This is Rush To Reason.
You are gonna shut your damn yamper and listen for a change, because I got you begged, sweetheart. You wanna take the easy way out, because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame.
Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it.
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With your host, John Rush.
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You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it.
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Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
It’s Rush To Reason, with your host, John Rush. Presented by Hi5 Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
All right, welcome. Happy Monday, everybody. Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560.
Appreciate y’all listening. Hopefully you all had a fabulous weekend, had a little rest and back at it this week for getting close to the last week of September. I know we have one day left next week, but really this is the last full week of September, meaning we start entering into the last quarter of the year and the election chipping away, getting closer and closer as we speak.
So I’ll talk a little bit about that today as well. Friday is a possible question. What happened in the North Atlantic Ocean on October 30th, 1991 that spawned a best-selling novel and a major motion picture?
I’m surprised Andy didn’t get this one. A perfect storm. Good movie, by the way.
Today’s question, by the way. In 1944, Sochi Yoko, Yoki? I might be saying that wrong.
A Japanese sergeant got left behind in Guam by retreating forces. How many years did he survive the jungles of Guam before being discovered? And let me just say a lot longer than most would think.
So I’ll just give you that little tidbit of info. So there you go. How long did he survive?
All right, news today. And some of you may have seen this. It just came out, oh, I don’t know, not that long ago where there was an interview with Donald Trump.
And in that interview, he basically said that if he doesn’t win in this year, this 2024 year, election year, he will not run again in 2028. Now, I wouldn’t read too much into that. Some would say, well, it just means he’s losing.
He’s not going to run again. I wouldn’t, again, I don’t think that’s what he thinks. And I wouldn’t read too much into that.
I think ultimately what it comes down to, he was asked the question, would you run again if you lose? And he’s basically saying, no, if I’m not successful this time, I won’t run again. I think you could probably almost read into that.
I mean, he’s 78 years old. That would make him, what, Charlie 82, the next go around. I highly doubt at that point that you’d even want to just put yourself through the hassle of doing it at that point.
I hope that’s not even an issue. I mean, our hope is that he wins. And I know there’s some folks out there that would hope otherwise.
But the more and more you watch Kamala Harris out on the trail, especially when there’s no teleprompter in front of her to tell her what to say. Oh, my word. She’s a disaster.
She can’t hardly speak without somebody telling her what to say. I mean, and I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. She literally just isn’t that smart of an individual.
It’s a miracle that she’s gotten to this point in life as is. And I mean that sincerely. She’s just not that bright.
Those of you on the left, is that the best you can do? And before you come back at me with all of this nonsense about, you know, Donald Trump, he’s a womanizer and he’s this, he’s that and blah, blah, blah. As I’ve said before, what difference does that make?
I’m being honest, what difference does it make? In the grand scheme of things, like he’s the only president that’s done that. Newsflash, no, he’s not.
Most have, unfortunately. Do I agree with that? No.
But it is what it is. And if that’s your, your, you know, your test for whether somebody can be an officer or not, most politicians would fail. Most politicians, both sides of the aisle, by the way, would fail, right and left.
And don’t forget that Kamala and I had a lefty last week make an excuse for her that even though she was Willie’s mistress for years and years and years, that he was basically divorced at that time, separated from his wife, and it really didn’t matter. Um, yeah, I think, I think his wife and young kids might have a difference of opinion there. My gut feeling is if you went and asked them at that time, they’d have a difference of opinion.
So those of you that are on the left that are using that as an excuse for her behavior, not only that, counting all the pictures of her with Diddy, you guys have nothing to say on that side of the aisle. So don’t, just don’t go there. Don’t go there on either side.
Don’t attack Donald Trump, and I won’t attack your side. Because they’re both equally at fault when it comes to some of those things, as far as I’m concerned. And I will also say this in defense of both of them, long in the past, for both of them, her and him.
So, both of them, decades in the past. So, I haven’t brought that up on this program, about her, until somebody from the left started poking at Donald Trump. And when somebody on the left starts poking at Donald Trump in that area, then of course I’m going to poke back.
It’s just, it’s natural. And what’s that old saying? Be careful of what you’re pointing out, because there’s three more pointing back at you.
