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Join Kim Monson as she dissects some of the most pressing issues facing Colorado and the nation. In this episode, delve into thought-provoking discussions about the balance between freedom and government force, examining local policies like road diets and their implications on personal mobility. Uncover how these global agendas play out on the local stage, transforming taxpayer resources and affecting daily lives.
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It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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That seems to me like government is establishing a religion.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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If you give people rights, women’s rights, gay rights, whatever, there can’t be equal rights if there are special rights.
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Today’s current opinions and ideas.
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Surveys show that people still really prefer freedom over government force.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
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Indeed. Let’s have a conversation. And welcome to the Kim Monson Show. Thank you so much for joining us. You each are treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history. And thank you to the team. That’s Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting. Happy December 2nd. Happy Tuesday, Producer Joe. Happy Tuesday, Kim. And we’ve got another great show planned for you, some very important conversations. So stay tuned. As you know, we search for truth and clarity by looking at these issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. If something’s a good idea, you should not have to force people to do it. Socialism ultimately comes down to force. Initially, socialism is just the carrot to get people to vote for it. One of the free stuff is the care to get people to vote for it. But ultimately, it is such a bad idea. You start to run out of other people’s money, as Maggie Thatcher would say. And you have you, the PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats and interested parties have to resort to force. And remember, it’s not compassionate and it’s not altruistic to take other people’s stuff. That’s actually called theft. And so it’s not okay to take their rights, their property, their freedom, their livelihoods, their lives, their opportunities, their childhoods via force. And force can be a weapon policy, unpredictable in excess of taxation, fear, coercion. government-induced inflation, this agenda that’s playing out by the World Economic Forum and the globalist elites all the way down to on the local level. In fact, there’s a neighborhood that I drive in regularly in Centennial that is on a road diet. And I’ve never seen anybody in these bike lanes. But there’s been the paint that’s been put in and then the little turtles and then the barriers. And you think about the cost to plan that, to put that in. And yesterday when I drove by it, I had always thought, what are they going to do about snow removal? Well, there was snow in this area, but it prevents people from being able to park there. And this is the World Economic Forum’s agenda to really attack our freedom of mobility, to go where we want to when we want to, because people that are free to do that are people that are free to go after their hopes and dreams. go see people they want, family they want, try to get a job that they want. And so these whole road diets is playing out at the local level. And it’s taking resources. And so what that is also, it’s a wealth transfer because money is being taken from people via taxes to pay for this. And so you’re seeing this agenda on the global level. stage play out in your local governments. And we need to be pushing back on that. Remember, if something’s a good idea, you should not have to use force to implement it. And on the show, we focus on the issues. We’ll mention the people pushing those issues, but are really working to stay out of the personality stuff that can happen so much in politics. And I was having a conversation with someone recently, and I understand that I understand that there’s agendas, that politicians may push certain agendas, PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties. But we are past where we say that that’s okay in Colorado. And the reason is, is because we are now a state where babies can be aborted up until birth. where children can be mutilated via the transgender agenda. And so this isn’t just about politics, about, you know, PBIs padding their pockets or whatever. This is about foundational, fundamental things on a healthy or an unhealthy society. And so that’s why what we do here at the show is so important to search for truth and clarity. on these issues. And it happens because of the great sponsors that I work with and also all of you. And I want to say thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. They have been great sponsors of what we do here for many, many years. And I will be beginning my eighth year of solo broadcasting on January 1 of 2026. which is pretty crazy. And I think the great team that I get to work with, the people at Crawford, producer Steve, who retired, producer Joe, who’s in here behind the boards every day, I really do appreciate all that they’re doing. And I know that you all do too, because I hear from so many of you, and I do like to hear from you, that text line is 720-605-0647. And our word of the day is incredulous. And there’s so many things that are going on that you can be incredulous, both in a positive and a negative way. It’s spelled I-N-C-R-E-D-U-L-O-U-S. And every time I spell that, I think of Eric Manning, who passed on this last summer. Great listener, great patriot, great supporter of the show. So every time I spell that, he said, Kim, make sure you spell that word of the day. It is an adjective. And first definition, and these are from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, could be skeptical or disbelieving. Or number two, it could be expressive of disbelief. And number three, not credulous, indisposed to admit or accept that which is related as true, skeptical, unbelieving. So incredulous should be easy to understand. to use in a sentence today, particularly as we are looking at these issues that we’re talking about. Our quote of the day, I went to Elvis Presley. He was born in 1935 and died in 1977. He was an American singer and actor referred to as the king of rock and roll. And he is widely regarded as one of the most culturally significant figures of the 20th century. And I was looking for truth quotes. And he said this, truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away. And that’s why we search for truth and clarity on a regular basis on the show. Some of the headlines that I wanted to go through, this first one is from the Wall Street Journal. And many of you know that the National Renewable Energy Lab says, It’s right out here in golden. The Trump administration energy department is renaming it. It says it’s renaming it to the National Laboratory of the Rockies, which is a symbolic rebranding of the storied institution to align it with the Trump administration’s focus on, they say, fossil fuels. I’ll say naturally occurring hydrocarbons. says the department said in a press release Monday that the name change reflects the Trump administration’s broader vision for the lab’s applied energy research. So that’s a pretty big deal. Second thing, this is from Complete Colorado, and it’s the parental rights lawsuit against Jeffco School District is appealed, says a group of Colorado families. has appealed their federal lawsuit against Jefferson County Public Schools stemming from an attempt to place an 11-year-old girl in the same hotel room and bed as a transgender-identifying biological boy on an overnight school trip. Lawyers for the family filed a brief on November 19 with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals after the original lawsuit was dismissed by a lower court in August, which you really have to question that. I will interject here with our two lawsuits that all of you helped fund regarding our elections. I can see it’s really a back and forth in this legal arena. But we have to be in that arena as well as the arena of public opinion, changing hearts and minds. And we here at the Kim Monson Show are focused on both of those. This article goes on to say in the summer of 2023, Joe and Serena Wills, 11 year old daughter, went to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. for a school trip upon finishing fifth grade. She was placed in a room with two girls and a biological boy identifying as a girl. Despite the school telling parents that boys and girls would room on separate floors, Wales was told she had to share a bed with a boy. After the girl went to her mother, who was a chaperone on the trip, they reassigned the transgender student to a different room. The school claims that they were unaware of the student’s transgender, I find this hard to believe, that’s why these truth quotes are so important, that the student’s transgender status when rooms were assigned. The school’s district’s overnight accommodation policy states that room assignments can be determined based on the student’s gender identity. However, there is no opt-out option for parents to request that their child stay only with the others of the same biological sex. Do you see what’s wrong with that whole big picture? And I can’t believe that a lower court dismissed it, but it is being appealed. So that is important. Next headline that I wanted to share with you was this is from the Coloradan. And it is that the minimum wage is increasing in 2026. And it will be $15.16 per hour statewide. It’s a 2.4% increase. And as we talk with Susan Kochevar, sponsor of the show, entrepreneur, owner of 88 Drive-In Theater, who she has a number of really entry-level young people that are getting that first job. This makes it more and more expensive for her to hire these people, to give them that opportunity to learn these things about work ethic, because it’s not just the 2.4% increase in pay, it’s all of the benefits go up that much as well. And so in a way, it becomes an unemployment problem. raise for many young people. So somebody’s going to make a little bit more money, but other people are not going to get jobs. And that’s one of the things that these people that push a forced minimum wage do not understand. And it’s just basic economics. But many of these people that push a forced minimum wage have never created a business, they’ve never had to pay a paycheck, they do not understand. And so the relationship between the worker and the employer, they should be free to make that decision on how much is being paid. And if someone is not happy with the amount that they’re getting paid, they need to advocate for themselves, they need to make themselves better. so that they become more valuable to the company so that the employer is then willing to pay them more and so that’s uh really important to understand as well i’ll hit one last headline before we go to break and this is from uh the center square in colorado And it says, Colorado sees record K-12 spending despite declining results. More money is being spent even as enrollment, students’ test scores, and average teacher salary falls. So one has to ask, where is all the money going? And Coloradans continue to approve bond increases from these school districts, and we are voting ourselves into debt oblivion and not getting the results. that are opined with each of these particular requests for more and more money. And it says, K through 12 spending spotlight found in Colorado now spends over $3,600 on pension debt and other employee benefits for every student it serves. At the same time, the state’s average teacher salary is now 7.6% less than it was in 2020. I kind of find that hard to believe, but well, that’s what it says. But let’s just think about that. And we do want to pay our teachers more. But this whole pension debt is a real problem and it needs to be addressed. And so it’s that’s another important headline to see. as i mentioned the show comes to you because of all of your support and our great sponsors the roger mangan state farm insurance team roger has been in business for over 50 years i’m working through some scenarios for some potential christmas gifts with stacy over at roger’s office and so give them a call about life insurance check out your insurance needs for your car your home and your boat If you bundle things together, you might be able to save some money. The only way to find out is to give them a call. That number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
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There’s so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. the KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
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And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. And financial freedom starts with the right guide, and Mint Financial Strategies is here to help. They’re an independent firm with over 25 years of experience, and their credentials are an accredited investment fiduciary. They offer advice that’s focused on you, not a sales quota, and their strategy-first approach is all about helping you live life on your terms with clarity, confidence, and control. Call Mint Financial Strategies today. That number is 303-285-3080. 303-285-3080. They are your path to independent financial confidence. And as we’re coming in on the end of the year, now would be a good time to assess where you are with your financial planning and reach out to Mint Financial Strategies. Pleased to have on the line with me, Kevin Lundberg. He is a former Colorado State Senator, as well as the author of the Lundberg Report, which you can find at Kevin Lundberg. That’s L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G.com. Kevin, welcome to the show.
