This episode of Rush to Reason dives into a fiery Capitol Hill exchange where policy, law, and emotion collide. A heated debate over environmental regulation highlights a growing divide between political rhetoric and actual legal authority.
John Rush breaks down what’s really happening behind the headlines—why understanding the law matters, and how agencies like the EPA are supposed to operate within it.
The conversation then shifts to Colorado, where proposed rideshare regulations raise serious questions about government overreach and unintended consequences. At the center: whether personal experiences should shape laws that affect everyone else.
From Washington to Colorado, this episode connects the
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 06 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 04 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 06 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 14 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 06 :
Are you crazy?
SPEAKER 11 :
Am I?
SPEAKER 06 :
Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 11 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 56. As I said in the end of the last hour, I will play a clip. This thing went on for quite some time, but I’ll at least play a clip here of Lee Zeldin in a clash on Capitol Hill. Let me make sure I’ve got all of my sounds set right here, Charlie, and here we go.
SPEAKER 06 :
But it’s worth every second to watch it.
SPEAKER 08 :
The budget proposal reads like a climate change denier’s manifesto. When climate change is flooding our streets, poisoning our air, driving up health care and disaster cuts, how can the EPA justify abandoning that duty to protect Americans to appease polluters under the false flag of economic growth?
SPEAKER 09 :
Following the law, Section 202 of the Clean Air Act, where does it say anything about fighting global climate change? Loper Bright, Supreme Court case, you familiar with it?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, maybe others are. I’m not, but let me ask you.
SPEAKER 09 :
But that’s really important. As a member of Congress, Loper Bright says that we as an agency don’t have the authority to get creative if Section 202 of the Clean Air Act… No, but you don’t have, excuse me, you do not have the right to say climate change does not exist, that it’s a hoax, and that’s where this administration is coming from. I understand you’re upset that you don’t know what Loper Bright is. Do you know what the major policies doctrine is? I’m upset because… Do you know what the major policies doctrine is? You’re a member of Congress. You should know.
SPEAKER 08 :
Well, you have moved from someone who defended the environment to all of a sudden… I’m very defensive about not knowing the two biggest landmark Supreme Court cases of the last year with regards to your question. And you are very defensive about changing your policy and your positions with regard to the environment.
SPEAKER 09 :
Now, you just tell me… You want me to tell you what the two biggest Supreme Court cases are of the last few years?
SPEAKER 08 :
This is what I want you to tell me.
SPEAKER 09 :
Michigan versus EPA? Whoa.
SPEAKER 08 :
Whoa.
SPEAKER 09 :
West Virginia versus EPA?
SPEAKER 08 :
You know, you’re here because you need money from us. So halt for the second and wait for the questions and answer the questions.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I answered your question.
SPEAKER 08 :
No, you didn’t.
SPEAKER 09 :
And you didn’t like my answer because you don’t know what low-per-brite is. You did not answer the question. Because you don’t know what the major policies doctrine is.
SPEAKER 08 :
Chairman.
SPEAKER 09 :
Because you’re asking me about Section 202 of the Clean Air Act, and you don’t read it. You don’t know what it says.
SPEAKER 08 :
Listen, and what you want to do is to deny.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, I actually read the law. I do my homework. Really? You’re just somebody who likes to have the microphone on. You know what I have to do? I read the law.
SPEAKER 08 :
I read the Supreme Court cases. I don’t have to listen to this.
SPEAKER 09 :
No, what you do for your constituents is actually read statutes.
SPEAKER 08 :
This budget is at real risk.
SPEAKER 09 :
Read your Supreme Court.
SPEAKER 08 :
This is the Appropriations Committee.
SPEAKER 09 :
You care about science, now you’re threatening to defund it?
SPEAKER 08 :
No, you don’t fund science.
SPEAKER 09 :
Because you don’t know what Loperbright is. Because you don’t know what the major policy doctrine is. Your message to our folks at the EPA is that you wanted to fund us.
SPEAKER 08 :
I don’t have to listen to this BS.
SPEAKER 09 :
BS? You think I made up these cases?
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think you have made up a whole lot of BS.
SPEAKER 09 :
I made up Loperbright. I made up West Virginia versus EPA. I made up Michigan versus EPA.
SPEAKER 08 :
Woe is right. What are you doing? Why are you helping polluters?
