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In this engaging episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush is joined by Mitch Francis, a seasoned veteran in business and economics. They delve into the intricate workings of the Federal Reserve, emphasizing the inadequacies of traditional tools like interest rate adjustments in combating modern inflation. Mitch shares his innovative ideas on how to restructure the Fed Board, highlighting the need for leadership with real-world business experience. Their conversation reveals the complexities of today’s economy and critiques the current reliance on methods from an outdated economic era. The discussion extends to tariffs and their role in reshaping domestic
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 03 :
You are going to shut your damn yapper and listen for a change because I got you pegged, sweetheart. You want to take the easy way out because you’re scared. And you’re scared because if you try and fail, there’s only you to blame. Let me break this down for you. Life is scary. Get used to it. There are no magical fixes.
SPEAKER 04 :
With your host, John Rush.
SPEAKER 03 :
My advice to you is to do what your parents did.
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Get a job first. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same and there’s a big difference.
SPEAKER 09 :
Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life. That there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there. It is this feeling that has brought you to me.
SPEAKER 03 :
Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
SPEAKER 14 :
It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush, presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, welcome back. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. All right, we’ve got a special guest joining us right now, Mitch Francis. Mitch, welcome. How are you? I’m fine, John. How are you? I’m doing very well. I appreciate you joining us. And we’re going to talk a little bit about, of course, the Fed and different things along those lines. But you are the founder of Francis Development, Inc. Talk about that for a moment.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I have a 40-year business background. I created and have been the CEO of publicly traded companies, of private companies. My last public company did a billion dollars in sales. And I developed and still own and manage commercial real estate all throughout the U.S.
SPEAKER 13 :
Awesome. Well, we have a few things in common. I’ve been doing it about that long, not at the level that you are, but have a similar background. And I always enjoy talking to fellow business owners, entrepreneurs, and so on. And I like you, by the way. I read through all of our notes here. And you and I are on the same page when it comes to the Federal Reserve. Oh, that’s too bad. I thought you’re going to argue with me. No, no, you’re not going to get too many arguments out of me because I have felt like a and I was saying this back when they were slow to raise rates because they called interest or they called inflation transitory, which at that time, everybody, myself included, knew that it wasn’t. And they were late to the game then. And I have felt that they have been late to the game and bringing them back down.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, that’s true, and it’s practically always true. It’s a cliche, but the Federal Reserve is always looking in the rearview mirror. They take data that’s already happened and then try to manipulate the U.S. economy. And unfortunately, they do a really bad job of it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yep. And part of that, I feel, and I want to get your opinion on this, because this is where I feel these guys struggle. And I always look at, you know, who’s on the Fed board, what’s their background and so on. And the reality is, I think maybe one or two of them might have been in the VC world and had a little bit of background in some of that. But the reality, Mitch, is none of them have ever written a paycheck.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I couldn’t agree more. One of the solutions I have to the Federal Reserve is creating an entirely new Fed board. And one of the requirements to serving on the Fed board is that, in my proposal, is that at least half of your career has had to have been out in the public environment with real jobs.
SPEAKER 13 :
I’m with you.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yeah. I mean, how can these people relate? They can’t. They’re book-learned economists, typically. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, I learned this, by the way, at the University of Colorado. Economics is not a science.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right, right.
SPEAKER 16 :
People, they guess.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, no, they do. And by the way, thanks for attending college here at CU. It’s where I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. So thank you for that, by the way. I was born and raised in Denver. Awesome. Well, we have a lot more in common then.
SPEAKER 01 :
We do.
SPEAKER 13 :
And I’m with you, though. And by the way, I like your proposal because I feel like that’s I know you couldn’t make that requirement for politicians, although we should, because so many politicians that are setting laws and policy for guys like you and I. have never sat in you and I’s shoes ever. They have no idea what it’s like to hire, fire, write paychecks, go out and borrow money, do lines of credit, all the different things that it takes to keep things functioning. Most of these guys have never done, most guys and gals have never done anything along those lines. They’re clueless when you start talking to them about those things, and yet they want to govern us by never doing it.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I totally agree, and actually I do strongly believe that that should be a requirement to govern. You have to have worked in the private sector.
SPEAKER 13 :
As you know, so many of these individuals spend their entire career. In fact, it always bothers me. I don’t know about you, but the biggest thing that I get a turnoff on when it comes to politicians is when I hear they’re a career politician, meaning they’ve never had a real job.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. No, it doesn’t help us. These people don’t know. That’s what you’re saying. They don’t know what we need them to be doing and why.
