In this power-packed episode of Rush to Reason, John Rush sits down with Bruce DeTore of the American Small Business League to expose how the federal government is failing small businesses despite its promises. From the shocking truth about how less than 3% of federal contracts go to actual small businesses, to the SBA’s alleged deception, the gloves come off.
Then, John dives into the Fed’s stubborn interest rate stance, the housing market gridlock, and whether Trump should fire Jerome Powell. Callers chime in with fiery opinions on Social Security taxation, Trump’s picks, and the Republican Party’s internal battle for
SPEAKER 19 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 10 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes. With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 17 :
my advice to you is to do what your parents did get a job first you haven’t made everybody equal you’ve made them the same and there’s a big difference let me tell you why you’re here you’re here because you know something what you know you can’t explain but you feel it you felt it your entire life that there’s something wrong with the world you don’t know what it is but it’s there it is this feeling that has brought you to me
SPEAKER 05 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 19 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Bruce DeTore is joining us now, Director of Communications for the American Small Business League. Bruce, welcome. How are you today? I’m great, John. Nice to be here. Thank you for joining us. I am a small business owner myself outside of what I do here. I do some things in that world, even coaching small businesses as well. What goes on with the Fed and so on has a huge impact, far more impact than I think even they realize when it comes to our economy and small business. So in light of all of that, in my notes it says that Besant might be the possible contender to succeed Jerome Powell, who, by the way, I have no love for.
SPEAKER 07 :
I looked into that, and it was quickly denied all around. So it didn’t get a lot of traction. I don’t even remember if the source. This was maybe three weeks ago or something like that. And so far, even currently, President Trump sometimes indicates he might name a successor way in advance because Powell will be there until next May in almost a year or so. A year too long, in my opinion. Well, so there. Yeah. But there really isn’t a lot behind that claim. You know, it was maybe who knows why it was floated out. So it got picked up. Of course, it would make news because what? You know, so it doesn’t seem to be tons behind it now.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, so we’ll see, I guess. And again, at the end of the day. As I said earlier, Bruce, I look at what the Fed does and knowing not only what impact it has on the country and our debt and how we’re paying that and so on, but you look at small business and what they have to do to fund things. And the real estate market, that’s a whole other conversation in and of itself, even outside of small business. Some small business, of course, is involved in the home building end of things and so on. But the reality is, and this is, again, this is my take, although I don’t think I’m I’m wrong in this case. The Fed has waited too long to lower rates, and we’re way behind, if you ask me.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, and unfortunately, it’s part of a pattern that is not helping small business. I’d love to take, you know, 60 seconds, John, and give you my basic feel, because you can’t make America great unless you make our small businesses great, because Yeah, 99.9% of all businesses in America are small businesses. Most people don’t come close to knowing that, okay? 98% of all businesses in America have less than 100 employees, okay? Now, here’s why we’re in business as a little advocacy group, okay? The law says every year 23% of all federal contracts About $345 billion in business must go to small businesses. Every year, the SBA, which oversees this, says, we did it. We passed the goal, actually. How about a loan? But 35 years ago, our founder, Lloyd Chapman, started suing to get the truth about these things. And what he found blew his mind. And he actually inspired a number of congressional investigations. and also studies by the SBA’s own inspector general. For the last 35 years, it has come out. Sometimes it made the news, and now it’s buried this fact, John. The SBA falsifies compliance with that goal. In reality, about 97% of the contracts go to the one-tenth of 1% of businesses that are big businesses, and small businesses are really getting about 3%. Yep. of federal contracts. Now, that is a rip-off, not only in that of investment, $345 billion in business, but here, crucially, the big businesses that get all those contracts, they’re already big. They don’t create one new job to perform those contracts, whereas small businesses, John, would create about 2 million new jobs every single year on top of the 2 million jobs America typically creates every year. Right. and the city s p a is being demonized just had it having its staff cut by forty three percent it being relocated out of very important cities we uh… we accuse administration of being anti small business for all the nice rhetoric that comes from kelly law for the administrator the head of the s p a so this is a huge problem
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, in a way, to my knowledge, and being a small business owner myself and even competing on some of the things that you’re talking about, for those of you listening, this is what I have seen, Bruce. A lot of those bigger businesses, those bigger companies, they can go start a quote-unquote small subsidiary that makes it look like it’s a small quote-unquote family-owned business when it’s anything but.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, that’s a great example of the many, many, many, many, many layers of obfuscation, flat-out fraud, bad policies, lax oversight that has for decades let the SBA say, oh, we met the goal. Because with some digging and looking at those reports and those investigations I mentioned, you see that many of the agencies… have the right to set their own criteria. And many of the industries have different criteria. So the official definition of a small business is up to 500 employees. It really ought to be just up to 100. I agree. Right. But many of the agencies, and because of the industry codes, can give a contract to a company with 1,000 employees, 2,000 employees, 5,000 employees, and say… We met our small business contracting goal. Got our quota done. Got our quota done.