SPEAKER 09 :
We’re not going to get any very far by talking.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, I’m going to stop there. Man, go get them, Lee. And by the way, that person talking was Rosa DeLauro. I believe she’s from Connecticut. She’s the old hag, sorry, I don’t know how else to call her, with the blue hair. Trust me, I’ve made a pretty good description there of what she looks like and who she is and how she acts and so on, and she just proved that through what she just did in that particular interview anyway. And he can hold his own. I will give him that. Good job. And as I said in the last hour, he is the pick that Donald Trump did a really great job in appointing to head of EPA. And he is doing exactly what the law says he should do, not overstepping it, not reading into it, not changing things, not putting a bunch of garbage in it that shouldn’t be there in the first place. He’s reading, as he said, what the Supreme Court has even done when it comes to certain cases. And as typical… She is a politician that has not read any of those things, has no idea what they said. She’s simply mad because the EPA is not doing her bidding when it comes to, quote unquote, climate change. And she’s upset about that. And, you know, she can get upset all she wants, but the reality is, and he is correct, the EPA is an organization, a department, I guess you could say. It is a department that is not there to interpret things according to, quote, unquote, climate change, but to enforce the law. Plain as that. And then taking, in his case, what he was saying, taking some of these Supreme Court rulings and then also applying that. And there’s all sorts of things that the EPA has done that the left doesn’t like, rolling back certain things, changing the CAFE standards. They’re now working on the diesel engine end of things for light, medium-duty trucks, even heavy-duty trucks, handling things in regards to DEF, which is a fluid that’s added to diesel trucks. If you don’t know much about that, listen on Saturdays on Drive Radio. I explain a lot of those things there. Reality is there’s a lot of things there that should have been changed a long time ago. And by the way, we’ll make things economically better for all of us because all of those costs that trucking companies, construction companies and others go through in regards to things that I just said cost all of us money at the end of the day. So any way to streamline that and make it better and make those vehicles operate better and cheaper, by the way, and actually use less fuel when it’s all said and done is a win for the consumer. And something, by the way, that this gal has no idea what I just said and quite honestly doesn’t even care to look. She wouldn’t care to even go go research what I just said because she’s ignorant and she’s emotional and she is talking on Capitol Hill in an emotion in this particular committee hearing. By the way, why in the world she’s on any kind of a funding of appropriations for the EPA is beyond me. But that’s that’s how that’s how it works. That’s how that’s how politics work. And there’s all sorts of ways that she can essentially buy her way into these committees. And that’s typically what happens. That’s a whole other discussion that Andy and I should probably cover on a Tuesday where we could really get in depth of that, because how they actually get on committee is they buy their way there. And for some of you, that’s a long explanation. But essentially, that’s I’m putting it in a nutshell. But that’s essentially what they do is they buy their way onto these committees through donors and so on. And that’s how they end up there. And by the way, that’s how lobbying groups and so on end up enforcing and getting done what they want done because they can get the right person in play that’s there pushing their agenda, not necessarily what even the agenda of the politician is, but their agenda because it’s the old golden rule. The guy with the gold rules. And she’s living proof of what I just said, by the way. And by the way, she’s just a despicable human being. I’m sorry to say that. But listen to her any time ever. And she is not a kind person, period. She’s actually a very despicable person when it’s all said and done. Dr. Scott’s coming up next. And again, anything you need when it comes to your health, Scott is there for you. He wants you to live your best life possible. 303-663-6990.
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Here on Rush to Reason, any time a plumbing issue comes up, we don’t hesitate. We call Plumberoos. When something goes wrong with your plumbing, whether it’s a leak, a backup, or low water pressure, you don’t want to make a costly mistake by rushing to use the first estimate you get. That’s why you call Plumberoos. Before you spend a dime with any other company, get a no-cost second opinion from the plumbing team we trust on Rush to Reason. Plumberoos is honest and they price fairly. They protect you against unnecessary repairs and inflated costs. Plumberoos has the tools, the technology, and the expertise to fix it right… We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 10 :
Speaking of the law, by the way, any help you need when it comes to legal problems, a court case, whatever it happens to be, might even have an insurance situation going on where you’re not getting the answers that you need, and you might need help. By the way, might even have a car with a lemon law issue. Whatever it is, Kevin Flesch is there to help you. 303-806-8886.