SPEAKER 13 :
So when it comes to the Fed, and I mentioned this last week, you saw the quarter point token rate cut, which is the way I looked at it, Mitch. That was basically to keep Powell out of hot water from the White House, which he’s already in hot water over. And I get all of the folks that are out there talking about how there needs to be a separation between, you know, the Fed and the White House and so on. Although, Mitch. I think the frustration that the White House is the same frustration that I have is we have an economy right now that is – I want to get your feeling on this, but my feeling is the economy is raring to go. There are a certain amount of individuals, business owners, et cetera, that are just ready to pull the trigger on moving things forward, expanding their businesses, hiring, doing things along those lines, buying equipment, but the Fed is holding them back.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I agree. And I go a lot deeper than that, actually, in my book. I wrote a book called Badass Solutions for today’s big-ass problems. And one of the 20 problems is the Federal Reserve. And it goes very deep. The Federal Reserve has two functions. One is to control inflation, and the other is to positively enhance employment in the U.S. And unfortunately, they have… two virtually useless tools to be able to use that were created when the Fed was created in 1913. You know, we had a very simple economy. And the two tools that they have to work with are raise and lower interest rates or buy and sell securities. And it’s kind of funny, John, you know, relative to our very complex economy, it’s kind of like going to your dentist for a root canal. And the only tool he has is floss. Right. And that’s what the Federal Reserve is using, raising and lowering interest rates. And this recent bout of inflation that we had from 2022 was not due to normal causes of inflation. It was really due to COVID and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused oil prices to literally double almost overnight. Right. and the supply chain problems that were also largely caused by COVID.
SPEAKER 13 :
And, of course, the printing of money, which you already know that as well. So you add that because of COVID, the printing of money, the war, which also made us print money, the supply chain issues, which didn’t make us print money, but it made businesses raise prices because as the supply and demand changes, as you know, Mitch, when there’s less of something, prices go up. Well, that’s exactly what happened. Exactly what happened. So you’re right. All of that was, I call it the perfect storm, and that’s why we had inflation upwards of 9%, which now it’s down around, what, 2.6%, 2.7%, depending upon whose figures you actually look at. This is a question for you. Because I talk about this even off air quite a bit. Do you feel that target 2% rate of the Fed needs to be readjusted? In other words, is that too low anymore to actually be a target rate for them when it comes to inflation?
SPEAKER 16 :
My gut says yes, it’s kind of too low. There seems to be a natural level of between two and three somewhere. I think having a rigid requirement is a bad policy. You know, these guys are trying to walk a tightrope between inflation and healthy employment. So you can’t quite always get that exactly right and say, well, it has to be 2% is probably not the right direction.
SPEAKER 13 :
Well, and lastly, and I’ll throw this at you, I really feel like the biggest reason we haven’t seen more from the Fed is all of what you just said, all the things that we’ve talked about. But then add on top of that, this utter disdain that Powell has for Trump and the fact that he’s going to prove himself right over Trump being wrong. You throw that into the mix. That’s why we haven’t had more adjustments.
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I can’t argue with that at all. But here’s something that’s really, I think, kind of shocking when you think about this. That we just named reasons for the inflation that we’ve had for 2020-2022 that were not normal causes of inflation. But the Fed fought it with raising interest rates. And none of those causes of inflation would be solved by higher inflation. Good point. None of them. It’s an incredibly important point.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I’m glad you said that because as all that was going on, and my listeners know this, I was telling a lot of them, including a lot of experts that were coming on that were financial gurus, that the Fed keeping rates up or even raising them added to inflation because when businesses have a higher borrowing cost and they’re trying to figure out how to make ends meet and they’ve got lines of credit and so on, And as those costs go up, guess what, Mitch? I’ve said this for years. Businesses don’t pay their expenses. They don’t pay taxes. The customers do.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes. It’s silly how much I agree with you. I’m sorry. I really wanted to fight you.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, no, and there’s no fight. But here’s my frustration. Why is it guys like you and I, and I never went to college, by the way. You were one step ahead of me. I went to high school and I was barely lucky to get out of high school. So at the end of the day, I’m not near as smart as you are. But why is it that folks like you and I can figure this out and the Fed can’t?
SPEAKER 16 :
Well, I think they probably have figured it out that their tools are inadequate. I think they know that. But I truly fault everybody back from Volcker, who totally misused these tools and killed the economy, all the way up to Jay Powell, who loved Volcker. And, and modeled himself after Volcker. And I was like, I fell out of my lazy boy. I got to tell you, it was unbelievable to hear that one. But John, the inflation factors that we had that, that pushed us up to nine to 9% inflation, catch this. They resolved on their own.
