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In this episode of Rush to Reason, host John Rush dives into a highly debated topic: gun suppressors. Joined by Owen Miller, Vice President of the American Suppressor Association, they dissect the myths perpetuated by Hollywood and explain the real function and regulation of suppressors in the US. Learn about the historical context and current legislative landscape surrounding these often misunderstood devices. Listeners will gain insights into why suppressors are treated differently in the US compared to other countries, and the challenges faced in attempting to regulate or deregulate them. Whether you’re a firearm enthusiast or simply curious about
SPEAKER 04 :
This is Rush to Reason. 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.
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Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind? It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by High Five Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, welcome back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all listening today, by the way. And we’ve got a lot more to cover here during this hour. Don’t forget, 5 o’clock, we will have Kurt Rogers joining us. And we missed Kurt last month because of Thanksgiving, but we’ll have him again tonight here at 5 o’clock. And anxious to talk to Kurt and talk about just everything that happened yesterday with the Fed, how that relates to the mortgage world, what we’re going to see potentially next year when it comes to the housing market. and so on. So don’t forget, Kurt will be with us at 5 o’clock today. In the meantime, we’ve got a special guest joining us now, Owen Miller. Owen, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 17 :
I’m great. How are you guys?
SPEAKER 14 :
I’m doing very well. You are vice president of the American Suppressor Association. And there is a lot of conversation here of late because of the, you know, shooting with the UnitedHealthcare CEO in regards to suppressors. And part of why I want to have you on is, number one, there’s always confusion around these, what they are, what they do, how they’re regulated and so on. So I thought I’d have you on and we can go through some of this.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, absolutely. Glad to help.
SPEAKER 14 :
I appreciate it very much. And again, I know quite a bit about these. I’m a gun nut myself. And on the same token, I want to make sure we put out the right information. But first thing I want to ask is, given that a lot of other countries require suppressors, why in this country is it such a big deal to own one?
SPEAKER 17 :
Well, I think it goes back to just Hollywood mystique surrounding suppressors. Very few people, even within the gun community, have actual exposure to using a suppressor and understanding what they do and what they don’t do. As their popularity has grown in the last few years, there’s more people that have been exposed to them, but there’s still a lot of people out there that Their only experience with a suppressor is what they’ve seen in the movies, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, thank you. I was going to add that. And, yeah, what you see on television, like a lot of other things, Owen, as we know, it’s not what really happens in real life, and it’s not really how – they even function, sound, or anything. And I guess that was also where I wanted to have you on and really set the record straight for a lot of folks that maybe have never been around one. They might have even been around a lot of guns and have shot a lot and so on, but maybe have never been around weapons that have suppressors on them. Decibel-wise, when you shoot with a suppressor, and I realize it can change from suppressor to suppressor and, of course, caliber to caliber, but in general, what happens when you have a suppressor?
SPEAKER 17 :
Sure. So in the most basic terms, a suppressor works exactly like the muffler on your car. In fact, they were invented by the same person back at the turn of the 1900s. And he invented both devices to help reduce noise. And that’s exactly what they do. They reduce noise. They don’t eliminate it. So a suppressor is going to reduce the report of a firearm by about 30 decibels. But we’re talking about a noise that’s already very loud to begin with, and it’s reducing it down to a level that is safer, but certainly not without risk. Even the quietest suppressor on the smallest of calibers is going to come in around 120 decibels, which, for perspective, is about as loud as a siren on an ambulance or a police car.
SPEAKER 14 :
And part of that, Owen, correct me if I’m wrong, but part of that noise, which, again, most folks don’t realize and it’s not… It’s not this way with Hollywood movies, of course. You’re breaking the sound barrier in most cases. In fact, some pellet guns can even do that and be extremely loud. Not as loud as what a regular firearm would be, but it’s that breaking of the sound barrier where part of the noise is, right?