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SPEAKER 10 :
All right. We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay. A proposed bill, once again, is going through the Statehouse as we speak here in Colorado. It was vetoed, by the way. This was a particular bill that was run last year, and it’s a bill that is pushing for stricter rideshare prices. This is coming from Representative Jenny Williford because she became a representative and she had been, again, I don’t know all of the details, haven’t researched all of that out, but she was supposedly sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver in view of her home. That’s her quote. Now, I don’t know exactly all what happened, don’t know what went on at that time and so on. What I do know is, in this particular case, she took a Lyft from a person that was not the Lyft driver that the account was actually under. This was somebody that most likely was… borrowing the app you know the phone the car and so on and it wasn’t the driver that was an approved lyft driver now i’ve done enough ride sharing over the years to know that i always look at the picture that comes up on the app the license number on the car and so on and i always make sure that things check out and i always ask for the driver’s name when you get usually they give you their name anyways when you get in it’s pretty standard Now, I’m not, you know, because of the nature of this particular situation, I’m not blaming her for anything other than there are safeguards already in place. She wants more, of course, because she’s got a vendetta. And I get that. OK, fine. You know, she was assaulted. Now she wants to fix the problem that she feels was there and why she was assaulted in the first place. Unfortunately, though, Jenny, you’re trying to punish everybody else for your woes. And yes, I’m saying it that way. You’re trying to make sure that everything else is good to go for everyone else out there outside of you, even though it may cost us more in the end. And in the case of the last particular bill that you ran and actually passed, but the governor vetoed it. And he did so because he knew it would kill rideshare in Colorado. And then we’re all going backwards. So there’s no answer there, especially in the last one. Now, I don’t know how this one has been toned down. The last bill required more authentication when it came to the actual driver and, and, and. I mean, all sorts of things, background checks and so on, and all of it to the point where it was so cumbersome that even Uber had threatened, we’ll just pull out. If this bill passes, we’re leaving. I don’t know where Lyft was in that. Uber is the larger of the two, but basically… Uber basically said at the end of the day, if this bill passes, governor signs it, we’re done. And again, to Polis’s credit, which again, he’s got ulterior motives because I think he wants to run for president someday, but he knew that if that passed, Uber and Lyft both are gone. There is no more rideshare in Colorado. And that’s harmful. Because we all know that the taxi services and the other types of services that are out there, limousine services and so on, there’s not enough of them to go around to handle what the rideshare companies do. And he knew that. And I think he also knew, and as do I, that if you pass something like this and Uber and Lyft pull out, your tourism is affected by that. Because word’s going to get around that if you want to take a shuttle or do something from the airport, you’re going to go stay in downtown Denver, you really don’t want to rent a car, but you still want to be able to get around and see some sights and do some things and so on, maybe go to dinner, and you want to be able to use ride share, not taxis, because, frankly, our taxi service in Colorado always has been pathetic. Sorry, taxi owners, but since I was a kid, it’s been pathetic. Now, do taxis serve a purpose? Sure they do, and I’m not against them. And are they useful at times? Yes. But can they fill the need that the rideshare industry has brought? And the answer is no, they can’t. They just can’t. And by the way, and I think Polis knows this as well, you eliminate all the rideshares, what happens to the taxi prices? They’re up immediately tomorrow. your cost of getting a ride from A to B just increased. And he knows that. Now, Jenny doesn’t know that. And I’ll be real honest with you. I don’t think Jenny cares. Again, Jenny Williford, Representative Jenny Williford, she has a vendetta against the rideshare companies because of what happened to her. And again, I don’t know exactly what happened to her. I wasn’t there. I didn’t witness it. I don’t know how far the advancements got. She claims that she was sexually assaulted. I don’t know. I don’t know the case. Didn’t study it. And I’ll just be frankly honest, I don’t care. I hate when people go into politics with a vendetta against something that happened to them because they’re now out to prove a point. Tom Sullivan is another one. Because of what happened at the movie theater shooting, he’s out to ban all guns in Colorado. He just wants to take them out of everybody’s hands. That’s his vendetta. And it bothers me when politicians get into politics strictly because of a vendetta. Because, frankly, they’re blinded by that vendetta and all of the other things that they think about when it comes to politics and laws in Colorado. And I don’t think that’s fair to the constituents of Colorado, to the citizens of Colorado. In fact… I don’t know that you could ever pass a law that would eliminate what I just said, but it ought to be really thought about, especially by voters, that, wait a minute, just because this person had that problem, does that qualify them to be in office? And the answer to that is no. In fact, I would go one step further and say it disqualifies them from being in office. It disqualifies them because they look at things completely different than everybody else does, and they’re not rational about it because they’ve been personally affected by something. Now, I understand a lot of people get into politics because of something that personally affected them. Could be high taxes, could be this, could be that. But that’s different than what I’m talking about with these two individuals, Tom Sullivan and Jenny Williford. It’s different because these two are literally, they’ve got their vendetta. Tom is a gun control nut who wants to take every single weapon out of your hand. That’s Tom. And if you don’t believe me, go ask him. He’ll tell you that. He is a wackadoodle that is out to take your gun away. Jenny, on the other hand, she wants to shut down rideshare services because she was assaulted. Both of them are equally guilty of putting too much of their own personal life into the decisions they’re making as lawmakers. It’s as simple as that, folks. And again, this is where I have a problem. I get that both of them had tragedies happen, okay? And I feel bad for them on that. But that doesn’t give them the right to affect my freedoms and my choices because of what happened to them. And I hope I’m making sense to all of you listening, because literally what’s happening is these lawmakers will literally, because of what’s happened to them in the past, will set laws that affect all the rest of us. And it’s a private, personal thing that they’re dealing with. But yet they’re making