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Well, thank you. It’s great being on always. Sometimes our subjects are not that pleasant, but it’s very pleasant talking to you and sharing it with your listeners.
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Well, it’s important, as you know, Kevin, we search for truth and clarity. And I was looking for truth quotes regarding the show, and I found this one with Elvis Presley, which I loved. He said, truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t going away. And so that’s why you do what you do. That’s why I do what I do. Exactly. First thing, first of all, I would really recommend that in addition to the Kim Monson show, that people check out the Lundberg Report, which is published every Saturday, which is very informative regarding what’s going on. And one of the things that you highlighted this last Saturday is a lawsuit regarding Senate Bill 24-230, which it instituted a fee, which is really a tax. The schematics of calling something a fee versus a tax under Tabor, Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights, means that if it’s a fee, they don’t have to ask the people of Colorado if it’s okay, which is really a… runaround to the people of Colorado. So there’s a lawsuit on this.
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Yeah, I’d say they made it a runaround because years ago, I actually asked the author of the Tabor Amendment, Douglas Bruce, why didn’t you include a limitation on fees? And he said, well, fees are intended to be a cost for services rendered, and a tax is something that’s forced on the people. and it isn’t necessarily for their immediate benefit you know like like here could be a fee a license you buy a hunting license and there are fees attached to that that makes sense because that helps to run the department of wildlife parks and wildlife now um and and so that’s a legitimate fee And his rationale was, well, we shouldn’t clamp down limits on that. We should allow the government to charge fees for appropriate costs for certain services that the government provides or regulations of necessity. And that’s what I’d call a hunting license. But then a tax is something that’s just simply laid on the people that we pay. And it’s appropriate that you pay appropriate amounts of taxes. But the people should be able to to approve directly approved through a vote of the people for any increase or establishment of new taxes. And so they, meaning the, let’s call it the deep state within Colorado, you know, the government people who want to see more revenue for their own purposes, they figured out a long time ago that if we just call this fee a tax, we can sort of get around Tabor. And they have done it to the tune of billions of dollars every year. Road and bridge fees, for example, or the hospital provider fee, which is a real gimmick. All of these are just heavy taxes laid on the people of Colorado. either directly or indirectly, that create this massive growth in government, despite the fact that Tabor says that people need to be able to vote on any of these increases. So along comes Senate Bill 24, which means in 2024, the bill, the 230, which placed a fee on the oil and gas industry, which had nothing to do with the oil and gas industry. It’s just that they wanted to raise some money out of this very big industry. Well, it used to be big. It used to be the biggest industry in Colorado. I don’t know if it still is because they’ve done everything they could to choke it down, and that’s another fold to this whole story on this particular one. But Michael Fields, who is pretty active in defending Kaber and trying to limit the taxation and, you know, encourage healthy economies here in Colorado. He and his group have put a lawsuit against this one particular fee. And whenever I say fee here, I do air quotes, you know, because I consider these taxes and very illegal taxes because they’re not going through the prescription of Tabor. I’m anxious to see what the court’s going to do with this, because any reasonable reading of the Constitution says this is a tax and should not have been imposed by the legislature without going to a vote of the people. So, Kevin…
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Yeah, well, a couple of things, because you have been in this whole political thing much longer than I have. But you mentioned the hospital provider fee and this created a what they’re doing is they’re creating these enterprise entities outside that money in that enterprise does not fall under the TABOR caps. And so this was Senate Bill 17-267. The Health Care Affordability Act of 2009, or House Bill, it says 09-1293, authorized the collection of a provider fee from most Colorado hospitals. Now, my understanding, and you would know better than I, but my understanding is that fee that was put on Colorado hospitals was supposed to go back to hospitals. That’s the other thing, is the fee is supposed to go to, you know, that industry. But in fact, that fee in the legislation was to not be disclosed on a hospital bill. It was my understanding. Is that correct?
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Well, that’s the way it works out. I don’t remember precisely. I’ll give you a little bit of history, though, because I was actually chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee when that bill was going through the process. And it was toward the end of the session that year. And I decided I’m just not bringing this one up. I mean, I knew that it was illegal, you know, in terms of its constitutional law. Muster, but I held off and unfortunately a chairman of a committee cannot do what’s called a pocket veto, unfortunately in this case. And a majority of the committee can override a chairman’s decision, which they did. So I did everything within my power to stop this one. Now, I want to correct you on one thing. You said that money goes back to that industry. That’s not really what a fee is. A fee is a charge for services rendered. In other words, it should go back to that taxpayer. And in this case, you could argue that the hospital is the taxpayer rather than the, uh, than, than the patient. Even though I think ultimately the patient is supposed to be paying the bill. Here’s how it works is it was a, a standard fee. And I’m like, initially I think it was like 170 some dollars per day that anybody stays in the hospital. So per bed basically. Um, and, And yet it didn’t go to those hospitals precisely. It went back, you’re right, to the industry. It was a gimmick that they’d created for a couple of reasons. One is to draw down more Medicare, or excuse me, Medicaid dollars. and to reimburse hospitals that were experiencing more losses because of the whole indigent care side of hospitals. In other words, hospital has to take you in. They have to treat you, at least to stabilize you. And you don’t necessarily have to pay the bill. Federal law says if you go to an ER, they treat you. And then we worry about who pays for what. Well, a lot of hospitals were treated. taking in the teeth and others were not so much, but the hospital provider fee was a standard cost for every hospital. And as I say, it was gaming the system of Medicaid. It was because the federal dollars, the federal government had this deal where they match your state dollars that were put in the pot for Medicaid. So this one was just ripe with, it was just dripping with gimmicks on it.
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Two things. Okay, two things there. First of all, you hear PBIs all the time opine about, oh my gosh, health care costs. So here we have a piece of legislation that puts on a daily fee of, you said, almost $200,000. for a hospital stay, well, that makes your hospital stay much less affordable when they’re doing that. But the other thing is, though, you mentioned indigent care, and I don’t know the exact intricacies, but I’m thinking about it. So we have somebody in there that the government is paying for their stay in the hospital. They’re probably charged that fee as well. But yet ultimately the taxpayer is back in loading it. And so this becomes this huge wealth transfer from everyday hardworking taxpayers to interested parties and really interested parties, at least as I see it. What do you think?
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Oh, absolutely. And, you know, that’s what a tax is. A tax is a wealth transfer. It’s the government collecting money from individuals in order to conduct the business of government. And as I say, there’s a degree of necessity within that. But for Colorado, we established that whenever that increases in any form, The people are supposed to vote on it and say, yes, we approve of this additional tax to be placed on us. And, you know, just gimmick, gimmick, gimmick. And I chose this particular issue or story to highlight in this last week’s newsletter. Not not because I think that that particular fee is is earth shattering, even though I believe it’s headed the wrong way. But it gave me a great example to bring up. And I’m so grateful that you’re focusing on this because the real point is this is what they continue to do and do and do. You know, when I was on the Joint Budget Committee, that was less than what was it, seven, eight years ago now. um we were looking at a general fund budget of somewhere in the uh mid 20 billion of dollars well here now it is uh last year’s well the budget we’re in right now it was uh pegged at i think it was 44 billion dollars and and and i i asked somebody a senator just a couple of weeks ago well what’s what’s the new budget and And he didn’t even know. I know it’s, you know, the governor proposes a budget on November 1st, and I want to know, so how many more billions of dollars did he want to spend? And, you know, they claim they’re way behind. They’re like a billion dollars short. Well, that’s because they’ve been spending it by the billions other directions with so many programs. And, you know, we’ve got to put the brakes on this just for the practical reality of this is too much money and it’s wrong as well.