So those of you on the left that are pointing at Trump in that, please don’t. Concentrate on policies and things that actually affect us on a day-to-day basis. Not this other nonsense.
So my point with this is, don’t read too much into this, especially those of you that are on the left. I don’t see this as Donald Trump admitting any kind of defeat. He’s simply answering questions as to, if this were to happen, what would you do?
Keep in mind in the same speech, he talked about how if he becomes president, he will immediately get energy prices down 50% in the next 12 months. Now, some would say, well, that’s a lot of talk. He’s done it.
It’s not just talk, he’s done it. And how do you do that? Well, you open up the pipelines of things that we have natural resource wise, and you allow things to happen, you deregulate things, and pretty soon energy prices are lower.
It’s not that hard to figure out, folks. Kill some of the crappy green energy junk we have going on, concentrate on things that actually matter, and wallah, energy prices come down. I’ll be straight up honest, folks.
The very first day, if he wins in November, by the way, all he has to do is just come out and say, this is what I’m going to do, and energy prices will start to change. No different than when Joe Biden got inaugurated and immediately shut down the Keystone pipeline. I know the Keystone pipeline was not done and was not delivering any product.
But just the overall consensus of that administration and what they thought of energy changed, changed prices the next day, overnight. And if you don’t believe me, go back and look. So just the sediment around who’s going to be president and what they’re going to do in regards to energy has a lot to do with pricing.
Literally, just the input from the energy sector into who’s president of the United States and what they’re going to do for that particular end of industry makes a huge difference. The car industry as well. Transportation in general.
Just coming out with some announcements. And by the way, for those of you that are on the left, I said this while Joe Biden has been president, that if he really wants to change some things and he really wants to have an effect upon inflation, this is all he has to do. And I stated that a couple of years ago, by the way, when inflation was really out of control.
It literally could have been brought down overnight by just doing a few simple things. And I’ve been on record saying that on this program. So those of you on the left really need an education in how things work economically and how you help the little guy.
I had one texter last week. Well, I’m better off now than I was four years ago. You’re the exception.
And by the way, I highly doubt that. I highly doubt that. You may think you’re better off, but chances are you’re not.
Chances are you’re not. If you look at your overall everything and look at inflation and what the value of a dollar is today versus what it was four years ago, no, you’re not. You think you are.
You think even on paper you are, but you’re not. Because a dollar is not worth the same today as it was four years ago. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say unless your entire portfolio of what you own is up 30%, because that’s what inflation really is collectively, you’re not any better off.
You just don’t know how to do math. You think you do, but you don’t. So at the end of the day, no, most are not better off today than they were four years ago.
So yes, there’s some exceptions to that, but by and large, most people are not, and the lowest earners, the lowest income earners in America are far worse off today than they were four years ago because of inflation and what that does. So you can say on the left all you want that you’re better off today than you were four years ago. I would say prove it, and I highly doubt you are.
So we’ll be back. I got more to say. Golden Eagle Financial, speaking of finances, is next, Al Smith, by the way, can help you with your portfolio.
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Alright, Roof Savers of Colorado. I talked to Dave today, by the way, and he wants to remind everybody that he can do everything your roof needs, from extending the life of the roof max treatment, to general repairs, to complete replacement, to just fixing a gutter. Whatever you need, he is your roofer.
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God.
Country.
Reason. Now back to John Rush.
All right, we are back, Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560. Switching gears to some things local, state-wise. PARA, which is our Public Employees Retirement Association.
That’s the acronym for that. In other words, it’s our Public Employees Retirement Plan. Think of it that way.
So school teachers, folks that work for any of our government facilities in the state, the majority, if not all, will get PARA. Even part-time employees get PARA. It’s a defined benefit plan, which, by the way, needs changed.
Partly what I’m going to talk about. The reason it needs changed is because the fund, like a lot of retirement funds across the country, is short. So we’re six years and billions of dollars into shoring up this 30-year pension rescue plan.
And right now, as of today, it has a 50-50 chance of reaching its goal by being fully funded in 2048. 50-50. So para-officials today are expected to report back to the legislature’s pension review subcommittee on what it would take to increase those odds to 67%.
