke? I'd take
it in the heartbeat, of course, I would wonder what's
(21:46):
the catch? Even with a rod, I would wonder, what's
the catch the government gives it to me? I wonder
what strings are attached. But when I I mean I
was between seeing the homeless woman this morning, knowing that
I was going to talk about homelessness, and then knowing
(22:07):
that I wanted to talk about the Trump accounts, and
then hearing on Fox News headlines that Trump said that
this would be without cost to the taxpayers. I thought
my head was going to explode. I mean, usually my
head doesn't explode until what do you think you're rod?
Usually around seven forty five o'clock that's usually when my
head explodes. But my head was exploding before I even
got in this morning. And to the talkbacks point about DOGE,
(22:35):
the Department of Government Efficiency, I want to be a
little nuanced about Elon Musk. Forget about the fight. I
don't give a rat's ask about the fight going on
between Musk and Trump, And I really don't care what
the genesis of that is. Did Musk and Scott bessn't
(22:58):
the Treasury Secretary of a fight outside the Oval Office?
May be true, it may not be true. I don't care.
Let's just focus for a moment on DOGE. We were
originally told that Musk would find two trillion dollars in saving.
Now I want you to remember that prior to COVID, generally
(23:19):
our federal budget was somewhere between say, three and a
half and four and a half trillion dollars. And then
COVID comes along, and between Trump and Biden, and most
of this is Biden's fault, our annual budget exploded to
almost double that, to in excess of seven trillion dollars. Now,
(23:43):
why can't we go back to our pre COVID spending levels,
because we have a bunch of wosses in the United
States Congress that once you I mean, if you've never
believed me before about a government program, once in place
(24:04):
never goes away. Oh, it may morph into something else.
They might change the name of it, or like they're
trying to do with THEMEA and some other you know,
projects or programs or organizations. They'll just fold it into
something else, and so it disappears on the org chart,
but it's still over there. It's just called something else.
(24:29):
Mister Brown, We're sorry to tell you, but you're dying
of metastatic lung cancer. Oh but I don't want to, Okay, Well,
then we'll just tell you you've got benign prostate cancer. You'll
be fine. We just call it something else. Just call
it something else. Everybody feels good about it. So Musk
(24:49):
tells us initially he can cut two trillion dollars out.
Now I'm not in Musk's brain, but I'm thinking that
he's probably Thinkingait a minute, So we had a for
let's just use round numbers. Let's just just stick with
me on the round numbers. Let's don't quibble about the
specific numbers. So pre COVID annual budget around four trillion dollars.
(25:14):
Post COVID around seven trillion dollars. Musk is thinking to himself,
I can surely come up with two trillion dollars in
savings by just cutting out some of the bull craft
that we passed during COVID and just eliminate that no
more spending. I can cut out two trillion dollars at
least get us back to where we were. And I
think that's a reasonable assumption to make unless you understand DC.
(25:40):
Because once the politicians have reached into both both of
your front pockets and they're playing pocket billiards with your
if you're a man, they're playing pocket billiards with you,
and they're trying to pull out everything. And if you're
a woman. Well, they're just they're just having a good time.
And they got their hands in their in your back
pockets too, and now they've pulled it out. And now
(26:01):
they've taken everything out of you, and they want to
take more. They're gonna put their They're gonna put their
hands right back in your pockets again. And this is
what Trump's doing. And it pisses me off at Trump
now again trying to be nuanced. I understand why Trump's
doing this. Trump's trying to, you know, really build on
this golden age of prosperity, and he really does care.
(26:24):
But there's nothing that scares me more than a politician
who says they care about me. You know what, Leave
me alone. I'll take care of myself. The other thing
that bugs me about this proposal is, as I said,
tried to jam it in before the break. So for
my entire work life, they have forcibly taken out FICA,
(26:48):
social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, you know, income taxes, state and
income taxes, federal income taxes, just force me pulling stuff
out of my check. Now, part of that was supposed
to go into, you know, into my Social Security trust fund.
But now that I will start drawing some of that
money out. I'll pay taxes on the taxes that they
(27:11):
pulled out. Huh. Are these are these accounts going to
be tax free? Oh? Apparently so. So let's let me
give you little details about this proposal. A one thousand
dollars tax deferred investment account every newborn born US newborn
(27:36):
between January one of this year and January one of
twenty twenty nine has been presented as costing taxpayers absolutely nothing.