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Totally agree. We’re going to continue because this is a really important discussion. And Kevin Lumberg has the institutional knowledge about these things that have been going on. And then I have my. commentary on this because it’s so important. These discussions happen because we have great sponsors. But I did want to mention the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo. Pueblo is known as the home of heroes. And the center has the Portraits of Valor of uh… well over a hundred and sixty of medal of honor recipients in these are men who took action when the situation presented itself to protect those around them and it uh… i take great heart as i look at these portraits and look at these quotes of these men because we are now in a great ideological battle and we must do the same there is danger danger out there and we must act and so that’s why the center for american values is so important so inspirational It is nonpartisan. It’s nonpolitical. It’s focused on these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. And you need to put it on your bucket list to get down and visit the Center for American Values. For more information to get their hours, go to AmericanValuesCenter.org. And again, I mentioned that I get to work with amazing people as our sponsors. For everything residential real estate, reach out to Karen Levine.
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720-940-3887. All Kim’s sponsors are in inclusive partnership with Kim and are not affiliated with or in partnership with KLZ or Crawford Broadcasting. If you would like to support the work of The Kim Monson Show and grow your business, contact Kim at her website, kimmonson.com. That’s kimmonson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com.
SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is KimMonson, M-O-N-S-O-N.com. And another great sponsor of the show is Hooters Restaurants. They have locations in Loveland, Westminster, and in Aurora. A great place to watch the – most of the Colorado teams are doing really, really well. So my understanding is the Avalanche and the Nuggets and the Broncos are all doing great. And, of course, a great place to get together with friends to watch the games is Hooters Restaurants. So be sure and check that out. I’m talking with former state senator Kevin Lundberg, also the author of the Lundberg Report. You can find that at KevinLundberg, L-U-N-D-B-E-R-G.com. The Lundberg Report comes out on Saturdays, and I would really recommend that you add this into your repertoire as trying to keep track of what’s happening. in Colorado. So, Kevin, we’re going to be talking about this oil and gas, Senate Bill 24-230 in a minute, but these enterprise zones and these fees, in doing so, in leaving fees out of taper, and as you mentioned, you talked with Douglas Bruce about that, is that what has happened is it left an opening, a little opening, that now PBIs drive a truck through. And Senate Bill 17-267, the hospital provider fee is a big one. And this was really the first time, Kevin, that I realized that there are those that will say that they want to protect Tabor, that they say they want to protect the taxpayer, but not so fast. And when I talk about PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties, we were out stumping, looking for funds to support the show. And I was in a very influential person’s office. And he said something about the hospital provider fee and that they were working on a grand bargain. And I was very naive at the time. But I think John Caldera over at the Independence Institute, I think he was talking about the danger, danger of what this would do. And so anyway, I thought that was so interesting that this… Republican, very influential Republican, said that they’re working on a grand bargain. Then I look at the bill, and Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, Republican, is sponsoring it, along with Senator Lucia Guzman, Representative Casey Becker, and Representative John Becker. I don’t know, was John Becker a Republican or a Democrat, or do you know?
SPEAKER 03 :
I believe he was a Republican. And, of course, Jerry was as well, Jerry Sonnenberg. Yeah. Yeah, this grand bargain. Let me explain that just a little bit. I was going to bring that up, but I wasn’t actually going to bring their names in. But you did, so there you go.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’ll tell you, Kevin, it pains me to do this because I really want to stay out of the personality stuff. But yet, I’ve said on the show, we will mention the people.
SPEAKER 03 :
who are are you know if they put their name on it they have to be responsible for it yeah i i have a knot in my stomach to share these names because it pains me to do so i will tell you it does well i understand that believe me uh you know when i just when i told you about how the uh the appropriations committee gave me a letter where the majority of them had signed it it was uh And it was Jerry who handed it to me. And just to give you a little bit of background on this, Jerry represented areas up in northeastern Colorado based around Sterling in that area. And rural district, you know, lots of rural hospitals that he represented. And the hospital provider fee… It gave them a few. Well, if I remember correctly, it said, well, it’s to be about 16 million dollars that will go towards the rural hospitals. And I’ll admit the rural hospitals were really feeling the pinch in a lot of ways because they’re small and they’re in a rural setting. They you know, they don’t have all of the. The economic activity that occurs in a big metropolitan area.
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So, Kevin, can I just interject something then about this whole medical industrial complex that we see these bigger and bigger hospitals that. Again, we were talking about the hospital provider fee. Well, of course, if there’s that fee that’s going to be charged on every bed that is not disclosed to the patient, and that goes back to the institution, these big hospitals make money on that. And I was driving on 470 yesterday out to the airport, and there was a big sign for a future medical campus. And I’m thinking, I don’t think we need another future medical campus. And so the incentives on all this have gotten to a point, again, we’re talking about wealth transfers. And you can see a wealth transfer from rural to urban. And so you can understand like, yes, let’s support our rural hospitals. But again, in that narrative, they created something that you could drive a truck through for the urban hospitals, in my opinion.
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And in this particular case, it raised billions of dollars in order to provide millions of dollars for a worthy cause. And that was not justifiable in my mind. Seems to me the grand bargain should have been, let’s look after the rural hospitals. You’re quite right about the medical industrial complex. If you look, and I’ve been watching, my wife is actually a registered nurse. And so we’ve been kind of following how. how the medical industry goes for a very long time and hospitals have been building uh bigger and bigger and bigger facilities uh all the time and you just scratch your head and say well if everybody’s so you know because the medical industry is always you know crying about shortages here and and the costs are too high and they are you know unfortunately when you get sick One of the real illnesses you then experience is financial hardships that are just oftentimes insurmountable. But the hospitals seem to just come out on top all the time. And I did figure this out down in the legislature. Um, I actually passed a bill, Senate bill 16, uh, or no 63, I think it was called or 67, something like that. Anyway, it, it required some transparency on the part of hospitals for billing. Um, and the only reason I got that bill passed is because the hospitals finally got behind it and they kind of enabled it so that they could, so it was somewhat harmless theoretically. Um, it was still the first bill that started to move towards some real transparency. And that has been an improvement that you can find out a little bit more about what’s going to cost to have an appendectomy at XYZ Hospital or something like that. But what I learned very clearly was they run the show. And whenever there’s a legislative deal of some sort when it comes to medical systems, you can bet that the hospitals are going to come out on top. Why? Because they’re the most sophisticated and they have the best lobbyists and and, you know, they make their case more effectively than anybody else. Well, if I might go to the national scene for just a second here, go ahead. President Trump is trying to Completely flip that around because part and parcels with the hospitals are the insurance companies. And he’s saying, hey, we’re not going to fix all of these billing problems we have, meaning, you know, most hospital bills that you get. You can take a digit off, and that’s about what the real cost is. In other words, it’s inflated by about 1,000%. And why do I know that? Because that’s what the hospitals actually are paid by the insurance companies. But when they give you a private bill, it’s way higher. And that’s because they’ve worked out these deals, you know, and they they know who can come out on top. Well, Trump is saying, let’s let’s cut through all that. And if the government is going to be subsidizing medical costs, which they do, they pay about half or more of the medical costs today. Let’s give it to the individual citizen and then let them go out in the marketplace and buy the product. Let’s put free market mechanisms really back in place. I think that’s a great idea. Anyway, I’m sorry. I took us down a little rabbit trail, but it’s an important one that’s happening.
SPEAKER 09 :
It’s an important one, and I realize that we should be on a Joe Rogan three-hour on this whole conversation. I’m sorry. No, no, it’s that important. So we’re going to go to break. I’m talking with Kevin Lundberg, former state senator, about fees. And it’s an important discussion, and we’ll continue that. It happens because of our sponsors. If you’ve been injured, you’ll want to make sure that you talk to John Bozen and Bozen Law. Thank you.
SPEAKER 18 :
John Bozen and the attorneys at Bozen Law know how overwhelmingly life can feel after an accident or injury. That’s why Bozen Law can help guide you, support you, and fight for the full compensation you’re owed. Whether you were hurt on the road, at work, or in a hospital, the Bozen Law team is ready to stand by your side and help you move forward. Backed by decades of combined legal experience, Bozen Law can help you pursue justice and compensation after six years. Call Bozen Law at 303-999-9999 for a complimentary consultation. That number is 303-999-9999. Call Bozen Law now.