SPEAKER 17 :
Right, exactly. The bullet traveling through the air creates a sonic boom, almost like a fighter jet breaking the sound barrier. And the suppressor does nothing to control that noise. And that noise is almost as loud as the unsuppressed report of the firearm. So without slowing the bullet down and making it less effective, there is still that noise that the bullet creates and the suppressor does nothing for that.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I think the misconception is for a lot of folks is they think it’s just this small, you know, thud. You know, I want to make the sound on the radio, but you know what I mean? You see the movies and so on, and, you know, we think it’s just this small little thud. But once again, nothing could be farther from the truth. But that’s in the mind of most people.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right, right. And if we look at what happened in Manhattan, the perception that a criminal will go undetected by using a suppressor, it’s pure Hollywood fantasy. The reality is that the assailant in Manhattan was both heard and seen by eyewitnesses, but they reported hearing the gunshots. Even an eyewitness that was inside of a vehicle reported hearing the gunshots. And his crime was captured on video. He was seen before, during, and after on cameras throughout New York. So the suppressor really did nothing to conceal his actions, but it actually, in this case, it caused his gun to malfunction. Right.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, and we’ll get into that here in a little bit as well, because I want to get into why that is. I mean, for a lot of people, they may know. For some, they may not. I want to talk mainly about just in the United States of America, the amount of hoops that it takes and the things you have to jump through to even own one. And I guess, and I know you probably don’t have the exact answer, but Why? I mean, given all of what you just said, given the fact that they don’t deaden it completely, given the fact that they do, in fact, help with your hearing and potential hearing loss when you’re shooting, especially for folks that shoot a ton, the reality is there’s a ton of benefits, and yet we regulate these things like there’s no tomorrow.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right. Yeah. And the why is actually really kind of unclear. If you look back at the historical record of Congress in the 1930s, 1934, when they first regulated suppressors, there was no recorded discussion of including suppressors in the legislation. It’s unclear why they were included. There’s kind of some anecdotal evidence or some historians that have kind of surmised why that might be, but there’s nothing in the official record. But it’s been the law of the land since 1934 that to obtain a suppressor, the buyer must pass a background check and register the suppressor with the ATF. And there’s over 4 million of them now in the registry. A lot of that growth has been in the past decade. But every single suppressor that is lawfully owned in this country, the buyer must pass a background check and it must be registered with the ATF.
SPEAKER 14 :
You said there’s how many, 4 million? Yeah, about 4 million. Okay, so 4 million, but for all of you listening, to put that in comparison to the amount of firearms in the United States of America, which, by the way, isn’t even an exact number. It’s a guesstimate at best. We have well over 300 million firearms in the country, right, Owen?
SPEAKER 17 :
Right, yeah. Some estimates I’ve seen are north of 400 million now. So there’s less than 1% of those have a suppressor with them.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I wanted to put that in comparison because even though 4 million sounds like a lot, and by the way, it is, but it still doesn’t compare to how many actual guns are out there. Right, right. Okay, so have there ever been, and this is something I don’t know, so I’m asking you this because I don’t know the answer. Have we ever attempted to deregulate these to where they’re easier to obtain?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yes, our association has proposed a bill in Congress that would reduce the burden on obtaining suppressors, but they would still be treated as a firearm. They would still require a background check. There is also a punitive tax on purchasing suppressors that is $200 for every suppressor purchased. And so it would eliminate that tax, but it would still require purchasers to purchase them through a licensed dealer and go through a background check to obtain them.
SPEAKER 14 :
Devil’s advocate, why can’t they just be a piece of hardware like a set of sights?
SPEAKER 17 :
There have been bills to treat them that way. I don’t know where they’re at kind of in Congress at this point, but I think the appetite for that kind of legislation just isn’t there.
SPEAKER 14 :
And by the way, I would agree. I mean, for me, though, it’s a tool. It’s a piece of hardware. It does nothing. It has to be attached to something to actually make something happen. You’re still going to, at the end of the day, hear that gun fire, as we’ve just mentioned. I mean, at the end of the day, I look at it strictly as a piece of hardware.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right, and our legislation that we’ve proposed in the past would still keep some of those guardrails in place in terms of background checks for for the suppressors while reducing the burden on obtaining them for the average user.
SPEAKER 14 :
Which, by the way, Owen, I think that’s a good first step. I mean, if we want to get to the point where you can literally buy one at any time you buy another gun if you’d like, to us to get to even that point, you’ve got to do a step at a time. And I agree with you. There’s not an appetite right now with most politicians, because I’m not trying to beat up politicians, but Most of them are pretty ignorant, especially when it comes to guns and what they do and so on, and we see that on an ongoing basis. Most of them don’t know a magazine from a clip, from a bullet to the case. I can go down the list, Owen. They just don’t know.