SPEAKER 13 :
True. True.
SPEAKER 16 :
Oil went up from $65 to $130 almost overnight. Right. But as the world started to realize that there was enough supply of oil in the world and more oil was produced here, etc., etc., the oil level, the oil price floated back down to $65. That’s where we are now.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. That’s right.
SPEAKER 16 :
And the supply chain problems were… that everybody was scared of COVID. We couldn’t get longshoremen to unload boats and ships. We couldn’t get truckers to drive the goods to stores. So we had massive supply problems, like you mentioned earlier, causing inflation. But as those resolved, as People got more comfortable. People went back to work. COVID wasn’t killing anymore, or very much more. And the supply chains got regular again. The inflation factor went down on its own. Those things did not happen because we had high interest rates that made it harder to buy houses and cars. And by the way, the one thing we haven’t talked about with high interest rates that the Fed did to us, They increased the cost of the federal government’s interest factor.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. That’s right. You’re absolutely right.
SPEAKER 16 :
It went from a little bit over 1% to 4%. So it went from about $300 billion to over a trillion per year. That’s right. So the federal government is having to pay more for interest, which means you and I. Which means we’re either paying or borrowing to pay that is what we’re doing.
SPEAKER 13 :
We’re doing both. We’re paying it and we’re borrowing it both.
SPEAKER 16 :
That’s true. And the debt is going up a trillion dollars every hundred days. To me, this is clearly why Trump is on the warpath. I agree. Because he can’t get anywhere paying a trillion dollars of interest. That’s right. It’s more than we pay for defense. It’s a fifth. of every dollar that the federal government takes in in taxes.
SPEAKER 13 :
Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
It’s interest.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. Real quick, before I let you go, which I love the conversation, by the way. You’re welcome back anytime. I’ve enjoyed this. What are your thoughts on the whole tariff end of things? I’ve talked since the beginning and knew what Trump was planning to do. Part of the supply chain issues, by the way, had to do with the fact that we get way too much from other countries. And in a lot of cases, some of that stuff could be made right here. At home, I think that’s one thing that Trump’s trying to do. I realize that doesn’t happen overnight, but I also realize that tariffs aren’t as bad as what even the Fed and a lot of others out there, including some folks on the right, would say. At the end of the day, it’s proven that I and what we’ve talked about here on this program from day one, we’ve turned out to be right because there’s been little to no effect from them.
SPEAKER 16 :
Yes, clearly that’s the data that’s coming in. I do support tariffs. I don’t like the shotgun blast approach that he’s done at the very beginning. And the worldwide fear that he set off at the beginning of his tariff quest, I think was unnecessary. And it hurt the U.S. economy and the U.S. stock market terribly. And it took a while to recover. It took about six months to recover. And while I agree with the concept and the policy… I think we needed to do a little more surgical approach to it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I can’t argue that. But one side of me says, on the same token, it’s something about that shock factor that got a lot of these countries to do some things that they may not have done otherwise. So, again, I’ll give him some grace. I’m not in that position, fortunately, or maybe unfortunately. I don’t know which, Mitch.
SPEAKER 12 :
I think unfortunately. Yeah.
SPEAKER 13 :
Unfortunately, but at the end of the day, what they all predicted would happen with tariffs, I will say, and you know this because you just said it a moment ago, the data has shown that they weren’t correct. Those that are on his side, he’s been very accurate in what he’s talked about. And part of that, Mitch, as you know, is because there was a lot of profit. From the manufacturing side, I always use the tennis shoe as a great example because it’s one of the biggest things we import, and it’s got a lot of profit in it. And I’ve even listened to some of the execs that have talked about that end of things. The reality is they’ve absorbed a lot of that cost on the export and even the import side, meaning the cost of a tennis shoe hasn’t gone up much at all. Right.
SPEAKER 16 :
Right. That’s really interesting, isn’t it?
SPEAKER 13 :
It really is. It just shows you how much profit there is on the cost. And the other thing, too, that people forget about tariffs is a tennis shoe coming out of the factory, coming into the U.S. is probably $10, even though that shoe sells for $120. The actual import cost is only about $10. So even if you double that, it’s $20. It still isn’t a lot of money at the end of the day, Mitch. That’s amazing. It really is. Hey, how do folks get the book, Mitch? I should ask you that before I let you go.
SPEAKER 16 :
Oh, thanks a lot. It’s called Badass Solutions, with or without a hyphen, Badass Solutions. Easiest is Amazon. You can get it anywhere books are sold. And I have a website called bad-ass-solutions.com.