SPEAKER 13 :
April 26, 1777. Colonel, the British are raiding Danbury and burning the town. I’ll go tell them. Sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington mounted her horse and rode 40 miles through night and pouring rain. That’s twice the distance of Paul Revere to sound the alarm.
SPEAKER 02 :
Quickly.
SPEAKER 13 :
assemble at my father’s house the kim monson show is our modern day sybil luddington bringing us the latest breaking news in the battle for truth and freedom ben’s plumbing heating and cooling is proud to stand with kim will you stand with us get engaged with the issue that keeps you up at night so that you can influence your school and community with truth and justice And for quality craftsmanship at a fair price, call or text Ben’s Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling at 303-995-1636. That number again is 303-995-1636.
SPEAKER 01 :
Do you strive for excellence as you work with your clients and customers? Does it make sense for you to add a unique and focused branding opportunity to your marketing portfolio? Would you like to access a broad customer base that loves our country and wants to make life better for ourselves, our neighbors, our colleagues, our children, and our grandchildren? Then you may be a perfect fit as a sponsor slash partner of The Kim Monson Show. To learn more, reach out to Teresa at 520-631-9243. Teresa would love to talk with you. Again, that number is 520-631-9243.
SPEAKER 09 :
Welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Check out the website for the USMC Memorial Foundation. And now that we’re into the Christmas season, doing your Christmas and Hanukkah shopping, a great gift would be to buy a brick to honor your loved one’s military service. And that brick will eventually be on one of their pathways of service as the remodel is complete. You will receive a beautiful certificate, which is a lovely gift. And so check all that out. Go to USMCMemorialFoundation.org. Kevin Lundberg, author of the Kevin Lundberg Report, former state senator, you mentioned Trump and health care. And someone asked me, I’d seen a headline that the Trump administration is proposing extending the Unaffordable Care Act tax incentives for another two years. What did I think about it? And I was focused on Thanksgiving. And so I don’t have an opinion on that yet. What’s your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’ll tell you, overall, I think President Trump is doing a better job than I’ve ever seen any president do in my lifetime. And that includes some people, mostly Ronald Reagan, who I have the highest respect for. I was on the health committee for 14 years and then on the joint budget committee for two years. And so I’ve watched all of the, you know, wrangling around medical issues at the state level. And I can certainly and believe me, I fought Obamacare from the get go on this one. But I’m granting the president knows that you can’t turn the ship around in a day without creating a disaster. So I’m I’m judging from what he’s been doing everywhere and moving that over to this point and saying, I think he’s doing this because he knows he needs that much time to get everything, you know, all the other parts in place. You know, I brought up earlier the fact that he’s trying to break the box that we are stuck in, but you can’t do it all at once, especially, you know, for the medical system. We have a very good medical system in many, many ways. You know, if people get sick from around the world and they can afford it, where do they come? Here for treatment. But the billing system, as I covered, is completely broken. And bankrupt and a mess. And, of course, the worst possible solution would be for the government to take it over entirely. Then you’d be like in Canada where people die waiting for treatment. So I think he simply appreciates the realities he’s faced with. And he knows that he has to not grow it, but not destroy it entirely all at once. Because I see his long… I mean, this guy is very…
SPEAKER 09 :
uh strategic and he’s you know playing 3d chess most of the time when we’re still trying to figure out where the checker move goes so well and we need somebody uh to be doing that who cares about the american people because the radical activists who have taken over the democrat party this democrat party’s not the party of jfk or your grandpa your grandma they are playing chess and it seems like we’ve been playing tiddlywinks i want to go back to the senate bills oh go ahead go ahead
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. No, no, no, no. Please move on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. Senate Bill 17267. It was called the Sustainability of Rural Colorado, which they put titles on these things which sound good, sound important, but as you mentioned, it created billions of dollars when those that they said that they were going to help, it gave them just millions of dollars. But I mentioned that I was in this very influential person’s office, and they said something about the grand bargain. I’m like, huh. So then I went down, this was maybe one of my first times to testify at a committee. So I went to the Senate, whatever the Senate committee was that was hearing that particular piece of legislation. Again, Senate Bill 17267. And I think at the time that we had a majority in the Senate, it seems like we had a majority on that particular committee. And so the presentations are made, and I want to say I think the committee was 3-2, Republican, Democrat, but I can’t quite remember.
SPEAKER 03 :
That sounds quite probable.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay, so everything’s heard, and two of the Republicans vote to not let this bill get out of committee, which if it doesn’t get out of committee, then that means that it’s not going to go into law. Okay. And two Democrats voted for it. And the third Republican voted to get it out of committee, which I was just scratching my head. And then I looked at the votes on the floor and he voted against it. And I thought, oh, okay, so this is how the game is played, is you vote to get it out of committee, and then when you’re out talking with your constituents, you say, oh, I was against it. And that was probably… My real first eye-opening experience regarding those from both sides of the aisle that may not always vote to have the best interests of the people of Colorado in place. Instead, it was really more the PBIs. So your comments.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you’re right. And, you know, you called it the grand bargain because the left was really angling hard for this. And that’s why when after it went from that committee, it eventually went on to the Appropriations Committee. And so I was the gatekeeper. And I tried to keep that gate closed as much as I could. And it is extraordinary for a bill to not go through. See, we have what’s called the gavel amendment that guarantees that every bill will get a public hearing. Well, that bill got a public hearing in that committee that you were in. But then when it moved on through the process, actually, I wasn’t constitutionally required to bring that bill up. And my intent was to not bring it up. But then I was forced because a majority of the committee, that’s the way the rules work, can submit a letter that says you will bring this up. And so I had to. It’s the other side played, played the rules, you know, played the game pretty shrewdly and they got it past the choke point. And really the biggest choke point was my committee. because they knew they had the votes on the floor. I mean, oh, my. Yeah, you know, when we had that debate, that was a memorable one. I remember a lot of details. Now, I want to say one other thing, too, and that is both of those Republicans who were co-sponsors on that bill were from rural Colorado, from the eastern plains. And that’s how it was sold to them. And I have a very high respect for both of those gentlemen. But they… went after a very soft, sensitive part of their districts, which is save the hospitals, which were in tough shape. And unfortunately, and believe me, I passionately publicly argued against what was happening. But the fix was in. And yes, the Senate was controlled by the Republicans by one vote. So we knew there were a lot of bills. We knew that if any such and such bill gets out on the floor, it’s going to pass because, you know, so-and-so over here is going to support it or somebody else. It just took one step away. And obviously we had one with the sponsor himself. And he’s a dear friend. I still have a high respect for him in many, many ways. I don’t want anybody to think otherwise. But unfortunately… Sometimes somebody, you know, buckles.
SPEAKER 09 :
I guess I’ll put it that way. And I do think it’s important, and again, I really am working diligently to stay out of the personality stuff that happens in politics, but I will name names on this because people need to know about this because we have to be responsible. If we don’t know these things, then we cannot get this whole thing turned around, and that whole hospital provider fee thing It took so much money out from underneath the table. It ultimately took money from everyday Coloradans and their table refunds. I mean, that’s the bottom line.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, yeah. And it blew up medical costs. It didn’t cure. It didn’t control medical costs. It simply was a wealth transfer. So, you know, that that’s that’s the one interesting little piece of history in our legislative arena. Hey, before I lose a lot of time, I want to tell you one thing. If I can shift gears really fast.
SPEAKER 09 :
Sure, we’ve got a couple of minutes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Absolutely. Okay, well, I want to update people on where we’re at with the initiative process. This is another very important area, which is on the front burner right now, and that’s with Protect Kids Colorado and the initiatives dealing with the whole transgender ideology that’s being forced down the throats of our kids in our schools and our, you know, athletic programs and, and through our hospitals, you know, one of the initiatives says no more surgeries can be conducted on children for these supposed sex change things, which used to be a bizarre thing that happened only in weird little corners of the world. And, But now it’s sort of normalized. All the hospitals, or nearly, not all of them, but many, and we’re trying to prohibit that. Anyway, we are working to collect enough signatures to put this on the ballot. And I want to encourage people to… To double up on this, by our best estimates, we’ve collected better than half of what we need, but we’ve only got a couple of months left to get the job done. And I’m excited with what’s happening, and I’m also right on pins and needles as to whether we’ll get it done. Okay.