it public because they’re forcing now those things that happened to them on all the rest of us. And frankly, that shouldn’t be that should be against the law. That shouldn’t be able to be. In fact, somebody should run a bill, should run a law that basically says if you are somebody that was that close to a particular event, you cannot sponsor a bill. You cannot start a law. You can’t do anything along those lines that had anything to do with what happened to you personally. You can vote. You can still be a part of, you know, representative and be be a representative government, someone which is what we have. But you cannot sponsor a bill based upon your own personal experience. Especially when it’s something that’s a tragedy. I mean, it’s different when we’re talking about taxes and things like that. But in this particular case, neither one of these individuals should be sponsoring bills. Tom on gun control and Jenny when it comes to rideshare. But she is. So she again, she wants background checks every six months. This is the current bill that she’s running. She wants background checks every six months. She would not allow drivers with certain convictions on their records to actually be drivers. She required transportation networks to report complaints from riders to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission within a time frame. This bill is going to require annual reporting of information from companies like Uber and Lyft around how many sexual assaults are happening on each watch, how many vehicle accidents, how many homicides, what is happening in their vehicles. And they have to actually give us the raw data so they’re not going to be able to explain away the numbers if what’s happening is on their watch. In other words, she wants complete oversight of what these particular companies are doing. And, again, what will end up happening is if it gets too intrusive, these companies just pull out because they’ll say, we don’t need to do business there. We can do something somewhere else. And the other thing that Jenny forgets in this particular case is, as in the case of some of the listeners we have that actually drive for Uber and Lyft, she’s now taking their right to make money away in that manner. But again, folks, she doesn’t care. She’s a hardcore Democrat. She doesn’t care. She doesn’t care what she does not care what effect this has on you, the motoring public. And those of you that want to be free to free to travel around from place to place, she doesn’t care. And just like Tom Sullivan doesn’t care what happens with you and your gun rights. In fact, he doesn’t feel like you should have any rights at all. In this case, she doesn’t care whether you get from A to B on a ride share at all. Now, Uber and Lyft both have come out and said, of course, safety is of our top priority. We do everything we possibly can to make sure that our drivers are solid and, and, and, and, and. And I get it. That’s a standard statement that Uber and Lyft are both going to say. But again… And she even talks about this. This is Jenny. In my situation, the driver looked relatively similar, and it was dark. The vehicle matched the profile, but unfortunately, the person who picked me up never had or should have access to the app in the first place. And, folks, what’s Lyft going to do to fix that? There is some personal responsibility here, Jenny. I realize it was dark out. You have a light on your phone. You have the ability to see who is actually driving. It’s not that difficult to determine if that person is the same person that’s on the app that’s supposed to be picking you up. This isn’t that hard at the end of the day. And yet you want to punish everybody else because of your misfortune. This is the problem I have with lawmakers when they do that. I get it. I’m sympathetic. You had a problem. You had an issue. But now you want to punish everybody else in Colorado because of your misfortune. And frankly, maybe even you not paying attention like you should have. I’m not blaming you for this, but you should have paid attention. That’s on you. You know, that’s not on me or anybody else that’s a writer. That’s on you. But once again, what you had last go around didn’t work. It passed, but then it failed because the governor vetoed it. And now you want to run this again because you didn’t get your way the last time. But again, that’s what Democrats do. And here’s again, I guarantee you it will pass again because it passed the last time. And depending upon how many hard and fast rules are in it, whatever the law actually says, it’ll come down to whether Polis signs it or not. Mark my words on this one. It’ll be exactly the same thing all over again. And whether this is soft enough to actually pass muster with Lyft and Uber, I don’t know. I don’t think they’ve gotten that far into this at this point in time. Believe me, as we get closer, I’m sure they will chime in. But she’s not giving up. As a true Democrat, she’s not giving up. And again, I will repeat, this is the problem I have with politicians when they get into politics because of a vendetta. It shouldn’t be allowed. And I get it. We have the freedom for anybody that wants to run for office, run for office. But we as voters should do a better job of vetting those people and not allow somebody that just has a vendetta to become a politician. Because in the end, we all lose. I’ll close with that. Roof Savers of Colorado coming up next. Where you don’t lose is when it comes to your roof, the maintenance of, extending the life of. You heard me talk about that a moment ago with Dave and even a project or roof that he’s on right now. And if you want an honest analysis of what’s going on with your roof, and oh, by the way, if you want to become a salesman for Dave, he’s looking for salespeople right now, give Dave a call, 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 05 :
The best export we have is common sense. You’re listening to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate all of you listening. I should have Scott Garlis with me here in just one moment. And if you’re calling in to chime in on what I just said, feel free. I’ll have Scott on for just a segment, and then I’ll have some time after that before we close the show out where you’re more than welcome to call in at that point in time, and you’re free to do so. And again, our line here, 303-477-5600. Scott, what’s going on, sir? Oops, I lost him. We will do our best to get him back. Sorry, I went to click on him and he went away as soon as I went to bring him up. So we will get him right back on. And yes, if you were calling in a moment ago, I couldn’t tell who was. But if you were calling in, yeah, I will have some time here once we’re done with Scott. And we can talk about whatever it is you want to call in. and talk about, and most likely that was about that last segment that I was talking about when it comes to politicians that have vendettas, which absolutely drive me crazy. I get it. A lot of people get into politics because they want to make a change based upon something that happened to them personally. I fully understand that. But I have a problem with that because it clouds their visions and clouds their judgment, I guess I should say. They’re not to vision so much as it is their judgment when they do so, and I don’t like that. So Scott’s up next. Scott, what’s going on?