SPEAKER 13 :
Mitch, it’s Mitch Francis again, founder, I should say, of Francis Development Incorporated. Mitch, you’re welcome anytime. I appreciate it. It’s been a great conversation.
SPEAKER 16 :
I’ve enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER 13 :
You’re very welcome. Have a great rest of your day. And again, Mitch Francis, F-R-A-N-C-I-S. Coming up next, Veteran Windows and Doors. Speaking of costs and how all that works, Veteran Windows and Doors cuts out the middleman, therefore saving you money when it comes to Windows and Doors. Talk to Dave today. Just go to klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 15 :
putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. That was a good conversation, by the way, that we just had with Mitch. I enjoyed that greatly. Okay. Along those lines, this is something that I will do my best to explain because it’s not being very well received on Wall Street, which, by the way, anytime you read a headline that says Wall Street doesn’t like such and such, honestly, who cares? I’m sorry. Some of those guys, like I just was talking to Mitch a moment ago, they’ve never written a paycheck either. They’re clueless as to how some of this stuff also works. So there is a program. That’s very popular with the tech world called H-1B. It’s a visa program. And that’s for high tech workers. And up until now, you know, companies could apply. They’d bring people in. And I’ve known certain individuals where a immigrant, a, you know, worker, visa worker, has come in and supplanted that person in their job. In fact, it happens quite a bit. You’ve even heard stories, most of you have, where that particular person that lost their job even trained the person from overseas how to do their job. And it happens. And what Trump is wanting to do, the current administration, is they want to implement a rule that requires a $100,000 fee for that type of a visa. And I think where he’s going with this, this is I have not interviewed Donald Trump to know this for sure. But I’m guessing what he’s trying to do is level the playing field for workers that we have here that are currently doing that job is what a lot of companies will do. And by the way, these companies will have this excuse of, well, there’s not enough of those workers here, so we have to import them in. No, that’s not really the case, by the way. I’ll just tell you straight up. There are some really smart people overseas that do come into this country and work very well, but by and large, that’s not the reason they bring them in. It’s dollars and cents. They can bring that same worker in where they might be paying an engineer or a programmer or somebody here. Let’s just use a round number of $100,000. Maybe that’s the salary they’re paying somebody, most likely higher than that. But we’ll use $100,000 as a nice round number. They can bring somebody in from overseas for half that. And I’m not exaggerating. At least two-thirds of that. And save a gob of money. And keep in mind, if it’s not a seasoned programmer, they probably don’t even have the same benefit package they’re offering that new worker coming in from overseas that they had to offer their last worker that was here. Vacation pay, sick pay, all of the different things that go into that. They can do it for a lot less money. And I’m not exaggerating. They can most likely cut that payroll back by at least 30 to 40 percent, if not 50 percent. So when you hear any of these people on Wall Street and so on talk about how this is going to have ill effect, well, in some cases it will raise prices at those particular organizations. It most likely will, yes. But it also keeps a job here in America versus having somebody import it in. And I need to speak about this because this is another misconception that a lot of folks have, especially on Wall Street. Which, by the way, all they typically look at is what stock prices are going to do with any given company, what are the earnings reports, and so on. They don’t look at the overall picture. In the case of immigrants that come to work in America, especially when they’re on a visa program, this is not the case for all, but it is the case for a lot. that money doesn’t stay here. What I mean by that is that immigrant worker, whether it’s on the H-1B program or the H-2B program, H-2B is for agriculture and all of that, by and large, a good percentage of that money goes back to their home countries. In fact, The way I can prove that is I had this in my notes several weeks ago and just never got around to talking about it, and that was that the Trump administration, again, they want to start taxing those transfers, that money that’s going back to other countries. And I haven’t kept up on that story. I apologize. We’ve had so much other stuff going on. As you all know, in the last couple of weeks, I haven’t kept up on that to see exactly where that policy is at. But the Trump administration wanted to start taxing those dollars that were going back to other countries. Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, I can get on the list. Even overseas to Europe and India and places like that. Partially because I think what Trump’s trying to do is either A, tax it and keep some of that money still here, or encourage them to not send that money back. But in a lot of cases, the breadwinner of the family will leave, come here legally or illegally, And it happens both ways, by the way, both sides of the aisle. They’ll come here, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this. I’ve known some of these individuals, and I’ve had these conversations with folks that have immigrated here, so I can say this firsthand. They’ll send half of their paycheck back. Half. So if they make $100, $50 is going back home. And that’s literally what those families will then rely on to live. That’s how the system works. Some of you are probably listening to me right now, have no idea this has been happening, but this is exactly how it works. A large portion of our outside workers that come to America on both visa programs will come