SPEAKER 03 :
So what’s the fix to this? For those listening and even some that are listening, like begets like, as you know, Bruce, since I’m a small business owner, there’s a lot of them listening as well because we all kind of flock together, as you know. So how do we fix this? What’s the answer?
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, verify it, because if you Google it or go to any official website, they’re going to say the opposite. And you’re not going to get conferred. You’re not going to believe what I… You’re not going to see the evidence that I’m saying. So at our site, ASBL.com, start clicking around, see the documentation there. And lobby from, you know, you want to start… small you’re you want to start big start the white house start kelly loffler right and call her and say is this true it is possibly true can you show us the small businesses you say you’re getting the contracts because we have to sue to get that information because they don’t want you to know they won’t tell you what small businesses got contracts for some plausible reason so it’ll give them a competitive disadvantage blah blah blah but now they don’t want you to see that it’s boeing it’s lockheed it’s verizon it’s a giant corporation that’s right Then we could target the chairs of the Senate Small Business Committee and the House Small Business Committee. And then all, you know, 20, 30 members on each of those committees. That’s what we’re doing. And we’re also writing and emailing. We’ve made a list of a couple hundred people who are running for Congress next year. And we’re saying, hey, you want to win? Broadcast this. Make a big noise about this. Because to help our small businesses… is the nonpartisan. Everyone will get behind it. Because let’s say you’re a hairdresser. Well, maybe you can’t apply for a contract. But if real small businesses are getting all that work and creating all those jobs, your neighborhood’s going to balloon and flourish.
SPEAKER 03 :
You’re going to have a lot more heads to cut. Absolutely. Absolutely. No, I agree. Everything you’re saying, spot on. I can’t disagree with that. One other thing I would add to that is, and this is a big one for me, Bruce, I… I have a soft spot, of course, for small business owners, and my biggest frustrations with the majority of politicians is very, very few, and I mean very, very few, have ever written a paycheck.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Aren’t they mostly lawyers? whatever. And the reality, Bruce, is, you know, I’m sorry to say they’ve never written a paycheck, never worked a real job in their life, unfortunately.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So they don’t relate at all. And they’re trying to impress, you know, their mentors, the people who are 10, 20 years older than them, you know, whose suitcases that they carry. You’re making a great point. That’s a whole reality that really keeps us entrenched.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, it does. And the reason I know some of that, Bruce, is I, over the past decade plus… have interviewed a lot of politicians, some that are just running, some that have been there for a while. And some of the things that I ask them go along the lines of what you and I are talking about right now. And the reality is very few of them could have a conversation with you and I on these lines because they’ve never done it.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’ve never done it. They would be probably afraid to talk about it. They would default to their party’s talking points, which is generic and sounds all nice and lovey-fluffy. That’s right. They would be terrified of it because they wouldn’t know.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Spot on. I appreciate what you guys are doing. You can tell you’re in good company. You’re welcome any time, any announcements, anything you want to talk about, anything you need help with that we need to get the word out. We’re here. We’d love to help, Bruce. Thank you so much, John. What a pleasure. Thank you. Appreciate it very much, Bruce. Have a great rest of your day. I appreciate you joining us. Vector and Windows & Doors, speaking of small business, that is Dave. He was with us at 3 o’clock. He’s got a great deal right now when it comes to Windows & Doors. Big changes potentially coming when it comes to the energy rating on Windows after the first of the year, 2026. Get done before that and talk to Dave today, 303-529-0720.