SPEAKER 17 :
Right. We’ve got a huge education gap out there in terms of these kinds of devices, and that’s something our organization is working to close that gap and educate people about the realities of what these devices are. And that’s exactly what they are, is just a safety device to protect the hearing of hunters and sportsmen and lawful gun owners.
SPEAKER 14 :
And you said something earlier that I wanted to mention as well because, again, misconception. The reason why in some cases folks don’t use a suppressor, it goes through all of the hoops and so on, is there is a negative side to them in the fact that they will affect – The way the make sure I’m using the proper language here, but they can affect the performance of the gun they go on. And so that’s why some folks aren’t really big fans of them, because depending upon what you’re doing, it may not be in your best interest to use one. Am I am I saying that all correctly?
SPEAKER 17 :
Right. Absolutely. Yeah. In the case of handguns, there are certain modifications that need to be made to the suppressor itself. And, of course, a changing of the barrel to have a threaded barrel so that you can utilize a suppressor and not cause malfunctions on the gun. In the case of rifles, certain suppressors can increase back pressure. They can, you know, induce other malfunctions in the firearm if it’s not properly tuned and set up for the suppressor.
SPEAKER 14 :
Got it. And to your point, they can affect performance of the gun, which, by the way, I think we saw in this particular case, which, again, I’m a little bit baffled at. It’s like, you know. You probably should have practiced and or known some of that on the front side, but maybe because of TV, you know, he didn’t. I don’t know, Owen.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, and I’m certainly not an advocate for teaching criminals how to be better at their job. But, yeah, as we see in this case in Manhattan, again, the use of a suppressor really didn’t provide any benefit or advantage to him. It did cause the malfunction, and it didn’t conceal his crime.
SPEAKER 14 :
Somebody texted me a moment ago, too, and asked that there’s some out there stating that the shooter also used some sort of a slide lock for additional suppression. That I’ve not read anything on, Owen. I can’t speak to that. Do you know anything about that?
SPEAKER 17 :
I certainly can’t speak to it. I’m familiar with those kinds of devices. They’re very rare. They’re rarely used. They’re a specialized type of firearm. From everything that I’ve seen of images of the 3D printed gun that he allegedly used, I don’t see any evidence of that kind of a device being employed.
SPEAKER 14 :
I appreciate that. Thank you, by the way, for the text message. I appreciate that as well. All right. Talk to us about your association, how folks can get involved if they want to.
SPEAKER 17 :
Absolutely, yeah. So the American Suppressor Association, we are the representative body for people that are interested in suppressors, both in the industry, manufacturers, distributors, dealers, as well as individual consumers that are interested in learning more about using suppressors safely. for hunting and other lawful purposes. And you can find out more information about suppressors and about our association at americansuppressorassociation.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
Awesome. Owen, you’ve been great. You’ve informed a lot of us on this whole topic, which, again, there’s so much misinformation. I’m glad you were here. We can set the record straight, and I appreciate it greatly. Absolutely. Thanks so much. Thanks, Owen. Appreciate it very much. And for you guys listening, I hope some of that was helpful. And some really know a lot about suppressors and a lot of folks don’t. I mean, I’m even talking gun enthusiasts a lot don’t know fully what suppressors. They do. In fact, my comment a moment ago about the noise that’s still going to be there no matter what because of the sound barrier factor, the breaking of the sound barrier factor. A lot of folks don’t know that. And I’ll tell you right now, most people in news media have no idea what I just said and have no comprehension. High-five plumbing is next, folks. Don’t forget they do electrical work now as well. And as we head down this stretch into Christmas, make sure that you’ve got everything in your home dialed in for all of the guests and relatives and folks that will be coming over. 877-WE-HIGH-5.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive, this is John Rush.