But when you do an analysis, at least from all
the available information, that's not necessarily true. In fact, I
would go so far as to say it's false. The
(27:56):
accounts are funded by a one time, one thousand dollars
contribution from the federal government, managed by the US Treasury,
invested in low cost index funds. There are very few
expenses with those kinds of funds, and an index fund
basically tracks the stock market, and you can buy index
(28:19):
funds to track you know, the the down industrials, or
the S and P or any of the other indices
you know in US markets. Now, Trump claims the money
is going to come from initiatives. That's the keyword, initiatives.
(28:42):
Within the big beautiful bill. Some of those initiatives include
a three point five percent remittance tax on money that
illegal aliens send abroad. So you know, somebody comes here illegally,
they're working, you know, in the shadows, and they go
to Western Union and they send money back to their
(29:03):
home country, back to their families. We're going to tax
that at three and a half percent. Well, first of all,
if you're going to tax something that's going to involve
the treasury with the irs, it's going to involve the businesses.
Someone's going to have to collect that tax. They're going
to be costs involved with collecting that three point five
(29:26):
percent remittance on tax money cent abroad. And that's that's
hopefully a declining amount anyway, because if we start, you know,
deporting people and getting illegals out of the country, well
there's fewer remittances. So it's kind of like, hey, we're
going to use a cigarette tax to pay for this
while we tell everybody quit smoking, and pretty assuming the
(29:46):
cigarette tax starts to dwindle. But there's no evidence whatsoever
that I can find that that remittance tax, that three
point five percent would fully fund the or cover the
programs costs without tapping into the general fund that you
and I pay into. You go back to twenty twenty
(30:08):
three data from the National Center for Health Statistics, with
approximately three point six million berths annually, I calculate the
program could cost anywhere between three point six billion per
year or fourteen point four billion dollars over the four
year pilot period, and that's assuming no additional contributions. There
(30:32):
are some estimates online that suggests a total cost of
seventeen billion dollars over a decade, factoring in all of
the administrative expenses and adjustments for inflation. So taxpayers, we
will bear the costs for this because you have to
collect the tax if there's any tax to collect, and
(30:54):
then if there's not enough tax collected, well then you
look to the general fund.
Speaker 8 (30:59):
Trump Trump accounts, Huh, how much fraud is going to
be involved with this that the taxpayers are going to pay? Additionally,
I've been thinking how many illegal aliens babies are going
to get the thousand dollars too?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Well, time will tell. That is a great point because
as long as we have birthright citizenship, I cannot find
anything that would exclude a child born to illegal aliens
on American soil. So suddenly they would get one thousand dollars. Now,
(31:39):
critics argue that federal funding, even if we're offset by
these other revenue streams like the remittance tax, it still
ultimately relies on taxpayer resources unless that remittance tax or
other measures in the Big Beautiful Bill cover the full
amount the correct the Congressional Budget Office I can find
(32:00):
anywhere they've not released a detailed breakdown confirming that the
remittance tax would suffice and cover the costs of this
plan and the bill's broader fiscal impact. And people quibble
about this, but just the CBO, and I know the
CBO doesn't always account for growth, but without growth being calculated,
(32:24):
CBO predicts that or projects that the Big Beautiful Bill
will add about two and a half trillion dollars to
the federal deficit over the next ten years. Well, if
that statement is true, then you have to have a
serious question about the no cost claim about this plan.
And if you do, like I do, I often go
(32:46):
on to X because I've a list of different news sources,
and so I look through some of those news sources
and it varies. There are some people who claim that
Trump's assertion that's cost free really is true. Others call
it an unfunded promise, but none of them really cite
any evidence. I think so far. I'm million one is
talking specifically about the three point five percent remittance tax,
(33:07):
but let's just be honest. Government programs rarely come without
any taxpayer burden, and there is no transparency about the
funding specifics to suggests that the thousand dollars seed money
will not involve taxpayer dollars, either directly or indirectly, despite
what the President says. Now, practically the bill still requires
(33:33):
centate approval and the details may shift, but as it
stands right now, the funding mechanism is not substantiated to
be independent of taxpayer support. As I said at the
very beginning, which most of you have probably already forgotten,
I actually support passage of the Big Beautiful Bill in
its current iteration. You know why, because if we don't,
(33:57):
and the tax rates revert back to prior to twenty seventeen,
before the Trump tax cuts took effect, that will destroy
the economy and quite frankly, will destroy the Republican Party
because not one Democrat will lift a finger. They'll let
that bill fail. Those tax increases will take place, and
(34:19):
the Democrats suddenly will be able to point to every
Republican can say Yep, he raised taxes on everybody, even
though at the same time public or democrats are arguing that, oh,
all these taxes just favor the rich. Well, they just
say whatever they need to say whenever they need to
say it to please whatever constituency or side they want
(34:42):
to be on. Yeah, I pretty much despise all politicians
this morning.
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