here and at least half of their paycheck exits the U.S., meaning it doesn’t get spent here, meaning it’s not helping our economy at all. Because typically when you have a company and you hire workers, those workers run around town, they spend money, they buy houses, they do all sorts of things with it. You know, they buy food, groceries and entertainment and, and, and cars and the like. It’s how the economy works. There’s a multiplier for that worker making X amount of money and then spending it around town because then those merchants get to spend their money around town and it snowballs. You know, it multiplies. Until you take half of that money out of the equation and send it back to a foreign country where they then have those dollars to use in their economy. So the whining out of the proposed taxing of these wire transfers through Western Union mainly, the whining was from the other countries. Because they realize that if this money somehow gets diminished and we don’t have the same amount coming back in, we need the U.S. and the money that’s being sent here. Otherwise, our economy collapses. Going back to what Andy and I talk about every single Tuesday, and we mention this with almost every single economist that comes on, including Jordan Goodman, we are the biggest guys on the block. I’m just proving it. Our money goes everywhere. We literally, as a country, support multitudes of other countries through various things, the buying of their goods, the export of the money to them, like I just said, the defense of other countries, and, and, and, I can go down the list. It’s because of us that some of these countries survive at all. Something, by the way, the folks on the left have never figured out. Actually, I do think they do understand. They just don’t care. As I continue to say, the left really doesn’t care about people. They pretend to, but they really don’t. They’re a bunch of hypocrites because they really don’t care. But going back to this whole H-1B program and the fact that Donald Trump wants to tax, essentially, charge a fee, 100 grand, for that type of visa, that’s going to level the playing field. If this gets enacted and this goes the direction that he wants it to, this is going to level the playing field for current workers in the United States. By the way, here’s the facts on how many H-1B recipients there are through 2025, June 30th of 2025. Amazon has 10,044. Tata Consulting Services, by the way, or Tata, I should say, Consulting Services, that’s an Indian company. Tata Motors and so on. He’s a billionaire. He’s a billionaire. I think he passed away here recently, but the company continues on. They have 5,505. Microsoft has 5,189. Meta, that’s, of course, Facebook and Instagram and so on. They have 5,123. Apple has 4,202. Google has 4,181. Cognizant Technology Services, they have 2,493. JPMorgan Chase has 2,440. Walmart has 2,390. Deloitte, I don’t know what they do. They have 2,353. So what Trump wants to do is level the playing field because for every one of those jobs, there’s an American worker that doesn’t have one or had to go somewhere else and take a pay cut or do whatever the case may be because a foreign worker replaced them at a significantly less cost. So as you guys all know, I’m all for a free market and letting companies do what they need to do. And yes, those charges get passed on to customers. I just had that conversation a moment ago with our last guest. But I’m also for keeping the playing field level, and Trump is trying to do that because it hasn’t been level. Again, these companies will take advantage of the foreign workers and let their U.S. worker go because they can cut that payroll in half. And I’ll tell you right now, I can’t blame them if that’s the system and they’re just working inside the system. I’m not mad at them for doing that. That’s a system that’s there. And we’ve allowed that. We shouldn’t have. We should have been doing what Trump wants to do from day one and never allowed that to happen in the first place. If we had, it would be a different playing field today. It’d be way different. So, again, when you see headlines that talk about this, and the headline reads, this is coming out of MarketWatch.com, no company is safe. Trump’s H-1B shocker hits tech giants that work with him. And I’ve read several articles to where Wall Street is reeling because they’re not happy with this. They don’t like this because it’s going to change things with, again, profits and earnings and so on when it comes to some of these companies. Here’s what I do know. They’ll figure it out. They always do. Right now, they’re on Easy Street. They can go hire an Indian-born worker, for example, that’s got some technology skills, that has learned things that, by the way, might have even been educated here in the U.S. with your tax dollars when it’s all said and done. They can now come back, apply for a visa, usually get it, work here, and they take away somebody else’s job in the process. And I’m not exaggerating in any way. I’m saying I’ve met these people in this field, and I can tell you this happens. Some of you listening know exactly what I’m talking about. So, again, at the end of the day, is this something I support? Yeah. And I’m not normally somebody that supports taxing things, quote unquote. It’s essentially what Trump is doing here. But Trump’s doing this to level the playing field, much like he’s done with tariffs, by the way. All right, we’ve got to do a quick break here. I’ll come right back. Golden Eagle Financial is up next. And you notice there’s no Richard today. Richard’s on vacation, so normally we talk about sports and technology and different things along those lines. He is not here today. He’s on vacation. He’ll be back with us again next week. So if some of you are wondering what’s going on there, that’s why. But Golden Eagle Financial, when it comes to financial things, getting to retirement, staying to retirement, having a plan to get to retirement and all of that, make sure that you’re handled with Golden Eagle Financial. Call Al today, 303-744-1128.