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SPEAKER 03 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Okay, kind of dovetailing into last hour, we were talking about, you know, Iran, what happened over the weekend. A couple of you texted me and asked about, you know, what are my thoughts on Candace Owens and so on. And I gave you my thoughts along those lines. And I’ve got a few text messages that have come in since. And some of you are really spot on. One of you said, trust no, capital N-O, trust no influencer. You know… I think unless it’s a influencer that has got a really solid track record of really being solid in the areas that they’re an expert in, and there are some of them out there, and I follow some. I follow some car guys that are kind of in that world. And here’s what I’ve learned. The really good, solid influencers have no shock value, meaning they probably don’t have as much quote unquote influence and may not have the same following that their competitors quote unquote have because they don’t have the same. You know, they’re not a shock jock. They don’t have that same shock value. So it would be interesting – it’s interesting to watch some of these folk and then realize where some of them are coming from. So in my world, again, I only follow a few, I guess what I would call influencers or people that I see in media that I feel have really – Good, solid information. And I don’t follow too many people, period, just because I don’t want to be tainted by anyone. And it was funny, you know, Mr. Global is one of those guys that I follow. He’s in the oil end of things. He’s called Mr. Global because he’s sort of an expert when it comes to oil and gas. Now, what I will also say is Mr. Global is a really smart guy. in the technical aspects of oil, oil extraction, fracking, all of those things. He’s very smart in that realm. Where he’s dumb is he puts too many politics into all of that, and then he gets all sideways, like he did this weekend. He predicted this morning that we’d be at almost $100 a barrel in oil prices, and actually we’ve come back down to where we were even prior to Friday. So he’s been completely wrong in that aspect. By the way, not the only time in the last month I’ve talked about him being wrong. This is his second time he’s been wrong in the last month. He’s really, in my opinion, losing a lot of credibility because he’s adding too much in the way of politics into his decision making, into his influence, quote unquote. And, yeah, he’s preaching to a particular part of the crowd that are very much on the left side of the aisle, and he’s got a solid following. And, again, he’s a guy that’s making money off of what he’s posting and so on, and that’s all great. But he’s losing people like me that I actually thought he was a pretty good, solid resource when it came to certain mechanical things along those lines. But I’m even losing – he’s losing me even as a follower along those lines because he’s too heavily involved on the political aspect of things. Brad, go ahead.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, in a lot of ways, I think Trump’s great. I voted for him three times, but at times I think he has some extremely poor judgment. I’m talking about he’s going after Thomas Massey, and that’s going to create three major problems.
SPEAKER 03 :
Massey’s an idiot, though, Brad. He’s a guy, honestly, he needs to go bye-bye. He has gotten so out in left field on a lot of this stuff that he’s going to find himself not winning election. That’s Massey’s own fault. That has nothing to do with Trump. He’s created his own bed. I’ll say that straight up.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think… But if we don’t promote unity, it’s going to infuriate the massive side of the party.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I hate to say it really quick, though, Brad, on Massey’s side of the party, they’re dwindling. I hate to say that, but they really are. That hardcore, it’s got to be my way or no way, we learned in this last election that they started to be diminished. We saw here in Colorado what happened to that side of the party with the last election in regards to the GOP chair. Reality, Brad, is they’re losing their foothold, and they’re not as relevant as they once were, and they don’t even realize it.
SPEAKER 08 :
But what about the people… the money that we could be sending to help elect other candidates. Now we’re going to be sending it to help people. We send it to help Massey. And then that’s less money to help elect other candidates. So I think Massey is elected to represent his district. And I agree with you. You’re never going to get 100 percent of what you want. But at the same time, I don’t think Trump should be attacking Massey. I mean, he’s only one member of Congress this year. learn to deal with what you like and what you don’t like. Personally, I still like Massey. I like Trump, but I like Massey at the same time as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and that’s where you and I are a little different. I’ve lost a lot of respect for Massey. I feel like he gets so dead set on certain things that he allows for no room for any kind of compromise. No room for error, I guess, is what I should say, Brad. And the reality is you can’t do politics that way. As much as we would like to and as much as in an ideal world that would be awesome… We live in a day and age, Brad, where that’s impossible. You just can’t do that this day and age. I’m sorry, you just can’t.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I tend to see your point on that one, but in other words, you can’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, and there’s a lot of good people. He, Rand Paul, others, and I like where they come from. And I am them on the true letter of the law and what I would like to see us do with our budget and what I’d like to see us do with our spending and what I’d like to see us do with the debt and so on. Brad, I’m right there with them. I mean, I feel and think exactly the way they do. But I also know that it’s unrealistic. It’s not going to happen. I mean, the reality is for us to get done what they want to do, there’s not enough support for it. There’s not enough discipline, I guess is what I should say, Brad, throughout every district, throughout every senator’s state and so on. There’s just not enough discipline for. for us to get what we want at the end of the day. So what you have to do is figure out, okay, if I can’t get 10 out of 10, can I get 6 out of 10? Can I get 7 out of 10? You know, where’s my compromise, and how can I still get some of what I need to move that needle?