Not 100%, but just under 70%. By the way, the answer, and the reason I’m stating this is because this comes from taxpayers. Para is funded by taxpayers.
If it’s not reaching its funding by contributions, which it’s not, we the taxpayer in Colorado have to make up the difference. Right now, they want 13 billion up front. 13 billion.
And on top of that, a wide range of what they call draconian cuts to the actual actuaries of Para. So in other words, because of another year of disappointing returns, there will be some automatic benefit cuts for retirees and contribution hikes for public employees. Really quick, when I say we have a defined benefit program, we do.
So the way it works right now is you put X in, you get automatically X out. What they should have is a defined contribution program, not a defined benefit program. It needs reversed.
Currently, you’re guaranteed X, no matter what. It needs reversed. It needs to be based upon this is what you put in, this is what you may actually get out, depending upon all sorts of factors, performance in the fund, etc.
That’s what needs to happen. Right now, none of that’s taken into consideration. You get it regardless of how the fund performs.
And we, the taxpayer, are on the hook to make up that difference if the fund doesn’t perform well enough. Folks, this is a bigger deal than what we ever hear about. Really quick, the state of Colorado, I was going to look this up earlier, I apologize, I shouldn’t have, I should have done this.
Our state of Colorado annual budget is $38 billion. That was for fiscal year 2022. So, we’re talking about funding PARA with almost a third of that.
Okay, pretty close to a third, $13 billion. So, $13 billion times three would be, what Charlie, $36 billion. So just a little shy of the $38 billion that we have as a state budget.
So they want us to take literally a third of our entire state budget and funnel that into PARA to help show it up. Number one, that’s not going to happen. They’ll have to be additional taxes raised to make that happen, of course.
They won’t do it any other way. So again, you and I, Charlie, others, any of us that are Colorado state taxpayers will be making that up. And this was a big topic several years ago.
It sort of died down and I’m not sure. Well, because in the news media, we cycle through things and other things come up instead. And we have presidential elections and we have COVID and we have this and we have that.
But before COVID, this was a huge topic because of how underfunded PARA was. It’s still underfunded. Think about that.
Thirteen billion dollar cash injection is what they’re looking for out of the legislature. And even then, it only brings a pension up to 67 percent likelihood of hitting its targets. Not a hundred, shy of seventy.
Actually, if you think about this, right now it’s 50-50. It’s a 50 percent chance. So for 13 billion, we’re raising the chances by 17 percent is all.
That’s really how to think about that. Thirteen billion dollar investment to raise our chances 17 percent. Is that a good deal?
No, it’s not. That’s an awful deal, actually. Folks, again, I want to make sure that I’m clear on this.
We’re not talking million. We’re not 13 million. Thirteen billion dollars.
Okay? That’s 13,000 millions. I want to make sure we’re clear on how much money that is, because I think a lot of times, and this is my fear of not teaching math like we should, we throw numbers around, and government agencies and politicians do this constantly.
They throw big numbers around. Oh, that’s only this many billion. Oh, it’s only this many trillion.
Think about this. A trillion is a thousand billions. It’s a huge number.
And as a country, we’re 34 trillion dollars. So 34,000 billions in debt as a country. So, when we say 13 billion, that’s 13,000 millions.
I wish we’d sometimes say it that way to get folks to really understand how much money that actually is. Because when you say it that way, it’s a big number. 13 billion sounds small.
13,000 millions sounds a lot larger. But that’s the same number, by the way. We just don’t ever say it that way.
We put this nice little ending on it. Sort of like we go from a 1 to a 100 to a 1000. You get my drift.
And we use those terms. And it’s the correct terminology. I’m not criticizing mathematicians.
You have to have a name for it. The problem is that billion and trillion name gets used so loosely that most people can’t comprehend what that actually is. And anytime somebody downplays a billionaire like the media will do with Trump, oh, he’s only worth 4 or 5 billion.
Only? Only? Even a billion dollars, just a billionaire means it’s a thousand millions.
That’s a lot of money, folks. And most don’t comprehend what I’m saying. So we tend to write off some of these numbers and don’t think much about it because, oh, it’s only a few billion.