SPEAKER 03 :
How are you doing, John?
SPEAKER 10 :
I’m doing great. Ben Pine Capital. All right. Talk to us, I guess, first of all. Did the Fed meet? Was it today?
SPEAKER 03 :
The Fed did meet today, and the Fed left interest rates unchanged. Now, what the headlines that came out of this that a lot of the media focused on was that there were Three people on the voting committee out of the 12 this year that dissented in favor of getting rid of their easing bias. And there’s one that voted in favor of cutting rates more. But to me, you know, looking at all these guys, so two of the three that came through this year, they’re what’s known as hawks. And they’ve always been hawkish. It’s Beth Hammock in Cleveland and Lori Logan down in Dallas. And they’ve sort of favored keeping rates tight or even raising. So… The fact they dissented in favor of saying the Fed should lose its easing bias wasn’t really a surprise to me. And I don’t think that should come as a shock to anybody else. And then the other one was Neil Kashkari. He’s recently pivoted hawkish in the back half of last year. So, again, that wasn’t a surprise. Steven Moran, he advocated in favor of another rate cut. um you know i appreciate that but i just right now with what’s going on with oil i get why why you you’d hold off so um none of that was a surprise now the interesting stuff to me though was when jerome powell spoke um what powell did say was uh he said look if you look at the effects of tariffs that’s going to start dropping off over the next quarter or two so you could make the case for cutting um surprised to hear him say that he said but we want to wait to see what happens with the conflict in Iran and see if this goes away soon and we start to see, you know, as we anniversary the tariff effects and they start to fall out of the numbers. You know, there’s a case for cutting later this year. I thought that was, you know, that was good wisdom. That was straight shooting from a guy that was doing this for his last time. I think he’s right. So there’s There’s definitely room. You know, the Fed at the last meeting in March, they guided for two more rate cuts this year. So we’ll see if that still happens. But the way he talks, it sounds like most members of the voting FOMC would favor that.
SPEAKER 10 :
And I assume from the conversations that Powell is having, he’s not going anywhere from the Fed. He’s going to hang around and at least still serve on the board, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, so that’s a whole other ball of wax in itself. So he still has… He has a board term that runs into 2028. Okay. So that goes beyond his role as chair. Right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And really quick, and maybe you know this, maybe you don’t, how often has a previous chair still had a board position and hangs around once they’re done? Does that happen often?
SPEAKER 03 :
Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s only happened one other time. Okay. But it’s really – it’s very uncommon. All the recent Fed chairs have stepped away.
SPEAKER 10 :
And really quick, by the way, on the leadership end of things and either leadership training and so on, frankly, he should. The reality is any time the old guy is done and he’s no longer chair, he really should just step down and go away because – He’s going to still try to have undue influence, if you ask me, upon the rest of the board. And he was a previous chair. He holds some clout. It really is disruptive to the new chair coming in. Again, to me, this just shows Powell’s utter disdain for what’s going on in the White House right now. And he’s going to hang around and make sure that he can still inflict as much pain on the White House as he can. That’s my feeling.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, no, you could make a very good argument for that. This is a very political move. Yes, you don’t have a new CEO that’s come into a company and say, well, we’re just going to have the old guy hang around because everybody answered to him. They’re used to answering to him. He’s been running the place for eight years, more or less.
SPEAKER 10 :
And really quick, the way I look at it, Scott, is it’s very, very poor leadership on his part, meaning it just solidifies all the things that I’ve said about him all along. All he’s doing is verifying my thoughts on him by doing what he’s doing.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, well, there’s actually a reporter during the press conference today that asked him, that said, you keep saying this isn’t going to be, you know, you’re not political and you don’t want the Fed to be political, but what you’re doing right now is political. Yes.