SPEAKER 06 :
I’ll see you next time. creating a plan that incorporates more than just investment accounts. Because a successful retirement takes more than just money. Takes specialized strategies from someone who knows what tools are available and how to prepare you for each stage of life. That’s why so many of our listeners trust Al Smith of Golden Eagle Financial to tailor a plan that keeps their specific future in view. So get started on your financial success with Golden Eagle Financial today by sending Al a message on klzradio.com slash money. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor. BCM and Golden Eagle Financial Limited are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM, but are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.
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SPEAKER 04 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Normally, this time of the week, again, I have my son with me, and we do a car review on a weekly basis. And since he’s not here, I have one that I will do. In fact, this is a review that I’ve been wanting to do here for a few weeks. And I had a chance to hop on this car about a month ago, right before I went on vacation. And, of course, everything happening since vacation, I didn’t get a chance to get to this as quickly as I would have liked to. And several of you have asked me specifically about this car. And it is the new Kia K4. That’s the name of the car, K4. And there’s several different models in the lineup. The car that we drove was pretty well equipped and came in retail price of just under $28,000. So right at that number. That’s the GT line turbo, by the way. So they’ve got a GT line turbo, a GT line, an EX, an LX, or sorry, an LXS, and an LX. The LX starting at $21,990. Now, I drove the one with the turbo engine, and I will say that for our elevation, which we always lose some power at our elevation, it worked well. Now, is this a car that’s going to set land speed records? No, it is not. You’re not buying a high-horsepower car. You’re buying a four-door sedan at a nice entry-level price that in some cases is less money than a used car. So keep that in mind. You can buy this car brand new for less money than a used car would cost and getting the full warranty. And by the way, very nice car. I will say this. When I got in this car, and I’m not exaggerating, and I always ask my wife, okay, what do you think this car costs? We kind of play that game. I never look at the window sticker, the Monroney prior to me hopping in a car because I kind of like to play the game of what do you think this car costs. And I do the same thing because I don’t look because I kind of want to know based upon how well does it drive, how good does it look, what’s the fit and finish like, what’s the interior comfort like, and so on. How noisy is it, and so on. One thing I’m going to start doing, which I mentioned on Drive Radio on Saturday, is I’m going to start using a decibel meter on a lot of the cars I drive to tell you how quiet they are on the inside or not. That’s one of the things some of you have been asking for, so I will definitely do that. This is a car, by the way, that gets high 30s, almost 40 miles to the gallon as far as fuel economy goes. Very well equipped. I go back to what my wife and I both thought the price was, well over $30,000, by the way. We weren’t even close. I thought this car would come in the mid-30s, just the way it’s equipped. That’s how nice it’s set up interior-wise, agronomically, and so on. It’s an extremely nice car, especially when you look at the price. But when you get inside this car and climb in, you won’t think you’re driving a $25,000 car. It’s that well-equipped. And, folks, I’m not exaggerating when I say that. So for some of you that have been thinking about buying a nice, you know, four-door sedan, maybe you’ve got a teen driver coming along. Maybe you’re just looking to do something different for your daily driver, and you’re looking for something that’s more on the economical end of things. The Kia K4 fits that very, very well. It’s got a very nice dash layout, the way the screen comes across the entire—not the entire, but— two-thirds of the front of the car of the dash of the car very well laid out the buttons are easy to find which it does have some buttons which actually i really like so key if you’re listening i appreciate that but they’ve incorporated one big screen that handles all of your what you’re seeing to drive you know speedometer all of that plus all of your nav and if you want to run car play or whatever else you’re doing All that’s kind of off to the right. They’ve incorporated that into one big screen, done a very nice job. And again, inside comfort room or inside comfort quality, let me say it that way, is extremely high. I was very impressed with this car. You guys know me. I don’t get impressed with a lot of cars because I drive a lot of different cars throughout the years. But I will tell you, for the money. For the money, this is one of the toughest cars to beat because it’s got a nice roomy interior. The trunk is nice and sizable. Again, the engine, no, you’re not going to set any land speed records. But for daily driving, does it do everything you need to do? Absolutely, it does. I did not look to see what kind of offers there are on this car. I would go check this out at your local Kia dealer. And by the way, when you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush both from Drive Radio and Rush to Reason sent you. All right, wanted to get that car review out of the way. It’s one that I’ve been trying to get done here for quite some time, and several of you have asked about that car specifically. And, yeah, that’s a car, frankly, that’s a car that I would definitely own. Okay, really quick, back to our last topic that I was talking about. Charlie said something in my ear, and when he used to ride public transportation, he