And it’s no big deal. Well, a few billion is a lot of money. And to think about how underfunded para is and then come back and say, well, we only need a 13 billion dollar injection, it’s really not that big of a deal.
Yeah, it’s only a third of our state budget on any given year. It’s a huge amount of money, folks. And if you really broke that down into how much would each one of us as taxpayers have to contribute to make that fully functioning, it’s a large number.
And point being, it needs a complete revamp. And no one wants to admit that because it’s like social security. Nobody wants to touch these defined benefits.
It’s almost like political suicide to get rid of defined benefits or change a defined benefit program. But I’m here to tell you that that’s what’s going to have to happen. So earlier this year, by the way, because I talked about this, they were talking about a $2 billion cash injection was all.
Well, that number has grown from 2 to 13. Literally 10 times the amount almost. Huge difference between 2 and 13.
So a lot of Republicans on, you know, up at Capitol Hill here in Colorado are looking at this and talking about it. But frankly, I don’t think we talk near enough about it. And the left talks about this.
None. It just isn’t mentioned on their side. It’s sort of like if we ignore this, it’ll go away.
Sort of like Social Security. If we ignore it, it’ll go away. No, folks, it’s not going away.
Ignoring it’s not going to make it go away. And here’s the problem too. And this is why retirees that are impaired don’t worry about it.
Because if in fact it ever goes insolvent by law, the taxpayer makes it up. That’s why retirees don’t care. Frankly, I think, why the left doesn’t care.
Because if it goes insolvent, we as taxpayers pick up the tab. Meaning if other things get cut, funding for roads, funding for this, funding for that, I mean, we can go through all the different things the state budget covers. If all of a sudden para is short, guess what?
That money is pulled from those areas and it goes to para by law. There’s no choice. Para beneficiaries will get their money no matter what.
Even if it means you, the taxpayer, have to write them the check. That’s the way the law in Colorado works. And I think it’s the way the law, Charlie, I think probably in most states work.
If their employee, you know, public employee pension fund of any kind is short, the taxpayers make it up. I’m guessing that’s probably a law in all states. Yeah, thank you, Charlie.
Who made those laws? Politicians who are on para. Thank you, Charlie.
Yes, because keep in mind politicians get para also. So, folks, yeah, thank you. Yeah, they get it after just two years.
Thank you, Charlie. Yeah, like I said, there’s a lot of people on para. You work some, you know, you go drive a school bus part time for a couple of years.
Guess what? You’re on para. You don’t have to do a whole lot.
You know, yeah, sign me up. The reality is there’s a lot of people on para. The whole program needs revamped.
Even who can qualify I think should be revamped. Frankly, I don’t think part time people should be able to qualify for para. You ought to be a full time employee.
All sorts of things you could go through and change and revamp to make para more solid. We talk about this stuff. The legislature talks about it, but nothing happens.
Again, I’ve been on air for going on 11 years now. I was talking about para 11 years ago. It’s been that big of a problem in this state that entire time.
It still is not fixed. 10 years later, I was talking about it. And guess what?
Not fixed. It was a big deal even before COVID because the fund was really short. Because this is the other thing that happens.
They’ve been a little better the last couple of years because interest rates, when they go up, the return rate typically goes up as well because that’s what happens in the stock market and so on. When the interest rates go back down, when rates were all the way down to where some investments and so on, were not making more than 2%, 3%, 4%, there were some years in para where they didn’t make much more than about 4%, 6% at max. I think, don’t quote me on this, but I think their actuaries are figured on an 8% to 9% return in para.
And that might be low, it might be higher than that. But when they look at funding everything, they require about an 8% to 9% return to make things work correctly. When things go down to around 4% or so, it really kills them.
That’s half, think about that. That’s half of what they need to fund it. And that’s where some of this billions of dollars of shortage is coming from, is X amount of years of low interest rates really kill them, because they weren’t counting on it.
But again, folks, they should be figuring these actuaries based on low returns. Meaning, we invest the money, we might make 4%. Okay, let’s figure this on 4%.
If we make 8%, we’re now going to be funded even more. That’s fabulous. But you know what?
Let’s figure it at 4%. They don’t do that. They do the opposite.