SPEAKER 10 :
Good job on his part, by the way. He’s right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and actually I was really surprised that this guy asked it, but yeah.
SPEAKER 10 :
And really quick, what was Powell’s answer?
SPEAKER 03 :
His answer was, I am doing this to protect the Fed from the legal assault that’s happening right now. So I just was kind of like, okay.
SPEAKER 10 :
Sure, Jerome.
SPEAKER 03 :
So here’s where it becomes political from like a Fed. If you think about how the Fed operates and inside of the Fed view. So if Powell doesn’t leave, that means a board seat doesn’t open up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. Right. What would happen would be the board seat would open up and then Trump would appoint somebody to fill in that spot. And so Trump could appoint someone that would have, if he wants rates to be cut, someone that has a dovish tendency. In other words, they’re predisposed toward easing versus somebody that has a hawkish tendency that’s predisposed toward raising. And so Powell is taking that opportunity away from him the longer he decides to stay there. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. even more interesting looking at it from this angle, is if Powell thinks that maybe Trump’s going to lose the Senate come November. and he hangs around until after the election, that’s going to create political furor because if, let’s say, Democrats were to take the Senate, Powell leaves, you would have a very big ruckus around, oh my gosh, you can’t appoint anybody because we would block you if you try to do this after January. Or Powell sticks around until January and then leaves after January if the Senate were to change hands. And then Trump is not able to get him passed because the Senate Banking Committee has to approve new board members and a new Fed chair.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I think that my opinion is Jerome Powell is playing the political game the best that he possibly can. I guarantee you he’s got folks around him advising him on what he should and shouldn’t do. This isn’t all coming just from him. And he is a tool and has been, and I’ll stand by this until the day is long. He is being used by the Democrats as a tool, and he’s allowing himself to be that way.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, it’s very possible. And if that’s his plan for what he wants to do, yeah, that would definitely seem politically oriented.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yep. And again, don’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen. And the best thing Jerome Powell could do if he really felt like he was doing what’s best for the country is as the previous chair, he’s just stepped down and go back into private life and be done with it. But he’s not going to do that.
SPEAKER 03 :
It certainly doesn’t seem that way based on what he’s saying and the actions he’s taking right now. The other thing that is interesting here, too, I want to say off the top of my head, I think Jerome Powell is worth like $200 billion. So, you know, and how I don’t I can’t maybe he’s like 72 years old. You sort of look at this and wonder, why does this guy want to stick around and deal with the headaches and all this stuff? I’m sorry, it’s more like $50 million, but still. He’s 73, by the way. Yeah, so you just look at that and you’re like, look, you’ve done eight years. Only Jerome Powell knows the answer to those questions.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, again, it makes no sense to me whatsoever. Again, time will tell. We’ll see how it goes. Talk to us about corporate profits.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, so, you know, all the headlines we’re reading about right now, they’re focused on what’s going on in the Middle East, oil prices. And, you know, how much that’s going to hurt inflation. But, you know, one thing we’re seeing so far in the first quarter is with the numbers, about a third of the S&P 500 is reported earnings. They’re reporting record profits right now. The net profit margin is 13.4%. The prior quarter was in the last quarter, which was 13.2%. And those numbers are expected to go up even more over the next three quarters, hitting 14.6% by the end of this year. So for me, I look at that as a shareholder and an investor, because I look at investing as like, hey, I want to find ways I can put money to work so I can grow my wealth for down the road and I can offset inflation. And I think the stock market is a good place to do that. But when you think about net profit margins expanding, that puts more cash on company balance sheets. And when they have that cash, typically what they do is they go out and buy back their own shares. And so as they buy back their own shares, what you see is less shares, same amount of earnings. It means their EPS growth goes up. Now that drives down the valuation multiple, the price to earnings multiple on the stock. That makes it cheaper to institutional retail investors. And then it will drive the shares back up to a fair value multiple. Does that make sense?
SPEAKER 10 :
Yes, makes total sense.
SPEAKER 03 :
So when you think about that in terms of the S and P 500, um, earnings are expected to hit $373 per share next year of the 500 companies reporting versus 271 last year. So when I look at that, think about that and think about what it means for the stock market could go. You could be looking at an S and P 500 index of around 7,600 by the end of this year. Okay. that’s up about another 7% from where we are currently.
SPEAKER 10 :
Not bad.
SPEAKER 03 :
Not at all. And so if I’m thinking about a place I want to put some money to work, I still think this is a good place to be buying the S&P 500 and putting it away for the long term.