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, we are back, and again, I want to thank Owen for coming on. I have several text messages from several of you saying how informative that was, and you learned some things that you didn’t know prior, and I appreciate that. I do my very best to try to bring people on that I think will do some educational things at the same time, because as we’ve all come to know, you’re not going to learn any of that from the mainstream media. They are not going to tell you some of those things. In fact… I will go as far as to say that even some of what I consider to be pretty good news sources, folks that even we follow, may not have people even on staff that understand some of the things that we just went through because it’s not something that is super well-known. And you really have to be around some of those individuals that can inform you of that, which I’ve been lucky enough to be around. But not everybody gets that opportunity. So thank you, by the way, for those text messages. I do appreciate that. All right. We talked yesterday, even I think some Tuesday, Andy and I, and then I followed it up a little bit yesterday as well. This whole fact, because it is, that the Democrat Party has really found itself disconnected from not just the ordinary man and woman, but in a lot of ways, multitudes, society even. Yeah, they’ve got their hardcore following and they always will have. But outside of that, they’re really losing, quote unquote, the culture. There was a piece written by none other than Rahm Emanuel, which some of you might know that name. He was the former Chicago mayor. And when he was, I talked about him a lot because he’s a hardcore Democrat. Would you not agree with that, Charlie? I mean, probably about as hardcore as it gets. Rahm is one of those guys. and been in the party, I mean, hardcore in the party for a very long time. Well, he has come out with an op-ed saying that the Democrat Party has become distant and detached, adopting an aloof, elite image. We heard Van Jones on CNN say this just the other night. I think you said, Charlie, it was Monday night, I think, that Van Jones said basically similar things. Emanuel goes on to say the road back to power for the Democrats… He explained the party was blind to the rising idea or sorry, the rising area of delusionment in favor of Kamala Harris campaign of joy, ignoring growing distrust of the establishment. He goes on to say the bonds of trust between the establishment and the public have been severed and too many in our party failed to appreciate it. In fact, during the pandemic, Democrats abandoned the anti-establishment credentials and enthusiastically morphed into the establishment. And following the science, we shuttered schools and the economy. He then went on to attack Democrats for adapting an out-of-touch mindset focused on woke issues. I will be the first to tell you what I have ever predicted somebody like Rahm Emanuel saying these things. I think, Charlie, even you would agree, no, I would have never predicted Rahm Emanuel coming out and saying these things. He goes on and says, to win over voters, it was a hermetically sealed conversion or conversation with ourselves and appeared much as we sounded distant and detached. In other words, I’ll summarize it this way, and Andy and I have talked about this many a time, they’re out of touch. The Democrat Party, especially those hardcore Democrats that are right now running the party, they are completely out of touch with what’s going on. And it’s why they got hammered in this last election. Yes, I get it. Donald Trump was a great contender and a great answer. And I will also tell you, though, with as out of touch as the left is right now, any one of our candidates on our side would have won that election. And I mean that sincerely. Yes, Donald Trump did and will do a great job. I am confident of that. I’ve said that many, many times on the same token. the left has become so left and so woke and so out of touch that America finally said, we’re done. You guys have had your last chance, and we’re going to go a different direction because we don’t like this. In fact, what our side should be doing is paying attention to that. For example, even what’s going on on Capitol Hill right now. I don’t think… I shouldn’t say this. Let me rephrase that. I believe that the average American believes those guys on Capitol Hill don’t deserve any kind of a pay raise or deserve any of the earmarks that were in the original bill that are in the bill now that most likely will be passed. I think the average American says, wait a minute, you guys don’t know what a budget even is. You don’t know how to not spend money. Now, I understand there’ll be some out there that are rooting for their particular congressman to feed them something in their district out of this particular bill. But those are the exceptions. By and large, I think most Americans are. What are we spending money on again? I’ve played several different times now on this particular show and talked about it, the fact that there’s been all of this money spent towards broadband for rural areas, which we’ve got a lot of rural folks that are listening to us right now. There’s been billions of dollars spent for your areas, and yet we haven’t hooked up as of November. Not one’s been hooked up. Just 35, 40 days ago, not one has been hooked up, meaning I doubt seriously if by now any of them have been hooked up. Billions have