They figure returns of 9% to 10%, knowing that’s not going to happen. And how they get by with that, and this is some of the things that need short up under the Golden Dome. They should not be allowed to do that.
They should not be able to use those kinds of actuaries to determine what the fund’s going to look like down the road. Sounds like maybe they’re getting a little bit more realistic, but the reality is they’ve got to make other cuts or this thing’s going to come back on us as taxpayers and bite us in the rear. Big time.
So something to think about, something to watch, by the way. We don’t talk about it near enough, in my opinion. Hi-Five Plumbing is next.
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Now back to Rush To Reason, presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
All right, we are back. Terry, you are next. Go ahead, Terry.
Hi, John, thank you for taking my call.
Sure, thank you.
Yeah, I was listening to… Yeah, I was just listening to what you were saying about Para, and I am at this point a retired federal employee. And it got me thinking.
I started back, my career back in 1984, and they had just changed the federal retirement more. It was no longer CSRS. They changed it to FERS.
And you were then required to, at this point, if you wanted a retirement that was decent, you were then required to contribute to your own retirement. And to be honest with you, I had no problem with that. And I mean, if the federal government do it, I’m sure, I’m thinking that the state of Colorado should be looking something more like that, too.
I can’t disagree with you at all. The problem is, and how that happened on the federal level, I don’t, well, I’m guessing I know because there were a lot more people affected and so on. So that became probably a larger challenge.
So our legislature at that time got involved and made things happen. The problem in the state right now, Terry, is frankly, no one wants to talk about this. I mean, we in the media will get on this occasionally and talk about it and bring awareness, but the reality is the average politician in Colorado doesn’t want to address this at all.
Well, I find when you have no stake in something, you’re going to be silent.
Well, and here’s the thing with the politicians, they actually have a stake in it only it’s the opposite direction because they’re also on para. They have a stake in it. They don’t want to change anything in regards to the defined benefit.
They like the way it is right now. So the reality is of course they don’t want to change it and or have to contribute more or do more because at the end of the day, it would cost them money.
Right. That’s what I mean by the stake. It benefits them.
That’s right.
That’s right. Absolutely.
Until the voter and then something’s going to happen. Okay, thank you.
No, Terry, you’re very welcome. Thank you, by the way. I did not know that on the federal level.
So there’s a great example of where a federal employee that has benefits has to contribute and do things and make things happen and so on. And there was changes made, but we’re not willing to do that in the state. I really this one, I mean, again, there’s things I shake my head at, and this is one of them.
This has been a problem in our state now for decades. I say that plural on purpose for decades. And yet no politician in the state wants to address it.
I mean, I say no, I’m being probably a little exaggerating a little bit when I say none, but not enough. Let me say it that way, not enough politicians in this state want to deal with it. There are a few that will raise the alarm, and we’ll say things about it, and congratulations to those that do, but by and large, most won’t.
And I’ll also say this, and I think, Charlie, I’m fair in saying this. You’ll rarely ever hear someone from the left, politician, talk about this. Mostly if anybody talks about it, it’s somebody on the right that is.
You rarely hear of somebody on the left, a liberal, a democrat, in Colorado, talking about Para. Because they know so many of their voters are coming from that end of things. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that.
Most state workers will vote for Democrats. Not all, but the majority will. Am I fair in saying that, Charlie, for the most part?
Yeah, he’s agreeing with me. Most will vote on the left. So why would they want to vote for somebody that might change their retirement plan?
Cut benefits, make them pay more, change it from a defined benefit to a defined contribution? Why would anyone want to vote for that? Because right now, again, folks, remember, the safety valve is you the taxpayer.
I want to make sure I’m very clear on this. You the taxpayer are the safety valve for para in Colorado. So why would any politician want to change that?
Well, you would want to change it because I thought politicians were supposed to be representing Joe Citizen, Joe Voter, not Joe Government Worker, but Joe Citizen. That’s what I thought politicians were supposed to do. But see, this is my problem with, again, those that are on the left.
They aren’t out for Joe Citizen. They’re out for themselves and for Joe Union and for Joe This and for Joe That, not for average Joe Worker, average Joe Citizen. They’re not out for them.
And they prove that with para over and over again. Don’t agree with me? Go look some of this stuff up yourself.