SPEAKER 10 :
Makes sense. No, it really does. Makes total sense. So when folks are looking at that, are there particular areas they should be looking at? I mean, right now, to me, oil is very volatile. I don’t know what I’d do as far as that goes because it’s up and down, up and down. The UAE decided to pull out of OPEC May 1st. That sent prices up, which, frankly, I think is backwards. I think it should actually send prices down, but I’m not a trader.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, no, I mean the UAE not being bound to OPEC anymore, that means they can pump out as much oil as they want to, sell as much as they want to in the open market, and they can sell it at any price they want to as well. Correct.
SPEAKER 10 :
So to me, I mean I look at that as a good thing, but that’s not how Wall Street’s looking at it.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I don’t think – most of the people I’ve talked to think it’s a very good thing. Yeah, I think Wall Street is – so I don’t – did you see that the Iranian National Guard sees control of the government?
SPEAKER 10 :
I did not see that. That’s news to me, and that one I did not notice. No, thank you for the update.
SPEAKER 03 :
That came out earlier today. They basically – the stuff I was reading on Reuters said they have kind of put the Shaw son – not the Shaw son, I’m sorry, the Ayatollah son, the new Supreme Leader, in the backseat. And it’s – you know, and the – That’s the embargo, not the embargo, but it’s not a boycott either. I can’t think of the word right now that Trump has on ships getting to Iranian ports. The blockade. The blockade there. Thank you. Sorry. That has got that is raising the stress level in Iran greatly. I think it’s one one third of all food is imported into Iran. Wow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, they are definitely, Scott, and I’ve talked about this before, even some today, they are literally running out of money. Oil’s not moving. To your point, food’s not moving. I mean, their citizenry is dying and starving, if you would, and it’s not going to end well if they don’t do something quickly. I’ll give Trump a hand. He has not cut off their infrastructure by bombing power plants and so on. I think he knew this blockade would actually work very well. It is, and it’s crippling them, literally.
SPEAKER 03 :
The other thing that hasn’t gotten tons of press is when Israel and the U.S. did their initial bombing, they took out all the factories that make steel, cement, or whatever else they need to rebuild anything. So they can’t right now, and they’re realizing this. And so, yeah, I mean, what you’re seeing now is the leadership is, and you’ve seen this start to play out in the press. Somebody says yes, somebody says no. It’s really starting to splinter and it’s becoming more and more fractious. And it’s interesting, though, that they have the religious sectarians that were in control of the government are now getting pushed down. And we’ll see if whichever part of the Iranian National Guard that’s taken over wants to deal.
SPEAKER 10 :
Thanks for the news. I appreciate that greatly. Bent Pine Capital, how do folks get a hold of you, Scott?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, sure. LinkedIn, Twitter, or Substack, see Scott Garlis.
SPEAKER 10 :
Always a joy, Scott. Appreciate it very much. Talk to you next week. John, thanks so much for your time. Have a great night. Golden Eagle Financial coming up next. You want somebody to talk to directly like Scott, but he’s right here in our backyard. You can talk to him on a one-on-one basis. That’s Al Smith. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
This isn’t rage radio. This is real, relatable radio. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
Okay, we are back. Rush to Reason, Debra’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Last little segment here before we have one more break and end out this Wednesday show. Thursday will be tomorrow, of course. And somebody asked me earlier, too, when is Dr. Kelly going to be back with us? She is actually hosting tomorrow for Dr. Drew, so not tomorrow, but she should be back with us. the following week she apologized and didn’t realize that she had said yes to that time frame knowing that was our same time frame and i’m like listen you gotta do what you gotta do not a problem at all you can host dr drew you can host the whole show and have a lot of fun doing it and it’s all good so steve house will be with me tomorrow and we’ll have dr kelly back with us next week all right serena williams she sparked a debate with a post that she put out on social media about discipline her disciplining her child And she wrote that discipline sucks, but sometimes it’s important after her daughter missed a sleepover. So she, by the way, is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s great in other areas, although in this particular case, I’m going to agree with her. She said, I told my daughter to go to bed. She did not. Therefore, she missed out on her sleepover. She cried. But what she did not know is I cried harder. I hate when she cries, she wrote. But sometimes discipline sucks, but sometimes it’s important. Now, there was lots of people that, you know, chimed in on this. And I’m going to chime in for a moment because, frankly, I don’t see enough of this. And it’s starting to shift back, finally. We had this era, because it went on for even more than a decade, this era of this soft parenting, whereby, you know, just make sure the kids are comfortable and all things are well and off we go. Well, that doesn’t bode well for the child at the end of the day. I’m sorry, folks, it just doesn’t. Now, I’m not a believer in child abuse, but I do believe in corporal punishment. And I do believe that there are times where kids need that. And if they get it, they will become