SPEAKER 08 :
In other words, it’s like Amy Coney Barrett and Barrett and Kavanaugh made disappointments from time to time, but Elise Baird and Kavanaugh for right half the time.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s still better than Sotomayor and some like her. Or Kajani, even. Let’s throw her into the mix. I’d rather have them than her than two more of her.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I’m with you. I don’t like either one of them. I think Trump could have even done a little bit better on those picks, as it’s turned out. But, you know, hindsight’s 20-20. When he was nominating them, even at that time, we all thought that both of them would be pretty good, solid picks, and they would be hardcore on the Constitution and so on. The problem is they, like a lot of people, Brad, start pulling their personalities and their personal feelings into things that they shouldn’t.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, personally, I think we would better off with Barbara Lagoia of Florida and Mike Lee’s brother Tom out of Utah. But right now we have to do the best we can with what we have to work with.
SPEAKER 03 :
Precisely. Precisely. And really quick, and while you’re here, I can tell you as well, this just came out. Donald Trump just posted this. It has been fully agreed by and between Israel and Iran that there will be a complete and total ceasefire in approximately six hours from now in Israel and Iran. have wound down and completed their in progress final missions for 12 hours at which point the war will be considered ended officially Iran will start the ceasefire and upon the 12th hour Israel will start their ceasefire and upon the 24th hour an official end of the 12-day war will be saluted by the world during each ceasefire the other side remain peaceful and respectful on the assumption that everything works as it should which it will I would like to congratulate both countries Israel and Iran on having the stigma the stamina, courage, and intelligence to end what should be called the 12-day war. This is the war that could have gone on for years and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t and never will. God bless Israel, God bless Iran, God bless the Middle East, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the world. That was just put out.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I just got done reading that on True Social. Now, Trump had made this promise about no tax on Social Security. Now it turns out to be a $4,000 credit. If you’re single, you make less than $75,000, married $150,000. And personally, I don’t think Trump should have been a little bit more clear on that. He should have said, I’ll do the best I can to remove the tax. But now people are getting upset, wondering why they still have to pay that tax on Social Security. Do you think… President Trump could have been a little bit more clear on that, or why did he say? I don’t know.
SPEAKER 03 :
That one, Brad, I don’t have any answer to. I mean, here’s the reality, and all of us know it, and Trump’s not going to do it, and I don’t think any other Republican will as well. If we don’t do something really solid about Social Security and changing either when benefits start, how much you put in it, to what dollar amount, and so on, raising the cap, I guess is what I should say. Brad, if we don’t do some things seriously about Social Security, it ain’t going to be there.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think Elon was correct in saying there’s like all these millions of people over the age of 120 collecting Social Security? There’s no way to prove that one way or the other.
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know that they were collecting. They very well could have been on the rolls. But here’s my take on it, Brad. And the real issue, we don’t know. Until somebody starts doing some investigative work to figure that all out, we don’t know. And the reality is even if they are on the rolls, they shouldn’t be.
SPEAKER 08 :
Another story is Social Security was at a private trust until 65 and Lyndon Johnson took it out and put in a general fund. So either I don’t know if that story is true or not. I’ve heard different stories.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have, too. I don’t know that that’s totally true. I don’t think it’s totally true. They claim there’s a big IOU inside of it. I mean, here’s the reality, as you know, Brad. Anytime you have any kind of an organization, could be the government, could be the church, could be a school, could be a business, money’s fungible. It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day anyways. It’s all fungible.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and a lot of people on the Republican side of the aisle seem to love to double-tax Social Security, too, because as Reagan said, who gave two speeches in 64 and 62 talking about the misleading returns. All he did was raise age and raise the tax in 84. Reagan signed a bill in the law saying if you made more than 25 grand a year, they would tax it on a federal level. And I got burned this year because my CDs did real good. But they haven’t adjusted that $25,000 since 1984. And it’s not Reagan’s fault all by himself because Congress actually voted into the law. So it seems to me there’s a Plenty of people on both sides of the aisle to blame, and Massey’s introduced that H.R. 1040, but Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, won’t bring it up for a vote. So it seems to me we’re going to continue to pay a tax on Social Security if you make more than $25,000 a year, and it will continue to be double-taxed. Now, Trump’s plan of the $4,000 credit is a step in the right direction, but I’m not optimistic.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I’m not optimistic on really any of this because we still don’t have the final version of what the Senate wants to do. Whatever that is has to go back to the House. And as you know, it’s this back and forth. And I don’t know that we’ll see a final version until later in July.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. So why don’t they just do the Trump test cuts on a standalone bill? And they could have done that like three months ago. And then they could have worried about the rest of it later. Because we need those Trump cans.