I had a conversation, I think it was last Thursday, where I basically said, you know, I do my very best to bring you guys facts. Yes, I’m opinionated. Yes, I will give you my opinion on things.
But I try to be as factual as possible. I even had a couple liberals that even called in and said, yeah, you know, I may not agree with you, but I can’t tell you that you’re wrong in your facts. I feel like this is one of those situations as well.
I’m not lying to you guys. I’m not feeding you any kind of BS when it comes to para at all. I’m not being dishonest with para whatsoever.
And by the way, I have no dog in the fight. I’m not on para. I don’t even have a family member on para.
I have no dog in this fight whatsoever, other than I’m a taxpayer. And I’m on the hook if para fails. If somehow down the road para gets shortchanged, I’m making up the difference.
So are you, as a taxpayer. So isn’t it interesting that because we, as taxpayers, are the safety valve, no one on the left talks about this, or few on the left talk about this? And let me make sure I’m really clear on this.
Few Democrat politicians talk about this. Let me be really clear on that. You’ll find a few in the media, even some on the left, even some Kyle Clarks of the world that will talk about it.
Yeah, thank you, Charlie. Walker Stapleton really tried hard when he was running for governor, really tried hard to talk about this. And he was Secretary of State prior to that and got poo-pooed a lot on this.
It was one of his big deals, one of the things he ran on and really got poo-pooed on this. The left doesn’t want to hear about Paris problems. It’s sort of like, I use an auto example because I come from that world, an automotive world.
It’s like that engine noise that you know is there and you know you need to take care of it, but let’s just turn the radio up a little bit and we’ll ignore it. And as the noise gets a little louder each week, each month, we just turn the radio up even a little more just to ignore it even that easy. You know, it just becomes easier to ignore the louder the radio is.
That’s para to Democrat politicians in Colorado. That’s para to most Democrats in Colorado. And I mean this sincerely, folks.
We’ll just turn the radio up a little louder and a little louder where you can’t hear it. It’s still there. That engine noise isn’t going anywhere.
It’s getting louder by the day, by the way, but we’ll just keep turning the radio up and ignore it. Eventually, though, like with anything, that engine I just gave as an example, it will collapse. It will end.
It will fail. In this case, the engine will just lock up. The car’s going nowhere.
Well, guess what? Para will do the same thing. The difference is, and this is how the left looks at it.
I’ll use my same example. The difference is they’ll keep turning the radio up and ignoring it, also knowing that they have a rich dad that will pay for the engine when it fails. So why do I care?
I’ll just, and by the way, I’ve had customers in the past, college kids, by the way. This example fits really well. Back in the day when I owned shops in both college towns, Fort Collins and Boulder, you’d find a lot of these kids where they had a rich dad, rich mom, whatever.
And it didn’t matter what failed because they had the gold Amex and they knew they were going to get fixed no matter what. So they could just ignore all sorts of things and it didn’t matter at the end of the day because they had a rich dad that was going to pay for it. That’s how a Democrat looks at para.
We the taxpayer are the rich dad that will come along and bail it out at some point. So they don’t care if it fails completely because we’ll bail it out anyways. The example I’m giving you of the college kid driving a car till it quits knowing dad will take care of it is the exact same example.
And if you don’t believe me, ask anyone on the left about para, about it being underfunded, about the stats I just gave you, which by the way, as a side note, I pulled this article out of the Colorado Sun, which is one of the most liberal left-leaning organizations journalistic wise in Colorado there is, and I’m not exaggerating when I say that. The Colorado Sun, every single thing that comes out of them is not only left-leaning, it is from the left. The opinion pieces and so on all come from the left.
So it’s interesting that this whole article about Para actually came from them. I’ll give them credit, they’re talking about something that typically the left doesn’t want to talk about. But you can’t ignore this because eventually the engine is going to collapse, the machine will quit running, the car will quit moving, and it’s a done deal.
And Rich Dad, the taxpayer, will be expected to pick up the tab. So, those of you again on the left that don’t believe me, go look this stuff up for yourself and you’ll find article after article that I’m not lying to you. This is a bigger deal than you think, and it will eventually cost the taxpayer in Colorado a lot of money.