good parents on their own and, frankly, good citizens on their own. Because discipline is important. By the way, that’s very scriptural. Nothing wrong with discipline. In fact, Scripture says that, you know, you discipline those who you love. God disciplines us because he loves us. And the reality is discipline is a good thing. It teaches us the reward system that’s out there. And, you know, the risk versus reward. And we don’t do that enough with our kids today. I don’t feel like we do. I watch it. I’m observant of it. I see it when you guys hear me talk about it, even when I come back from vacation and some of the kids and parents and things that you run into. And it’s like, good grief, people. You have no idea how to raise kids. You’re letting your kid run the show. And that’s not how this works. You know, the adults, the adults should always be in charge. I’m going to say that again. The adults should always be in charge, not the kids, the adults. If you let kids be in charge, we’re in trouble. Because, no offense, kids don’t have life experience to be in charge in the first place, nor are they smart enough to be in charge. That doesn’t mean kids aren’t smart. It doesn’t mean kids couldn’t at some point in time have an input depending upon their age. It’s not that they can’t see things and figure things out on their own at times. And there’s nothing wrong with listening to them at times, depending upon the circumstances. But at the end of the day, the adults are in charge and should be. And I will commend Serena here for doing what she did. If her kid didn’t go to bed when she was supposed to and she had to miss a sleepover for it, guess what? She won’t miss the next one because she’ll go to bed when she’s supposed to. This is how kids learn. It’s how we as adults learn. You know, it’s sort of like when the stove is hot and you put your hand on it, you don’t put your hand on it again because you know it burned you the last time. That’s how this works. We have far too many parents, though, that have not and are not raising their kids that way. They did, again, this gentle parenting. Or in the past, we’ve had everything from the helicopter parent to the snowplow parent. You know, the helicopter parent means you’re hovering over everything your kid does to make sure things go correctly. And the snowplow parent is you just push everything out of the way so there’s no adversity at all, meaning we just raise snowflakes across the board. These kids have never had to do anything in their life decision-making-wise at all, and it doesn’t end well. And we all as adults know that. You have to discipline your kids or they won’t grow up to be good citizens. And frankly, that’s a lot of what we’ve got going on right now, even in the country, when it comes to people that vote and so on. We have people that can’t critically think because, frankly, they’ve never been disciplined and have never had to. Everything’s been handed to them. Everybody’s a winner. Everybody gets a first prize, you know, first place. We all know that’s not how life is. And then these kids grow up, they go to college or they go to the workforce and they realize that, oh, everybody doesn’t get a prize. Oh, the guy next to me worked harder and he got a bigger paycheck. And, oh, he got the bonus or he got the promotion and I didn’t. And they’re mad and upset and they want to quit. They want to go work somewhere else. I’ve even played clips where kids have complained about having to work a 40-hour week. And how do my parents ever do this? Some parents work 60, 70, 80 hours a week. You know, there’s an old meme that floats around out there. I had it on my Facebook page at one time where it says, oh, you got your 40-hour a week job? Yeah, I remember my first part-time job as well. And the fact of the matter is we’ve got kids running around today that have no idea what a 40-hour work week even is and can’t do it. and wonder why they can’t make it in life. And then the whole conversation dovetails into buying their own cars and buying their first home, and on and on and on we go. And again, it just snowballs. I’m not even going to go down that path right now because I could do an entire show on those subjects. And then the false expectations that a lot of these kids have because parents gave them those false expectations by not disciplining them when they were younger. So, again, I’m going to commend Serena here for doing what she should have done in the first place, which is discipline her kid. I don’t care what all the other comments said. In fact, I didn’t even read the rest of the comments. She did the right thing. Now, I’m not saying you’ve got to be harsh and mean and rude in this particular situation. It’s simply you didn’t go to bed. Great. You’re not going to the sleepover. Enough said. Done. We’re done. We’re handled. And that’s exactly what she did. And, by the way, good for her. All right. Veteran windows and doors. And as I watch the rain outside come through, a reminder that, yeah, you need good doors. In fact, sometimes storm doors and things along those lines. And Dave Bancroft at Veteran Windows and Doors can help you with all of that. Right now, 45% off doors, by the way. Talk to Dave today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Suck it up, buttercup. Back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, and that’s going to wrap things up for today. And again, I appreciate you all listening. Don’t forget the text line. You can text anytime, articles, anything you want me to know, 307-200-8222. Again, 307-200-8222. Don’t forget to go to the website. You can check out all of our previous shows, podcasts, things there as well. Send things on to friends and family. RushToReason.com. It’s T-O, RushToReason.com. Guys, have a great night. Be safe out there in the rain. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