been spent on that. And yet we’ve got individuals out there that are having a hard time putting gas in their car. They’re having a hard time at the grocery store. They’re struggling paycheck to paycheck, not enough paycheck to even make ends meet. Consumer debt is at an all-time high. And I firmly believe what the Fed did yesterday and their messaging that they put out and really affecting Wall Street, and we’re going to talk to Kurt Rogers here in about a half an hour as to how that affected mortgage rates as well. I will tell you right now that I believe, and I know everybody says that the Fed’s not political, but believe me, they are. Believe me, they are. They and others are doing everything they possibly can to trip up Donald Trump the minute he hits office. And the Fed contributed to that yesterday. And I believe that sincerely. The Fed yesterday, by the way, didn’t have to come out and talk about how many rate cuts they will or won’t have next year. And by the way, they don’t even know. They could have easily just said, you know, we’re going to go ahead and keep things on track. We’re going to watch and see how things go, especially through the first quarter. We’re going to let Donald Trump get into office and see exactly what happens economically speaking. But the reality is we really don’t know what’s going to happen in regards to some of the policies and things that might actually change. We’re going to go ahead and leave our forecast to the four cuts that we’ve talked about this last year. And as we get a little bit closer, we’ll know more. But right now, we’re going to just stay the course. That’s what they should have said, by the way. Because here’s the reality. That’s what’s going to happen anyways. These guys are completely not only out of touch, but they are all for sabotaging a Donald Trump presidency. Jerome Powell, yes. He is all for sabotaging a Donald Trump presidency. I don’t care what anybody says. And you guys all know my feelings about Jerome Powell. I don’t like the guy. I don’t like anybody that’s on the Fed board right now, period. None of them have ever worked a day in their life. I mean that sincerely. They’ve never had a real job, in my opinion. Yeah, they’ve been in finance. They’ve been a professor. They’ve done this. They’ve done that. None of them, none of them have worked as hard as any of you listening. None of them. And yet, Jerome Powell probably, by default, has more power than even Donald Trump. And I’m not exaggerating when I say that. He controls the purse strings. And what’s the old saying? He that controls the purse controls everything. That’s Jerome Powell. And if I were Donald Trump, and I know that there’s not much Donald Trump can do to make him exit, but I would do everything I possibly could to get rid of him. That would be me. You guys all know my feelings. I can’t stand the guy. He was late to the game in raising rates because he called inflation transitory. They were late to the game in lowering them because they thought inflation was still too high, even though it was high because of some of the things they were even doing. And still are, by the way. Because as I say many, many times to all the different financial experts that will come on, Jordan Goodman and so on, that the Fed in and of itself creates inflation through borrowing costs and so on. And the reality is these guys have no idea what goes on on Main Street. And I’ll stand by that. They don’t know. But yet they’ll run around all high and mighty and act like they do. And with just a simple sentence out of his mouth yesterday can change the entire trajectory of things for the common man. And he did. Jerome, I know you don’t listen to me, but I hope you’re proud of yourself. Again, he could have easily come out and said exactly what I said a few minutes ago. We’re going to watch how things go through 2025. We’re not sure yet. We’ve got a new president that’s going to take over on January 20th, and we’ll just watch how things go moving forward. But we’re planning to just stay the course right now. Unless something major happens, we’re going to stay the course. That’s all the Fed had to say yesterday. But Jerome can’t do that because he likes interfering in politics. Trust me. He likes interfering in politics despite what others may say. And I have this argument all the time with different individuals, and I’ll stand by my words because Jerome Powell has more to do with how things are run politically in this country than most people will give him credit for, even though he’s not supposed to be political. All right, let’s take a quick timeout. We’ll come back. Golden Eagle Financial is coming up next. Speaking of all of this, we have an expert that can help you with your portfolio. Talk to Al Smith today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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Now, back to Rush to Reason, presented by Hi-5 Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling, where every call ends with a high five.