SPEAKER 09 :
Absolutely. Kevin, we have so much more to talk about. I’m hoping that your schedule will work, that you can be on next week. So we’ll talk offline on that. Because we’re out of time, this is so important. But Protect Kids Colorado, go to their website. That’s protectkidscolorado.com. Kevin Lundberg, thank you. We will be back in just a moment with our number two.
SPEAKER 11 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 17 :
It’s the Kim Monson Show. Analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 09 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 17 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 09 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 17 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 09 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 17 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 09 :
Indeed, let’s have a conversation and welcome to our number two of the Kim Monson show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N dot com. Sign up for our weekly email newsletter so that you get the first look at our upcoming guests, our most recent essays. And I so appreciate all of you and thank you for listening. You each are treasured, you’re valued, you have purpose. Today, strive for excellence, take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. My friends, we were made for this moment in history to engage in this epic battle of ideas that is occurring right now. I thank Producer Joe, Luke, Rachel, Zach, Echo, Charlie, Mike, Teresa, Amanda, and all the people here at Crawford Broadcasting for us to be on the air and make all this happen. As you know, though, I buy my airtime, so that means I have full control over subjects and guest selection. And that’s why our sponsors, your support is so important. That was quite a conversation, Producer Joe. Hopefully you learned a lot.
SPEAKER 15 :
Yes, ma’am. I definitely did.
SPEAKER 09 :
And that was our number one with Kevin Lundberg. It will rebroadcast today in the one to two hour. It will then also be on the website as a podcast, but you can get it on iTunes and Spotify as well. I wanted to say thank you to the Harris family for their goal sponsorship of the show. And again, as I mentioned, we are totally independent voice. And that’s why. We don’t have any corporation telling us what to say or do. We are totally independent. Our word of the day is incredulous. It’s I-N-C-R-E-D-U-L-O-U-S. And it could be skeptical or disbelieving, expressive of disbelief or not credulous and supposed to admit or accept that which is related as true. And I would say, as we were talking about the Senate Bill 17267, I was really incredulous at what I was watching. And that was probably one of the big catalysts where I realized I had read the legislation. And I think that’s one of the bumper comments that we have is I used to think that the legislation was above my pay grade and it’s not. And that was probably the inflection point to make that happen. And I think at this point, speaking of reading legislation, There is an amazing group of people, and that is this all-volunteer group, which is the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, that we read the legislation. We will take a position on legislation. What we’re looking at is how this affects the taxpayer. Protecting Tabor, Colorado’s Taxpayers Bill of Rights, Property Rights, and Parental Rights. And we would really recommend that you join us. In doing so, you will get a hard copy of our ratings report, which we recently published, and we’re getting that distributed. And also then you will receive the weekly email that we send out to all legislators and the governor regarding positions on legislation. And the 2026 legislative session begins, I think, right around, I want to say around the 13th of June. January. And in order to be an engaged citizen, you need to know what’s going on. And PBIs want to keep things so complicated that you can’t sift through all that. And that’s why Kevin Lumberg and his Lumberg Report is so important. Sue Moore and her group over at Liberty Scorecard, what we’re doing here. All these things are great tools for you to understand what’s going on. And as a society that’s of a government by the people for the people, we need to make sure that we step up and do our part on that. But you need to have trusted sources in order to do so. And so I wanted to say thank you to this group. That is Steve Dorman, Greg Golianski, Russ Haas, Bill Hamill, Rob Knuth, John Nelson, Wendy Warner, Marty Nielsen, Ramey Johnson. Mary Jansen, Dave Evans, Corey Onizorg, Paula Beard, and Ray Beard. When you see these folks, say thank you because they’re doing great work. And join us. You can do that by going to coloradotaxpayer.org. It’s only $25 a year. That’s $2.08 a month. And you can buy three cups of coffee there. Or you can buy three months for what a cup of coffee costs you at some of the designer coffee stores. So be sure and do that. As I mentioned, we are an independent voice, and I work with amazing sponsors who all strive for excellence in their fields. And we have on John Bozen with Bozen Law right now. And if you’ve been injured, you’ll want to make sure that you give them a call. John Bozen, welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Good morning, Kim.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, I wanted to talk with you. I’ve seen headlines, and you may have seen it yesterday. We mentioned it, and certainly condolences and sympathy to Faith Winter’s family, a Democrat senator who, policy standpoint, she and I were on the opposite spectrums. She was killed in a car accident the day before Thanksgiving. And it made me think about, I need to talk with John about your advice on, I mean, accidents happen. They do. But there are things that we can do to try to reduce the possibilities of that. So I wanted to ask you, how can we make our holidays safer and merrier?
SPEAKER 04 :
Not get on the road for any purposes. I’m kidding. Yeah. We’ve got busy, busy lives, and this time of year, Thanksgiving through the New Year holiday, probably see more accidents. And I don’t have the data. I should look that up to support that statement. But I believe there’s more accidents during the holidays than any other time of the year. Now, part of that is the snow, the weather conditions. A big part of that is distractions and folks driving when they should not be. So I tell folks, when you’re out there, especially this time of year, regardless of the weather, you’ve got to be focused because just people are not thinking like they should be when they’re on the road, and that is to be doing nothing but focusing on driving. They’re thinking about getting that gift. They’re thinking about what they’re going to wear to the Christmas party. There’s so many distractions. So the first thing would be stay focused. And if you realize as you hit that ignition button or turn the key that you’ve got a lot of other things on your mind, you’ve got to just sit there for 10, 15 seconds, clear your mind, very difficult to do, easy to say, and focus on what you’re doing, and that’s going to whatever destination. The other thing is so many people want to have a good time. They’ve got that Christmas party. They have that extra drink. They get on the road. It’s thinking before you get there what the plan is. It’s hoping and planning. And if you plan, it’s going to work a lot better than hope that folks are going to be designated to watch out for other people at those holiday events. Because I see a lot of accidents Friday nights, Saturday nights, after a Christmas party. And that can be a real, well, it can be tragic. So it’s having a plan. And then the basics, when it’s snowy out, when the weather is not the best, not the conducive weather for driving, slow down. Nothing is so important that you have to race or push it in bad weather. That will make a difference. Making sure that your brakes are working well, that your tires are weather-worthy. Little stuff, basic stuff. But number one, stay focused. Watch what’s going on around you. Slow down. Those things will help keep us safe during the holiday season.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, John Bozen, when I was in high school, I went to a – one year I went – they had a safety camp. The second year was a citizenship camp. But during the safety camp, I remember this always stuck with me. And they asked all of us kids – it was all high school kids from all over the state of Kansas – what is the most – a dangerous mile. And so we’re like, oh, mountains or curvy roads or whatever. And the instructor said, no, it’s the mile in front of you. And that has stuck with me all my life.
SPEAKER 04 :
I’m going to have to steal that one from you, Kim. I’ll borrow it.
SPEAKER 09 :
You can borrow that. Absolutely. Absolutely. So to your point, and we all, we get busy, and as you say, we’re thinking about other things. And so it’s good to have this reminder from you to stop and focus. If somebody has been injured, they need to certainly get medical attention, but that they need to call you and your great attorneys at Bozen Law.
SPEAKER 04 :
They do, and a lot of folks put off contacting or communicating with us until after the holiday season. Big mistake. Folks, I don’t want anyone to get hurt out there. I don’t want you or your loved ones or your friends, but stuff will happen, and it’s very important that the advice be provided on the front end. A lot of bad stuff can happen in a week, two weeks, a month. after an accident, if someone hasn’t called, gotten the advice and education and guidance that they need. And the number to call for that is 303-999-9999. Well, John Bozen, that number is 303-999-9999. Thank you for the great advice. We’ll talk again next week.
SPEAKER 09 :
I’ll look forward to it, Kim. Have a great rest of your show. Thank you. And again, I work with great people. Another great group, as you know, is the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance Team. And they can put together a plan to cover all of the things that you have and may be able, if you bundle things together, you might save some significant money. The only way to find out is to call them. And that number is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan Team is there.
SPEAKER 08 :
costs to ensure your home apartment auto boat are increasing inflation high taxes grocery prices are squeezing coloradans budgets how can you save money when you bundle your insurance coverage with the roger mink and state farm insurance team you may save money on your insurance premiums The only way to find out is to reach out to the Roger Mangan State Farm Insurance team for a complimentary appointment. Call the Roger Mangan team now at 303-795-8855. That number again is 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, the Roger Mangan team is there.