SPEAKER 03 :
And that is one where I am not an expert in this, but from what I’ve read, Brad, is because of the amount of votes it takes to get something passed, that’s not as easy as it sounds.
SPEAKER 08 :
So in other words, there’s no guarantee we would have got 220 votes.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 08 :
And then we’d have to get at least 51 in the Senate.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. That’s what I’ve read. Now, again, I am not an expert in the procedural end of things to say that firmly, but that’s what I’ve read.
SPEAKER 08 :
And now Lisa Murkowski is threatening to quit the Republican Party.
SPEAKER 03 :
Go independent. I read that, too, just a little bit ago. I mean, the reality there, Brad, is that’s just a title change. She already is.
SPEAKER 08 :
But the R helps. Agree.
SPEAKER 09 :
Agree.
SPEAKER 08 :
As much as she annoys me, we need that R. And as far as I’m concerned, she stole from Joe Miller back in 2010. And Joe Miller would have been every bit as good as Mike Lee and Ted Cruz.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and that’s one where if we could get somebody back in, you know, somebody to replace her would be awesome, but you’ve got to find somebody that can primary her out.
SPEAKER 08 :
And they have that rank choice.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. That’s what gets really hard in Alaska.
SPEAKER 08 :
And they’re trying to get rid of her a second time, but it’s going to be hard to get rid of her a second time as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
I agree. I agree with you, Brad. That one baffles me. That’s one I can’t wrap my head around coming from Alaska. I don’t get at all.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think we’re going to be able to hold the House in 2026? I’m getting kind of nervous about that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, it depends. I’ll be honest, Brad. I think that one comes down to, I mean, this has been a good feather, I think, in Donald Trump’s cap. If all of this turns out like I think it will, where this will be in the rearview mirror here after we even get through Fourth of July, a lot of what’s going on here will be in the rearview mirror. He can come back in and start concentrating on the economy. I know that there’s this separation, or supposed to be, between the Fed and him. But if he could get the Fed to actually chip in lower rates, get some of the housing stuff going again, if we don’t do something along those lines, it’s going to be a really rough summer and fall on the housing end of things, which will then carry into winter, which will then have an effect upon us next summer heading into the midterms. And I don’t like that part of it. If we can somehow get through that Because that’s a big one, Brad. Everybody looks at that, whether you own a house or not. People are looking at that, and that’s something that I feel, if we’re going to win in 2026, that has to get solved. That’s the biggest one I see.
SPEAKER 08 :
And the housing sales are starting to slow down because of my condominium complex. A few years back, the condo would sell the first day on the market. No, we’ve had three for sale. They’ve been for sale for like three or four months.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and that’s not just condos, Brad. That’s everything. That’s townhouses, houses, single family. I mean, that’s pretty much across the board. And that’s because of the interest rate end of things. There’s a lot of people out there even predicting, again, I don’t. Follow influencers and don’t care for some of these guys because they have predicted a crash in the housing market now for years. And is there going to be some areas in the country – I just was reading that Las Vegas now has like an all-time high all the way back to 08 of houses on the market. Their pricing hasn’t been – greatly affected yet. That will come. But if we can get interest rates to tick down ever so slightly, Brad, I think you’re going to see things change on the housing end of things. But the Fed’s not participating. Jerome Powell doesn’t care. He does not care about middle America at all. He’s proven that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Doesn’t care. From my point of view, I like the high interest rates. I know. I got a fair amount of money in CDs, and my CDs are doing real well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and for you, that’s great. And that’s great, and there are folks out there like you. The problem is, Brad, you’re unique. You’re not like the rest of America, and the rest of America is looking at this saying, gosh, I can’t buy my first home. I can’t even move. I’d like to get my kids in a different place. I’d like to upsize. I’d like to downsize. There’s all sorts of things I’d like to do, but I’m not going to do that when interest rates are at 7%.
SPEAKER 08 :
And I agree, we’ve got to look at the overall picture. It’s not just what’s good for me, it’s what’s good for the entire country.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct, and for the entire country right now, we need lower rates.
SPEAKER 08 :
Do you think that’s going to happen? Do you think Trump will really fire Powell?