And or somebody asks, well, what if, you know, so could it be a combination of them cutting all sorts of services and raising taxes? Yes. Yes.
Let’s not fix this road, let’s not fix this bridge, let’s not do this particular education project, let’s not do this, let’s not do that. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to raise taxes because we have a $13 billion shortfall that we need to make up in para. And by the way, that’s just the cash injection to hopefully get para back on track.
Like I said earlier, that’s to get it to a 67% viable, your viability, 67%, not 100%, 67%, 33% short. Am I doing my math right? Or 23% short.
So still 23% short of the goal, and that’s with a $13 billion cash injection, which by the way, they don’t have. That’s just the numbers they’re throwing around. That hasn’t been approved, and nor has the legislature done anything along those lines.
That’s just the number they need. They haven’t found that money yet. So again, folks, without that, I want to make sure I’m very clear on this.
Without that, it’s 50-50. They get to where they need to go. It’s 50% by 2048.
50%. Meaning we are going to be on the hook as taxpayers on down the road. So alright, Cub Creek heating and air conditioning.
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Now, back to Rush To Reason on Klz560.
All right, had a great texter give us an example of, instead of thinking of money as dollars, think of it as time. One million seconds equals 11 days. A billion seconds equals three years.
A trillion seconds equals 3,000 years. So when these politicians start throwing numbers around, folks, think of it in that light. A million seconds is 11 days.
A billion seconds is three years. So there’s a huge difference between a million and a billion, because again, it’s a thousand times bigger. And then a billion to a trillion is again a thousand times larger.
Three years equals 3,000 years. And we throw those numbers around. We’ve got Kamala Harris running around right now talking about helping different individuals out.
$25,000 help for buying a home and this, that and the other. And her plans would increase national debt trillions upon trillions of dollars, and they don’t think anything of it. Nothing.
Same texture actually sent this in. I did not see this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
I’m sure Charlie may not have seen this as well. The last full-size Kmart in the US is closing. It’s in Bridgehampton, New York, and it just leaves one small Florida location remaining.
Think about that. At one time, Kmart, the blue light specials, 2300 locations in the early 1990s. One left in Miami, and they bought…
Thank you, Charlie. They bought Sears, and Sears is now also gone, other than I think they do some online stuff, but they are… store-wise, they are gone.
It’s really, in a way, sad, and people can say, well, you know, the Amazons of the world and so on, you know, shuttered them. Well, then why is Walmart still around? That’s not true.
That’s not a true statement, by the way, and it’s not that I’m for Amazon or anything along those lines. I’m just saying, no, that’s not a true statement. Other companies figured out how to make it work and didn’t go under.
Yes, when the Internet came around all the way back in the late 90s, people knew some changes would be happening with brick and mortar, especially those that sold goods. We all knew that the service industry probably wouldn’t be affected by much because there are certain things that have to be done by people, labor and so on, and it wouldn’t affect some of that brick and mortar, you know, a repair shop, for example. You’re still going to get your car fixed.
Still got to go to brick and mortar to get that done. You’re not going to do that over the Internet. But when it comes to buying of goods, yeah, you can buy that stuff online, and people have been doing it for years.
But has brick and mortar gone away completely? No, drive around any town, you’ll see all sorts of brick and mortar. In fact, in some cases, it may have helped brick and mortar.
Some people still like to touch and feel the item they’re going to buy. In some cases, you can buy a brick and mortar as cheap as you can through the internet, depending upon what you’re buying, where you’re buying it from, and so on. In some cases, you want that item to be serviced.
You buy a washer or a dryer. Do you want to buy that online, or do you want to buy it from a local appliance company that’s really going to take care of you at the same time? You get where I’m going with that.
Kmart could have handled this differently, but they didn’t. There’s a social media person that I follow, guy’s hilarious, and he does these little skits where he’ll take a company, like I watched one the other day about Kodak. And for what most people don’t know, Kodak actually had one of the first patents on digital cameras.
In fact, I think they had the first patent on digital cameras, all the way back in years and years and decades ago. And this guy does these little skits where this worker inside of Kodak says, hey, guess what? I’ve got this great idea.
Digital camera, we’ve got a patent on it. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the guy’s like, well, we’re the largest filmmaker in the world.