SPEAKER 16 :
A house protects from the rain, but a home shelters from the storms of life. Additionally, homeownership has helped Americans create wealth for themselves and their families. The Colorado Metro real estate market is ever-changing and is presenting new opportunities for homebuyers that we have not seen in quite some time. If you are thinking of buying a new home or selling your home, Remax Realtor Karen Levine can help you successfully navigate the complexities of real estate transactions. Call Karen Levine today at 303-877-7516. That’s 303-877-7516. You want Karen Levine on your side of the table.
SPEAKER 12 :
There’s so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force. Force vs. Freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. And from Parker to Golden, Little Richie’s Pizza and Pasta is your go-to for real New York-style pizza, hearty pastas, and that unbelievable local vibe. Little Richie’s is serving up daily specials, quick and tasty weekday lunch deals, and a happy hour the locals actually build their plans around. So whether you’re bringing the crew, catching up with friends, or flying solo for a hot slice, Little Richie’s is your neighborhood hangout. And again, that’s in Parker and Golden. And I can tell you they have, I think, the best calzones I’ve ever eaten. So be sure and check that out. Our featured guest this hour is Steve Gorham. and he’s the executive director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of four books on energy, climate change, and sustainable development with over 100,000 copies in print. Steve’s latest book is Green Breakdown, the Coming Renewable Energy Failure. Last month, Green Breakdown again reached number one in Amazon’s energy policy category. Steve Gorham, welcome.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hi, Kim. Great to join you again.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, it is great to have you as well, and there is much going on in this particular arena, and you certainly are ahead of your time. Your other books are Green Breakdown, which is the coming renewable energy failure, Outside the Green Box, and The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism, in addition to your most recent one, Green Breakdown, the coming renewable energy failure. You were ahead of your time on all this, Steve.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you know, we’re kind of trying to look out at the future, but it is a bit of a minority position. We still have most of the leaders of the nations of the world, about 170 or 75 of them that still think the earth is in danger from climate and that we could do something about it by. putting in electric cars and building wind turbines so we can stop the oceans from rising and all that. As you know, they just had a conference down in Brazil, COP30, the Conference of the Parties. It was the 30th United Nations Climate Conference. And it was interesting, the United States didn’t send anyone officially from the government because Mr. Trump thinks the whole thing is a little bit foolish. But I tend to be on his side. The Earth’s climate is dominated by nature not human emissions so we’ll we’ll see but i think over time people are going to get back to sensible energy policy well but it seems that somebody that’s very unsensible is gavin newsom and he was down at cop 30 uh continuing to double down on his narrative correct yeah he was um he shot a lot of bullets at mr trump and he also boasted that uh His state got, and I’m quoting him now, two-thirds of its energy sourced from clean energy. That actually is not correct. He was really talking about California’s electricity, which is about two-thirds from wind and solar. But if you look at the total energy of the state, more than 80% of California’s total energy still comes from hydrocarbon fuels, with 58% from petroleum, 25% from natural gas. It’s very similar to Colorado. You get much of your energy from natural gas and petroleum, about 80%. And even electricity, you still get most of it from coal and natural gas. It’s very, very tough to switch to renewables. We rely on hydrocarbons. The great news, of course, is that these fuels emit carbon dioxide, but they’re not really causing the climate to change. So Yeah, Mr. Newsom’s down there. By the way, the irony, and I’ve just written an article about it, is that his state is basically the definition of energy unaffordability. They have the second highest electricity rates in the country, and they’re rapidly catching up to Hawaii. Electrical power in California has gone up more than 100% in the last 15 years. And then if you look at fuel prices as well, they have the most expensive gasoline in the country. And so he’s down there boasting about his energy, but it’s very, very expensive in California.
SPEAKER 09 :
So, Steve, I want to hit on something that you mentioned, and we talked about it in the first hour as well, and that is this wealth transfer. That is really what I think COP30 is. And I was talking with someone recently, and they said COP30, this United Nations meeting, was not necessarily about… the whole, it was under the auspice of climate change. But what it was really about is how can they keep all these subsidies and incentives and all these things happening to continue the wealth transfer from everyday Americans to PBIs, politicians, bureaucrats, and interested parties. And I was thinking about, I was talking with someone who lives in California the other day, and as we mentioned, California is becoming so unaffordable because of electricity prices, but their gas prices, they have high gas taxes. So the other day I filled up at $2.16 a gallon. I’m just looking on, this was AI, I guess, search assistant. It said the average price right now in California for a gallon of gas is $4.57. So just think about that wealth transfer. That’s $2.41 per gallon. Ten gallons, that’s $24. Twenty gallons, that’s almost $50 that that average person in California is having to pay for their fuel to have the freedom to go where they want to when they want to. And where is that money going to? It’s going to… PBIs going to government and taxes, and then that’s doled out to interested parties. And I think it’s important that people understand that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, you’re right in several ways. Let me talk about California first, and then I’ll talk about the global thing with the COP. Yeah, California, I have called the renewable energy one of the greatest wealth transfers from the poor to the rich in history. And we do have all these expenses. In California, for example… they have net zero metering. I’m trying to remember if you have it in Colorado or not, but it basically says if you put solar on your roof, the utility is required to buy any electricity you send back into the grid to the utility at the retail price, which is really, you know, when a power plant generates electricity, it only gets a wholesale price, maybe three to five cents a kilowatt hour, but when it The retail price is 15, and in the place of California, it’s over 30 cents a kilowatt hour. And so the people that are wealthy enough to put solar cells on their roof get this very high subsidy in terms of a net zero metering from all the people that can’t afford to do it. Now, California has recently cut that back because they realize this is an issue. But there are many other problems. There are communities. Most of the communities in California require your house to be built in new homes with solar facilities, with hookups for electric vehicles. Those are all very expensive. And then there’s a big subsidy, of course, for all the electric vehicles. The federal government just canceled theirs, but California still has subsidies for EVs, and the people who can afford the EVs are the wealthy people. So it really is a big issue at a state level. And then at an international level, you’re right as well. for many years, the United Nations has tried to take money from the wealthy nations, the United States, Europe, Australia, Japan, and others, and give that money to the developing nations in terms of climate change. And the numbers are very, very big. About three years ago, India said they need a small thing to go to net zero by 2050, and that was a trillion dollars a year they wanted from the rest of the world. And so we have all these developing nations that go to this COP, and they want to get a whole bunch of money transferred. And that has been a goal of the United Nations, to send money from the wealthy nations to the developing nations, and they use climate to do so. So, yeah, money transfers is a big, big part of all this, as you say.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and my understanding, Steve Gorham, is that India is building coal-fired plants.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, they are, and so is China. China. they’re also building renewables. But coal is actually the world’s biggest producer of electricity. There are more than 6,500 coal-fired power plants around the world, another 1,000 in planning or building. And coal provides 34% of the world’s electricity as of 2024. So it continues to be the biggest provider of electricity. And by the way, that’s not a bad thing. We still have 700 million people that don’t have access to electricity, and about 2 billion people that have blackouts or brownouts every other day. And so there’s a tremendous shortage of electricity globally. And, you know, if you have an air conditioner in Colorado, that appliance uses more electricity than on average than a third of the world’s people get to use every day. So We are so blessed in the United States with the power we have, but around the world they really need coal and they need much, much more.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and so these policies that we have seen through, like the old Biden-Harris administration, to try to shut down coal production, oil and gas production, not only does it make electricity and fuel more expensive here in America, but it really then starves billions of people of an opportunity and puts them into energy poverty because of those policies.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, particularly if we try and force on them that they can’t use – They can’t use natural gas and coal, and that’s what the UN has been trying to do for many years, trying to say, well, you’ve got to build wind and solar, but it’s really just not effective. And in a lot of ways, the developing nations are not listening to this. They’re building the coal plants anyway, but they still come to the COP30, and they want the wealth transfer. Right.
SPEAKER 09 :
Yeah. And there is no free money. Money can only be given to one entity if it’s taken from others. And that entity is really the everyday American that is paying more and more in these energy costs. We’re going to continue the discussion with Steve Gorham and his most recent book is Green Breakdown, The Coming Renewable Energy Failure. We’ve got a lot to talk with him about. These discussions happen because of our sponsors. And our Constitution is so important. And Alicia Garcia and Teddy Collins with Spartan Defense have created the Second Syndicate to be advocates for this right to keep and bear firearms so that we can protect ourselves against bad actors.