SPEAKER 03 :
I don’t know. I think, just my own opinion, this is a little bit off of what we were talking about with Iran, but I think Trump, had it not been for all this Iran stuff that just went on, I think his focus would have been on some of what you’re talking about. I don’t think he would go as far as to say, Fire Jerome Powell, but I think there needs to be a serious come-to-Jesus meeting with Jerome and say, listen, Powell, we’ve got to get some things rolling along. You’re now coming into the second half of this year. You’ve not done any cuts under my administration at all. You did it with the prior one. This is really looking like you’re playing politics. Knock it off.
SPEAKER 08 :
Didn’t Trump appoint Powell, though?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, he sure did. Another mistake he made, by the way.
SPEAKER 08 :
Have we confirmed any judges since we took office?
SPEAKER 03 :
That I don’t know. I have not been following that at all, Brad.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and you try to call Charles Grassley’s office and they never answer the phone. So it’s extremely frustrating when you continually call these people up and they never answer the phone. And maybe if they receive that many phone calls, they need to hire more help. But I don’t think it’s a case of They’re receiving too many phone calls. I think certain people just don’t want to answer the phone.
SPEAKER 03 :
I think it’s that, too. I would agree with you there. Yes.
SPEAKER 08 :
And Rand Paul hasn’t picked up his phone for three or four years. I basically gave up trying to call Rand Paul’s office.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s sad. Shouldn’t be that way.
SPEAKER 08 :
I agree.
SPEAKER 03 :
Brad, I’ve got to run. I appreciate you, though. Thanks for calling in, sir, as always.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
You bet. Have a good rest of your day, Brad. I appreciate it. Golden Eagle Financial is coming up next. Al Smith, he would love to help you with your financial future. We were just talking to Brad about all the things regarding Social Security and taxes and where you’re at and how’s it going to work when you get into retirement and so on. Find out today what that’s going to do for you. Al will help you with all of that today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Reading some text messages. I’ll get into some of those here in a moment. Joe, go ahead.
SPEAKER 11 :
John, have you seen the news in the past 20 minutes about the ceasefire?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I just read it. I just read it on air, actually, a minute ago.
SPEAKER 11 :
Okay, well, great. So hopefully that will hold. So at 12 o’clock Eastern time tonight, which is only five hours and 20 minutes away, the two respective ceasefires will begin, and if both ceasefires hold…
SPEAKER 03 :
they agreed that that will be the end of the war end of the 12-day war so that’s great that’d be yeah in fact that’s what trump is now calling it that would be it and and by the way for both sides i think that would be a win uh and i talked earlier in the three o’clock hour joe how uh and i’ve had all sorts of people asking me you know what am i doing am i changing anything with my security protocol and blah blah blah blah blah and the reality is no i’m not changing a single thing nothing’s going to happen At the end of the day, this will be in the rearview mirror in a week or two at most. It might even be sooner than that now that all this was just announced. And at the end of the day, Joe, no, I am not losing any sleep. I’m not worried about anything. I am not changing a single thing in the way that I handle things. The other thing, too, about this, Joe, and I said this during the 3 o’clock hour, this can’t go much longer because Iran, I feel, and this is my take on things, no one is aiding them at this point. Most of the countries that were their quote-unquote friends have distanced themselves. They really, I think, blew it, even though it was all announced and everybody knew on the front side what was going to happen with Qatar. Not a smart move on Iran’s part, given that was one of their quote-unquote, you know, cousins or brotherhood or whatever you want to call it, Joe. They’ve made some really dumb decisions, and I think they’re at the end. They’re grasping for straws. They don’t have much left in their arsenal, and they’ve got a long row ahead of them.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. And, John, when people are saying, well, they could blockade the Straits of Hormuz.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re not going to do that. They need the oil revenue too much.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, even if they didn’t need the oil revenue, John, their Navy – is about 100 ships max, and about a quarter of those are supply ships, not even armed ships. You only need one cruise missile per ship to take them all out. If the Iranians did attempt to blockade the Straits of Hormuz… In about 90 minutes, every ship that was part of that blockade would be on the bottom of the ocean.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and again, they know that. They’re not bright by any means, Joe. There are some things they do where you just shake your head and think, man, you guys just don’t have very much IQ, do you, at the end of the day? You’re just not very bright. But they’re not that dumb, Joe, to do that. And as I said right now, I mean, here’s the reality. Especially given everything that’s just happened to them over the past couple of weeks, they need the revenue, Joe. That’s their main source of income. They need it.
SPEAKER 11 :
They’re hurting. And speaking of revenue, John, interesting, this morning oil opened at about $75 a barrel.
SPEAKER 03 :
Last night, I was watching it, Joe. It got all the way up to Brent was last night at about 10 p.m., $78 a barrel.