would hear a lot of the conversations that I’m talking about in regards to money being sent home. OK, so verifying what I said, by the way, I mean, I knew that existed. I’ve read I’ve read about how it exists. I’ve known people that do these things. I’ve talked to people that have immigrated here. So I know everything I just said was very true. But during the break, Charlie validated it because he’s heard those conversations for himself as to how much money gets sent home. Now, one thing Charlie mentioned as well, which is one of the reasons why I think we should do some taxing. I don’t know how much, but I’m not for new taxes. But in this case, I am for these taxes because currently I don’t think any of that’s tracked. There is a lot of cash, for example, that is made here in America under the table. And yet a good portion of that is sent back to other countries. And frankly, for the most part, untraceable. I mean, I guess if the IRS or somebody wanted to go and audit Western Union’s books, they could figure out what some of this actually is. But I guarantee you they are not looking on an individual basis to determine who is doing what. Yet I have to. I have to report my earnings. Charlie, he has to report his earnings. All of you, you have to report your earnings. So how is it fair for folks to come here illegally, work under the table, get cash, ship half of that back home and never get taxed on it? To me, that’s not fair. So I think what Donald Trump is looking at is, okay, how do we level the playing field and how do we make this fair for hardworking Americans that actually are here, that are paying their taxes, that are working hard, that are doing the things to add back to our economy? Every one of their dollars stays here. How do we level that playing field? That’s what he’s doing with the H-1B program, and it’s what he’s trying to also do by implementing some sort of a tax on basically money orders that go out of country. Western Union, by the way, is the majority of that. I don’t think there’s too many others that do that. Don’t quote me because I don’t live in that world. But I think the majority of those are Western Union that go all around the world. And again, a good portion of what’s made here in America by illegals that come here and even H-1B workers, legal green card, we call them, green card workers, even they will send a lot of money back home. That money doesn’t stay here. So, Trump’s idea of taxing not only the $100,000 when it comes to the H-1B program, but then on top of that, taxing the transfers that actually go out of country. Yeah, I’m all for it. As you guys all know, I’m not a new tax guy. I don’t like taxes, typically. But in this case, when there’s likely very little or no being paid, yeah. I’m tired of me paying everything. I guess I’m trying to say it that way. Those of us, you know, me, Charlie, a lot of you listening, we pay our fair share. We are net taxpayers. We pay as we go. And yet there’s a lot of folks out there that don’t. And I’ll be quite honest with you. I’m tired of that. Just like a lot of people, I’ve heard from a lot of people here in the last week about how you’re going to get a lot more bold about talking about things that Charlie Kirk talked about and how you’re tired of everybody else sort of ruling the roost and the left having its way and us never saying anything and we just sort of sit idly by. A lot of people are starting to stand up and speak for what they believe in. You know what? When it comes to these things, I’m the same way. This is on the financial side, though. I’m tired of being the net taxpayer all the time, especially for those that aren’t. I’m tired of it, and I’m sure some of you are exactly the same way. I’m tired of paying more than my fair share while others pay none. It’s not fair. And a lot of you, I’m sure, I can’t see you because I can’t see your faces, but I’m sure there’s a lot of you that are listening to the radio right now, shaking your head or nodding your head in agreement with me, Or you might be shaking your head in disgust because you’re having to do what I’m doing, but you’re nodding your head in agreement because you know exactly what I’m talking about. We are the ones that prop everything up while others don’t have to do anything. And frankly, the system isn’t fair in that way. Donald Trump, and I believe he does this not because of him, but because of love for country. And I know there’s a lot of folks on the left that would disagree with me. They call him a tyrant and he’s tyrannical and he’s a total fascist and this, that, and the other. I mean, that’s all they claim. And by the way, that’s why you have some of the things that happened with Charlie Kirk and others. You have some of those types of events happen is because of that rhetoric because that’s what they say. Quite frankly, it’s the opposite. He loves this country more than the people that call him a fascist do. And he proves it with some of the things I’ve even mentioned today. Trying to level the playing field for American workers, whether it be through the H-1B program, H-2B program, taxing those transfers that are going out of country, tariffs. Folks, I can go down the list. And yet all of those things I just mentioned, there’s those on the left that talk about how he doesn’t love America. And he’s just a fascist. And on and on we go. Well, how can all of that be? when he’s doing the things that I’m mentioning, that level the playing field for American workers. The energy side of things and not buying into wind and solar and all the nonsense there, which the majority of that comes from overseas, and getting back to us creating more of our own jobs and oil and our own energy and so on. How is all of that wrong? Dave, you’re next.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, you know, John, it’s not necessarily that this is a new tax. It’s something that should have been taxed all along.