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Did want to say thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. And also wanted to mention Mint Financial Strategies. If you want more freedom and confidence with your money, Mint Financial Strategies can help. They’re an independent firm with over 25 years of experience. And as an accredited investment fiduciary, they put your best interests first. Always. With a strategy-first approach, they’ll help you build a plan that fits your life. Call Mint Financial Strategies today. That number is 303-285-3080, 303-285-3080. And I am talking with Steve Gorman. He is the executive director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of four books on energy, climate change, and sustainable development. His most recent book is Green Breakdown, The Coming Renewable Energy Failure. Steve Gorman, a big headline was after all of these years talking about climate change and the disaster of climate change, Bill Gates is changing his tune. Although my understanding is he’s still funding many of these climate change organizations. What’s your read on Bill Gates?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, this was a real big change. About a month ago, just before the COP30 conference, Mr. Gates both said, put something on his website about climate, and also sent a memo to the COP30, and it was really a big change of position. Now, Mr. Gates is one of the wealthiest men in the world, probably worth more than $100 billion, I think. And for years, his foundations have given much money to fighting climate change and trying to reduce emissions. But two weeks before COP30, he sent this memo, and a couple things he said were, quote, climate change is a serious problem, but will not be the end of civilization. He also said, quote, unfortunately, the doomsday outlook is causing much of the climate community to focus too much on near-term emissions goals. And then finally, he said, quote, our chief goal should be to prevent suffering, particularly for those in the toughest conditions who live in the world’s poorest countries. Wow, this is just a really big change for him to concentrate on human suffering rather than climate. Just four years ago in 2021, he wrote a best-selling book titled How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. And so this is, as you say, this has been through all the news. The people that are concerned about climate catastrophe are criticizing him very heavily and And the people that have been the climate realists, if you will, the skeptics, have said, well, it’s great you finally come around to the right side of the road. But just really a big, big change.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and I think it’s important to note that he just he didn’t have any new study or anything to change this. He just changed his opinion, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
I think so. I think he’s realized that some things are so important. And, you know, he has talked about disease being a big issue. And he’s right. We have millions of people that get disease every year. And that climate isn’t the priority. And, you know, that really is a sensible point of view. And really, the oceans have been rising for 20,000 years. We can’t stop them by driving electric cars. That’s just modern superstition. So I think he’s come around to what we’ll call the sensible side of the road. And hopefully we’ll see many other leaders doing that as we go forward. And by the way, there are some political parties that are making some big changes. There are now five major political parties across the world that are pushing back against what I call the ideology of climatism and net zero. Of course, it’s the Republicans led by President Trump in the United States. But also we have Reform UK. led by Nigel Farage, that’s now polling. The leader in polls in the UK, and they’re not in government power yet, but they probably will be in the next election. They have coined the phrase a net stupid zero, which they call the energy transition. And then we have the alternative for Deutschland, which is the number two polling party right now. And the leader of that party, Ellis Whitell, has said, quote, down with all these windmills of shame. They want to get rid of all the wind turbines in Germany, and Germany has the highest density of wind turbines in the world, more than 20,000 of them. And then just a month ago, two parties in Australia have said, well, we’re not going to do net zero. The Nationalist Party and the Liberal Party both came out against it. And the Nationalist Party literally voted to go away from net zero And the leader, David Littleproud, is his name. He said, quote, we believe in reducing emissions, but not at any cost. So we have some big changes going on around the world here, and maybe the ideology of climatism is finally starting to fall.
SPEAKER 09 :
You know, Steve, this makes me think about and you were one of our guests for a climate conversation podcast. But Walt Johnson in it was well over about three years ago when we filmed a climate conversation documentary. And he was really ahead of his time. He just wanted to have a conversation, a Socratic questioning about this issue. And I’d recommend that people check out the documentary at a climate conversation because it’s very thoughtful. And as we’re in the holiday season with all of these changes and kids coming home from college and they’ve had some indoctrination on this, this whole discussion is important to understand. I’d recommend that people get your book, Green Breakdown, The Coming Renewable Energy Failure. so that we can have these important, thoughtful conversations, reasoned conversations about this. But I would recommend that people check out climateconversation.com, which, again, is the project of Walt Johnson. And we did a great podcast series, and you’re one of our valued guests on that. Let’s go to the next thing. Thank you. The next thing, Kathy Hochul, New York. New York’s in the news with Mondami. I don’t say that correctly. But New York has really been pushing a bunch of green energy stuff. And now she’s maybe stepping back, the governor of New York, right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, really. And again, this is a very big and recent change. Now, New York has been one of the states that wants to be the greenest. We have about seven states in the country where local cities and counties have said that, well, you can’t put in new construction, you can’t put in gas appliances. I actually think Colorado has some communities that are doing that. But New York had a statewide ban on all gas and propane appliances in new construction. It’s supposed to start January 1st. They passed a law in 2023 to do that. And now they have, and by this, this was a statewide law, probably the most stringent in the nation. But now they have stepped back from that. A judge and the governor have agreed to delay this for a couple of years. They are also building a pipeline, a gas pipeline in New York City. And for a couple of decades, they have blocked all gas pipelines in New York, you know, in the cause of trying to reduce emissions. So we really have some special things going on here. President Trump is also negotiating with Governor Hochul to try and get more pipelines to go through to connect to New England.
SPEAKER 09 :
And speaking of New England, Massachusetts, which has also been very on the climate change bandwagon, may be making some changes, yes?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. Massachusetts is another one that has been very stringent. But as a matter of fact, the state of Massachusetts passed a priority climate action plan. But most of New England also wants to be very green. They wanted to have a 50 percent reduction of emissions by 2030. But they have some big issues also. And first off, their electricity, for example, 80 percent of Massachusetts electricity is generated by natural gas. And more than half the households in New England use gas for heating. And the problem is they can’t get enough gas because, again, New York blocked all the pipelines. And so you can’t. You can’t get enough gas. And so they’ve been importing liquefied natural gas at world prices, which is very expensive. New England is paying about three times as much for gas as the rest of the country because they have to import this liquefied gas. And then their residential electricity rates are much higher than the rest of the country, right behind California. And so I think the governors and the people are starting to say, you know, this isn’t really too wise. So New England is also stepping back from renewable energy and these climate goals.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and I think it’s public pressure. People are, I think, finally understanding. And again, we talk about a wealth transfer. When you talk about the cost of power, electricity, and fuel in Massachusetts and California, those high prices are a real wealth transfer from everyday hardworking people over to these politicians, bureaucrats, interested parties, all of that. Here in Colorado, there is a headline, When is Enough? Colorado Customers Push Back on Excel’s Proposed Rate Hike. What’s so interesting is it seems like I hear like Excel say, oh, this is going to fill in the blank, be efficient and help with your energy costs. But yet they’re over at the PUC, the Public Utilities Commission. asking for rate increases, rate increases. Well, who’s going to pay that? Again, it’s everyday people. And it’s because of these policies that Excel and the radical activists that control the Democrat Party out here in Colorado, they’ve gotten in bed together to push these policies, Steve Gorham.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, across the country we’ve seen, particularly in the blue states where the Democrats are in charge, we see rate increases that are going up very fast. California is a leader. Now, for the last five years, California is up almost 59%. Maine up almost 40%. New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Illinois are all up 30% or more. And the national average has gone up 22.5% over five years. So in all these blue states… It is much higher. Actually, Colorado is not too bad. You’re at about 22% over five years. But we are seeing these rises across the nation, and particularly in blue states. You know, in New Jersey, they just had this election for governor, and electrical power bills were a very big factor there. But New Jersey has closed six coal plants and nuclear plants. and a couple gas plants, and now they’ve become a big electricity importer, and that’s a big reason why their prices are going up fairly fast. So people need to get away from the crazy things that they’ve been thinking in the past and keep the reliable power that keeps their prices low and makes their power system work.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and that’s why it’s important that we have these discussions. The work that you have been doing, Steve Gorman, with your books and your Climate Science Coalition of America is so important that we continue to have these reasonable conversations. And we’ll continue to talk with Steve Gorman when we come back from break. But before we go to break, a couple of things I wanted to mention is, first of all, the Center for American Values, which is located in Pueblo. They are nonpolitical. They’re nonpartisan. They’re just focused on these foundational principles of honor, integrity, and patriotism. They do that through their Medal of Honor, Portraits of Valor, which is down at the center, but also educational programs for K-12 kids and educators regarding these foundational principles. So to get more information about that, go to AmericanValueCenter.org and then also the USMC Memorial Foundation. Paula Sarles and her team are working diligently to honor and remember those that have given their lives or been willing to give their lives for our liberty. And a great way to honor them is to support the foundation. And you can do that by going to USMCMemorialFoundation.org. And then another great sponsor of the show is Lorne Levy. For everything mortgages, he can help you in 49 of the 50 states, just not New York. Maybe that’s why Governor Hochul is changing her tune on some of these energy mandates. But for everything mortgages, reach out to Lorne Levy.