SPEAKER 11 :
And I’m looking at West Texas. Yeah, West Texas was a little less.
SPEAKER 03 :
And for those of you that are listening, West Texas is our kind of benchmark because that’s what comes out of the Permian Basin and all of that, and it’s kind of what our standard is. Brent is the worldwide standard is the way to look at that.
SPEAKER 11 :
And the reason for the difference is that Brent is a richer oil than West Texas Intermediate. So, you know, there’s, so you get more, you know, there’s less waste.
SPEAKER 03 :
Different makeup of it, basically, yeah. It’s refined differently the whole, yeah, the whole nine yards, yes.
SPEAKER 11 :
So typically, you know, there’ll be about a 10% difference between Brent and West. But I’m looking at the graph.
SPEAKER 03 :
And right now, I just looked, WTI is all the way down to 65 a barrel. That’s where, that’s less than what it was a week ago, Joe.
SPEAKER 11 :
And look what happens at 6 o’clock when Trump announced the ceasefire. The price chart drops straight down, like somebody dropped a rock off a building.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep.
SPEAKER 11 :
That’s amazing. It was starting to crater around, oh, 12.30, 1 o’clock.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, I was watching it then as well.
SPEAKER 11 :
And then at 6 o’clock, Trump made that announcement at 6.02. In the 30 minutes between 6.02 and 6.30, it fell like another $4 a barrel.
SPEAKER 03 :
I was arguing with some folks last night, kind of not really online, but just some text things that were going on late last night where some folks were nervous about what was happening and what’s going to happen with, you know, stock market and the futures and this, that and the other. And I’m like, stop your worrying. There is there is nothing here worth worrying about. This is all going to be in the rearview mirror in the next few days. So quit worrying.
SPEAKER 11 :
I heard that somebody was arguing with you, but I’m 100 percent correct. It’s going to be a nothing burger in a week. Unless Irene does something really, really stupid.
SPEAKER 03 :
They’re not that dumb. I mean, they’re dumb, but they’re not that dumb, Joe.
SPEAKER 11 :
Not dumb. By the way, a little trivia, and I think you know the answer to this, but, John, most people think that a barrel of oil is 50 gallons, like a 50-gallon drum. It’s 42 gallons, and the reason it’s 42 gallons is back when they first discovered oil in Pennsylvania, they wanted to put it in the barrels. The only barrels they had were wooden whiskey barrels. And the wooden whiskey barrels were 42 gallons.
SPEAKER 03 :
And then they were that size because that’s what fit between the wheels on the wagon back then that was drawn by a horse.
SPEAKER 11 :
Right. And then Congress said, OK, well, we’re going to start taxing oil by the barrel. And, of course, it was back then the barrel was 50.
SPEAKER 03 :
42 gallons right and once you put once government puts something in it never changes joe it never changes so to this day a barrel of oil is 42 gallons hilarious actually so i mean we laugh but it is hilarious and and yeah and i’m watching it i’m watching oil even as we speak joe it’s now down uh wti is 25 cents less than it was when we first started talking yeah it’s just uh it’s amazing unlike this yeah and it’s it’s called after hours trading of the
SPEAKER 11 :
And by the way, people think the oil companies control the price of oil. They don’t. It’s commodity traders.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yep, all traders.
SPEAKER 11 :
Same thing with wheat and soybeans and rice. If you’re a farmer, you don’t set the price of your grain.
SPEAKER 03 :
Nope, the commodities do.
SPEAKER 11 :
There’s commodity traders, and they’re out there saying, okay, well,
SPEAKER 03 :
you know, today we’re going to give you $6 a bushel for your… And they all base that on, you know, supply and demand, and I’m going to say this really quick here, Joe. We don’t need it to go much below $65 a barrel. That’s actually a nice sweet spot. Our folks here in America can, you know, the U.S. can make money on that. They can keep developing and do the things they need to do, and I know people don’t want to hear that because they want to see $2 a gallon gasoline. Joe, we’re not going to see $2 a gallon gasoline ever again. So be happy if it’s in the high twos or the low threes and suck it up and quit worrying about it and move on because at 65 a barrel, we’re all good.
SPEAKER 11 :
You’re all good. Oil companies are making, you know, kind of a decent profit. But once it goes below 58 or so, you’re getting to the point where things slow down. You slow down. It doesn’t make sense.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 11 :
What happens is first they stop drilling new wells. And then they stop fixing. People think once you drill a well, it just goes on and on and on.
SPEAKER 09 :
Oh, no.