SPEAKER 13 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 10 :
So, and the thing is, to make it fair, and this is what gets me is where the left doesn’t, they’re always talking about equity, but yet when, it’s never about fairness. What is fair to the American worker? What is fair to the blue-collar worker? Those people that the Democratic Party has abandoned for criminals and illegal aliens.
SPEAKER 13 :
Good point.
SPEAKER 10 :
You know, that’s not fair in and of itself. And, you know… A 2%, 3%, 4% tax on all that money that’s going out of the country that’s not being taxed or tracked at all? Who knows what the source of it is? Correct?
SPEAKER 13 :
Correct. You’re right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Correct. Also, the thing with that also is, here I just read this morning that President Trump is revisiting or having HHS revisit the rules for who gets food assistance, WIC, SSI, whatever. And originally, and this is what’s so funny, is that that law was last amended under the 96th Immigration Reform Act, who was signed into law by Bill Clinton, the Democrat. He signed that into law that specifically laid out that illegal aliens cannot access any kind of public services, even if they qualify for a green card, even if you come over as the spouse. of an American citizen. You cannot qualify for any kind of government assistance for five years. You’ve got to be able to demonstrate that you’re going to be independent and able to sustain yourself for those five years. If something happens after that, okay, then the government will step in and assist you. Well, Bill Clinton was concerned because a bunch of left groups came at him, immigrant rights groups came at him, and specifically the National Organization of Women came at him and said, this is unfair, we don’t like it, and we want you to amend it. So they found a little loophole to where they didn’t have to enforce it, which is what they did with a lot of the 96th Immigration Reform Act. The Democrats, not just Bill Clinton, but to include George Bush, they just chose not to enforce the law, just like Joe Biden did under his administration. They just chose not to enforce it. And so now the president is just coming back now saying, no, we’re going to start enforcing this law. They found it on the books. This is why IRS was fighting it. This is why HHS was fighting it, because they’re saying there are illegal aliens on the books collecting a benefit that they are not entitled to by law. That was signed into law by the Democrat Bill Clinton.
SPEAKER 13 :
Great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
The president’s just trying to make things correct. That’s right. He’s trying to make it fair, and I’ve got no problem with it. No one else within listening distance of your station should have a problem with it, because if you’re a true American who’s been paying his taxes, his or her taxes, for how many years since you started working as a teenager or whenever?
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
None of us likes paying our taxes, but hey, if I’ve got to pay my taxes, then everyone should have to pay their taxes.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. Agree.
SPEAKER 10 :
And this is the thing that the Democrats keep hammering on. Oh… You know, the rich, the rich need to pay their fair share. Well, that’s fine, but I think everybody needs to pay their fair share.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, great point, great point.
SPEAKER 10 :
Nobody should be getting the head over on anybody.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
And if you’re not paying any kind of tax on anything, there’s no way.
SPEAKER 12 :
That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
The next thing that should be looked at is tax returns, because some of those illegal aliens do get an individual tax number, an ITM, which allows them to pretend… that they’re actually doing the right thing by paying their taxes. That’s right. But then what do they turn around and do is they turn around and claim 10, 15, 20 dependents, and now they’re getting all that money back plus more, and they’re getting child tax credits. That’s right.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s exactly right. Dave, I’ve got to run.
SPEAKER 10 :
That’s it. No, great comments.
SPEAKER 13 :
No, I appreciate that. We’re up against a break, but you’re right. You’re spot on. I appreciate that, as always. Great comments. Ridgeland Auto Brokers coming up next, looking for a new used car. They’ve got you covered, by the way. Give them a call today at RidgelandAutoBrokers.com.
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SPEAKER 04 :
We don’t yell at you, we inform you. Now, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 13 :
All right, when we come back, Donald Wilkie’s going to join us, author of Freedom Revealed, A Simple, Elegant System. And back to Dave’s comments a moment ago, our caller. Yep, I agree, Dave. I think what Donald Trump is trying to do, as I said through that last whole segment, is really level the playing field when it comes to American workers, which, as Dave said, there shouldn’t be a single person inside of our listening audience that should disagree with that approach. I don’t. I want the playing field leveled for American workers and for all of us that pay taxes as well. We’ll be back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy.