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SPEAKER 09 :
And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. Be sure and check out our website. That is Kim Monson, M-O-N-S-O-N. And make sure you’re signed up for our weekly email newsletter that goes out on Sundays, highlighting our upcoming guests and our most recent essays. I mentioned one of our sponsors, Little Richies, in the previous podcast. segment, and one of our listeners texted in on the text line, which is 720-605-0647, that they had a fabulous calzone on Saturday in Golden, and it made four meals. Thanks for the info. We are talking with Steve Gorham. He is the executive director of the Climate Science Coalition of America. He’s the author of four books. His most recent book is Green Breakdown, The Coming Renewable Energy Failure. So Steve Gorham, we are seeing, for example, we’ve seen some projects, wind projects proposed in Wyoming because they want to get power to Cheyenne for AI projects. projects and AI. I’m concerned about it. It’s AI. Artificial intelligence is not just about helping you as an assistant to finish a paper or a sentence or whatever. It is huge data collection on everyday Americans. I’m concerned about it. And they are real energy hogs. These facilities are real energy hogs and they take a lot of water is my understanding. So what’s your thoughts about the AI revolution?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, the AI revolution is here, one way or the other. And as you say, there are some issues with it. We’re not sure whether the bad will outweigh the good, because a lot of people are going to use it to do all sorts of things. You know, we’ve seen videos created that didn’t really happen and all that sort of thing with AI. But we now have, ever since ChatGPT, the chatbot that was produced – by OpenAI at the end of 2022. All the big tech guys have gone into this. And they’re building these data centers all over the country now. Start of 2024, we had 2,700 data centers in the US. And these are computing facilities with servers that run the internet and do cloud storage. But now they’re being upgraded for artificial intelligence. And where we had 2,700 started 2024, today we have over 4,000. So these have increased by 50% in the United States in less than two years. And by the way, construction, now there’s more construction going on with data centers than there are with all the office buildings in the country. Just a fantastic amount of effort going into this. And we have the big guys, Meta and Amazon and Google, Um, and, um, who am I missing Microsoft and others that are building these big data centers, uh, to try and, uh, have machines think talk like people and solve problems and, uh, so-called artificial intelligence. And this is, uh, this has created a bunch of big changes. Now, first off, uh, power plants, uh, that, uh, are being, uh, restarted nuclear plants, for example. in Iowa, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, and they had halted construction on two plants in South Carolina. Those are now restarted. They’re also extending coal plants in Georgia, Indiana, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia. And they’re extending those past what were going to be the shutdown dates for these plants to reduce emissions. And now we have over 200 gas plants that are in planning and construction across the country, more than 100 in the state of Texas. So we have this tremendous effort going on. And this is also powering a nuclear resurgence, which is really big news as well.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, and in Colorado, I mentioned the Colorado Union of Taxpayers, and we watch legislation. It’s all volunteers, and you can join us at coloradotaxpayer.org. But in this last year, House Bill 1040 is officially making nuclear a clean energy source. And so my understanding, and I like… I think an all approach is a good thing from an energy standpoint. But with incentives and subsidies and special treatment, it changes the economics of that. But moving nuclear over here in Colorado to be designated as a clean energy source, I think gives it additional benefits. Have you watched that at all out here in Colorado, Steve?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, so far as I read, Colorado didn’t have any nuclear. That was at least in 2023. But I know recently your international airport has, and I’m trying to think of the name of that. I think it’s your Denver International Airport. Correct. They were actually looking at a small modular reactor to put in to power the future for the airport. And I think that is a little bit on hold, partly because we don’t have any of these operating around the country anymore. But, you know, the Trump administration, President Trump issued four executive orders in May, and one of those said that they wanted to quadruple the amount of nuclear capacity by 2050. Just a huge number. We’re getting about 18% of electricity in the United States today that is from nuclear, none in Colorado, but in other states. So to quadruple that by 2050 is just a massive undertaking. They also have awarded, I think… And I think there’s some subsidies to do this, 10 projects to do small modular reactors. And they want to get some of those operating next year, which would really be very, very, very fast. So there’s a big push for nuclear going on. Nuclear has a number of issues. The traditional plants are very expensive. They cost maybe five times as much as gas plants. They take more than a decade to put into place. But these small modular reactors, they’re hoping that they’ll be able to – they’re small enough they could build them in factories, and they could actually put them on trucks or on railroads to go to a location. And the idea here is to make these not custom, make them manufacturable, and drastically reduce the price and the startup time. There’s more than 20 companies in the U.S. now that are trying to produce small modular reactors. I think it is going to come along, but we’re going to be using other power as well as we go forward.
SPEAKER 09 :
Steve, where are we going to get the uranium for these nuclear reactors?
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s a big issue. I think we import a lot of it from Russia right now, which is not so good. But I think we have resources in the U.S. The problem with mining is… And processing these things, if you want to build an industry to do that, it takes decades. It’s not a simple thing. So that is a weakness of trying to use a lot of nuclear. Where do you get the fuel from? And I’m sure there’s a lot of people working on that, but I don’t have a real good answer for that right now. I know much of our fuel comes from Russia, which isn’t the best.
SPEAKER 09 :
Boy, that opens up a whole other discussion. But next thing, because you are hitting so many different issues, and this was a headline that I mentioned earlier today that out here in Colorado, we have a facility that has been named the National Renewable Energy Lab. The Trump administration is changing that to the, I think the, hold on, I’ve got to get to the headline, but it’s the energy lab like of the Rocky Mountains or something like that. So he’s the administration is doing a lot of that and words really do matter. So this is pretty interesting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, they are. Mr. Trump has embarked on first removing climate from everything in the federal government. And then he’s also doing some things with renewable energy. Just in the last couple of weeks here, the Department of Energy has eliminated some departments. They’ve eliminated the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. They’ve eliminated the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. They’ve eliminated the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. Those have all disappeared from the organization chart. They’ve rolled parts of those into a group called Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. But there’s also huge amounts of funding cuts, as you know. A lot of that was in the one big beautiful bill. subsidies, tax credits for wind and solar. They’ve shut down all offshore wind licenses. And they’re even cutting funding for the climate models that were in the Department of Energy and in NASA. So just huge changes. And again, that’s part of Secretary Chris Wright’s efforts and President Trump’s efforts to to get back to hydrocarbon energy and away from wind and solar.
SPEAKER 09 :
Okay. We’ve got just about a minute left. Well, I guess two things. Your comments on hydrogen vehicles, and then where can people get your books? Because these are very important books, Green Breakdown, Outside the Green Box, The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism, and Green Breakdown. Yeah, I mentioned the coming renewable energy failure. Where can people get your books?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so they can go to my website first off, Steve Gorham, G-O-R-E-H-A-M.com, and I’ll send them a signed copy if they order one of Green Breakdown. They can also get a copy of The Mad, Mad, Mad World of Climatism. You know, if you have children in high school or college or cousins or grandkids and they’re getting a very one-sided view on climate and energy, The Mad, Mad, Mad World and Green Breakdown will give them a more balanced point of view. By the way, these are colored paperbacks. They’re a lot of fun to read. And they’re filled with all these headlines, real headlines, but crazy headlines about climate and energy. Here’s one of them. Quote, Swedish scientists advocate eating humans to combat climate change. There’s a professor by the name of Sutherland who presents on climate. And then at the end of his presentation, he asks the audience whether they’d be willing to try human flesh. They’re supposed to raise their hands. But, you know, there’s all these crazy things going on that don’t make a lot of sense, all driven by the fear of man-made warming. So, yeah, I would recommend my books, very readable, colored paperbacks, and help people with the real science and economics.
SPEAKER 09 :
Well, absolutely. And that’s Steve Gorham, G-O-R-E-H-A-M. Steve, thank you so much. We will talk again very soon.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you, Kim.
SPEAKER 09 :
And our quote for the end of this show is from George Orwell. He said, In a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. So, my friends, today be grateful. Read great books. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. And like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. My friends, you’re not alone. God bless you and God bless America.
SPEAKER 11 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