SPEAKER 11 :
Oil wells need continual maintenance. That’s right. And if you don’t maintain your well after 18 months, well, it’s going to start to degrade. And after 18 months, you might only be getting 60% of what you’re getting. In fact, if something breaks downhole, one of the rods, it just stops automatically. But even if nothing catastrophic happens… The output of that well will break, and that’s why they do things like acidizing and refracting and whatnot. So as the price goes down, oil companies simply stop maintaining. Well, again, first they stop drilling new ones, and then they stop putting money into, and they just start shutting down wells that are not producing or stop fixing wells. So that’s how they kind of manage the supply side of that.
SPEAKER 03 :
And the other thing, too, with all of this, Joe, that I want to throw in there, too, why you’re seeing oil doing what it’s doing is because as a country, we are producing more oil than any other country ever. on the planet does today. We’ve got the ability to even produce more than that. These other countries, Joe, also know that. In other words, we’ve cut into the profits of a lot of these other countries, and that’s a good thing because when things like what we just saw happen, you don’t see $100 a barrel oil like a lot of people predicted.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah, and I never thought it was going to go that way. And the other thing is that oil is a global commodity, like people’s soybeans. Well, China’s not buying our soybeans. Well, if China’s buying all of their soybeans from Russia… the countries that used to get soybeans from Russia have to go somewhere else. So it’s just, it’s like squeezing a balloon, John. You know, it’s a global supply and global demand. It’s not U.S. supply versus U.S. demand.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, but we are to the point, and people don’t realize this either, we have gotten to the point now, Joe, where Middle East oil, we only import about 600,000 barrels a day. We ourselves use 20 million barrels a day as a country. So if you look at the comparison there, for everybody that’s out there that’s on the other side of the aisle that thinks that, you know, we bow to the Saudis all the time because that’s where our oil comes from, yeah, think again. No, that ain’t how it works anymore, Joe.
SPEAKER 11 :
And if we needed to up our production, we could up our production.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. Almost overnight.
SPEAKER 11 :
Almost overnight. Yep.
SPEAKER 03 :
Always good, Joe. Appreciate you very much. Have a great rest of your day. Ridgeline Auto Brokers coming up next. Speaking of oil and cars and all of that, if you’re looking for a car that maybe gets a little better gas mileage, looking for more room, you want to downsize, upsize, you want to sell your vehicle, whatever it is, Ridgeline Auto Brokers can help you with all of that. Give them a call today. Find them at RidgelineAutoBrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 03 :
We inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason. All right, we are back. And some of what I do love about the Internet and things that happen along those lines is… They can be pretty funny. I will admit they can be pretty funny. I saw a meme a moment ago because I had looked up Candace Owens, and so immediately I see this meme that comes up with the ceasefire announcement that was just made. It shows Candace and the Ayatollah hugging and crying. How they put all this together, they get AI to make these pictures. No, it’s not really her hugging, of course. It’s all an AI-generated image, but it’s funny. I mean, you have to admit, those things, agree with it, disagree with it, whatever. It’s still funny when people take the time or they do whatever to generate this stuff. I’ve always wanted to know, who’s the meme maker? Who makes all the memes? Who is that guy or who is that gal or is it a collective? I mean, where do they come because at times some of them you look at it and you just you have to chuckle. Now, you may not agree with it. You may think, oh, well, you know, but you still chuckle at times because they are pretty funny. And that one was one of those where, yes, I did, in fact, have to laugh just because it’s you know, it is funny. And. Again, folks, where do some of these folk get so sideways? And by the way, it was a tweet that I saw that with Candace and the Ayatollah crying. And where do folks like Candace even get so far off? Folks, I wish I had that answer. I don’t know these people personally. I’ve never known anybody along those lines, although I’ve known some. I guess I can use this example. I’ve known some that have been very down to earth and even got their start here. literally here on Rush to Reason, and then they get involved in bigger adventures, and they go here, and they go there, and before long, they’ve gone sideways. It’s almost like the stardom affects them somewhere or another, and they just get off track, and they become loony. I don’t know how else to say it. All Charlie and I can ever figure, we talk about some of this stuff off air, is just the notoriety, the stardom, the whatever it is, just takes them away from their roots, and they forget what their foundation was, and somehow that gets all screwed up, and they’re all off track, and they’re no longer who they used to be. And I don’t get that. I don’t understand why that happens. Now, I will say this. Typically, it happens in those that aren’t as mature. I’ll leave it at that. We’ll be right back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you. I’m a rich guy