Why would we do that? So they shot it down. And then several decades go by, and all of a sudden, wow, guess what?
Digital cameras are selling at an all-time high, blah, blah, blah. Maybe we should get on this gravy train and get after it, you know, considering we actually hold a patent on these things. Corporate guys still shot it down.
No, we sell film. I mean, does Kodak even still exist today, Charlie? I haven’t looked for film in forever.
Do they still actually? Charlie said he thinks they still make movie products. But they were, by the way, at one time, and I think I’m right in this, Charlie, one of the highest valued companies in the world.
At one time, they were one of the highest valued companies. And, yeah, thank you. Yeah, at one time, it was just them and Fuji making film.
Thank you, Charlie. Yeah, if you wanted to buy a roll of 35mm film, you had two choices. And back then, you bought one or the other based upon, really, I’m being serious about this, what kind of picture quality did you want?
Fuji had more of a blue hue to their pictures than Kodak did. Some of you may or may not know that, maybe remember back in the day. And yes, there was Polaroid and some others, but Polaroid was more on the instant side and so on.
And Kodak was the film maker in the US when it came to making film. Monochrome film is what they called it, right, Charlie? I believe.
And again, look at that company and the fact that they didn’t pay attention to the market changes. Kodachrome, thank you, Charlie. I was looking for that word, Kodachrome, thank you.
They knew these market changes were coming, but they basically ignored them. A lot of companies do that, by the way. They ignore it.
But car companies do it all the time. And yet, at the end of the day, it cost them tons of money. Kmart, using them as, you know, it’s what got this started, was this Kmart story.
One of the largest chains at one time bought Sears, as Sears was kind of going down, thinking maybe that would help revive even Kmart. Oh, and they bought Discover Card, too. That’s part of, that was a part of, that was a part of Sears at that time.
Yeah, they bought Discover as a part of that deal. Thank you. I forgot about that, Charlie.
Yeah, Discover was Sears, and it still exists, but not in that realm. Yeah, they sold it years ago. I don’t know who owns them now.
One of the banks, I’m sure, owns them. I’d have to look it up. But yeah, capital one.
Point being, these companies have to stay up with the times. If you have a company, you have to stay up with the times. If you get behind in any way, shape or form, the industry will eat you up.
And yeah, we want to blame it on all sorts of outside sources. But folks, these outside sources have been coming along for years. I mean, think about when the when the Model T came along, Henry Ford, and there were cars, I get it.
There was all sorts of other manufacturers. But Henry Ford perfected that and really started producing in volume a car that everyone could afford. And the horse and buggy guys were throwing a fit.
They didn’t want anybody buying a car. They still wanted to have a horse drawn carriage. And there was lots of carriage makers at the time.
Some of those carriage makers became car companies. But my point is you have to change with the times or you’ll get swallowed up by them. That’s what’s happened with Kmart.
And folks, I think the same can be true when it comes to politics. You have to change with the times or you’re going to get swallowed up. Andy and I are going to talk a little bit about this tomorrow when it comes to strategy and what the parties should do and so on.
And the reality is we have one party that’s been very quote unquote progressive and one that honestly hasn’t been. Now, the values of one, I feel, are better than the other, but the way they communicate sucks. It’s not good enough.
They don’t communicate well. They don’t talk about the things that they should. I mean, we’ve got a candidate right now running around talking about how we need to change and that things need to be different for the next four years, but yet they’ve been the one running it for the past four, at least three and a half.
So how does that work? You’ve been running it for three and a half, but you talk about how it needs changed. You’ve been the one in charge, and yet our side doesn’t point that out enough.
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All right, Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560. Thanks for all the text messages as well. Somebody also texted, where will Rain Man now buy his underwear?
Because, you know, it was all, you know, Kmart sucks. It was all part of the movie and so on. Good question.
And over the years, by the way, Kmart had some really funny commercials and different things along those lines. They, again, they really had an opportunity to do well. And because of lack of management, lack of leadership is probably the best thing to say.
They literally have lost it all. I have no other way to say it other than that. All right, we’ll be back.
Hour number two is next. Don’t go anywhere. Rush To Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, Klz560.