SPEAKER 14 :
All right, somebody called, too, and asked if I would explain, you know, the Federal Reserve and what it is and that it is, in fact, not a government entity. And it is not. So thank you, by the way, for that. And when I say that they’re political, even though they’re not supposed to be, that’s what I mean. They are not, quote, unquote, a government entity. They’re the central bank. They were established in 1913, December 23rd, 1913, with the Federal Reserve Act, which a lot of us as conservatives wish would have never happened, but it did. It was established to help in these financial panic situations and help to diffuse those, I guess you could say, and I’m telling you that’s what it was designed for. I don’t believe they do a good job of that, but That’s a whole other conversation we could get some experts on and probably talk for hours on. Reality is, over time, their powers have been expanded over and over and over again, and they are not elected officials. So I know, and you’ll hear all sorts of financial experts, Jordan Goodman himself, talk about how the Fed is independent. They’re bipartisan. They’re not partisan at all. They’re not either Democrat or Republican, and they don’t play in that world and blah, blah, blah. And I think it’s all lip service, frankly, because they do. And they have been very well known in the past to work with certain presidents to in certain ways to either benefit said president or in some cases hurt that president. And you can go back through history and prove what I just said. So I am not a fan of the Fed at all. I am definitely not a fan of Jerome Powell. And I know a lot of people are, but I’m not. I think Jerome Powell’s a goof. I think he’s a, sorry, he’s a putz. I don’t know how else to say it. Guy has no idea what goes on in Main Street. He basically lives in an ivory tower and looks out at the markets in that way and surrounds himself with other individuals that do exactly the same thing. Like I said, go look up every single member of the Fed and tell me the real job they’ve had. Tell me any of them that have ever written a payroll check. Show me any of them that have ever run a cash register at a retail location. I can go down the list of things they’ve never done. These are folks that, for the most part, have worked their way through academia. They did really well at Princeton or Yale or Harvard or wherever. They come out with an economic degree. They go into the banking world. Maybe they become a banker or they go to Wall Street for a little while. And then somehow or some way, they work their way back into… this end of things, and I was going to say back into government, but I get it. It’s not necessarily government, but in my opinion, it is. Might as well be. And at the end of the day, they dictate to literally the entire world, because what we do in America with our monetary policy affects the entire world, has to do with the strength of our dollar and so on. So at the end of the day, yes, in fact, it does affect the entire world. It’s why I said a moment ago, Jerome Powell has, in a lot of ways, more power than the president does, the Fed chair does, because they control the purse strings. And when you control the purse strings, you control everything. And Jerome probably doesn’t look at it. Well, I don’t know. He might look at it that way. Some of these guys get super high and mighty, trust me. And have we had some good Fed chairs in the past? Good question. Personally, I don’t think so. Some would say we’ve had some good ones in the past, but I don’t know that I could agree with that. As you guys can all tell, I am not a fan of the Fed. I think they do way too many things to purposely change the trajectory of what you and I do on a daily basis. And I get it. That’s what they claim to be doing anyways, although I will say this as well. They don’t have as many tools in the toolbox as they once had. they can’t control as many things as they probably would like to. And I think they’re learning even the past couple of years that they don’t have the same effect even on the economy that they once did, which I believe, by the way, is a good thing. John, you’re next. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Hey, so going back to the first hour, Dr. Kelly was spot on when she was talking about these crazy people. Hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin is sold over the counter everywhere else in the world but here. Correct. Yeah. And in Africa, they use it like a once area.
SPEAKER 14 :
Right. Right. Yeah, they use it for malaria. And to your point, John, in other parts of the world, well, there’s other parts of the world, including just south of our border, where you can buy a lot of things over the counter, which, frankly, you should be able to do the same thing here.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, yeah, but then the big drug companies can’t get their cut.
SPEAKER 14 :
Big insurance, big pharma don’t get their cut. You’re right.
SPEAKER 06 :
Right. You can go and buy, you know, whatever, ivermectin over the counter and treat yourself with that and some cold medicine. Well, the doctors aren’t getting the vaccine.
SPEAKER 14 :
You can go south to Mexico and buy amoxicillin if you want to, John, penicillin, where if you know that you’re somebody that’s susceptible to a particular thing, sinus infections or whatever, and you know that a dose of that will help you get over it, and you don’t have to go to any kind of a doctor to get over it, and you do, well, yeah, big insurance doesn’t want that.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, big insurance, big pharma, and big medicine. They don’t want that. None of the three want it. No, because, you know, you go into the dock in the box, the nearest urgent care. Right. And you pay your $20 copay if you have like I have, you know, insurance through my employer. But when you look at the bill, when it comes in, even though it says this is not a bill explanation of benefits for them to see it for 20 minutes is $300. Right.
SPEAKER 14 :
I mean, if you don’t show up, you eliminate all that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well. There was a doctor here in Cheyenne when Obamacare came out. He shut down the, he said, I will no longer take any insurance. Everything is cash or, you know, up front. He cut his cost in half. He cut his patient visits in half. And he cut his staff from, I think it was seven down to three. Because he had a receptionist, a nurse, and him. And that was it. He didn’t need four people to process insurance forms constantly and do all that documentation. It’s a whole scam. Yep. But the other thing, earlier on X, 116 pages from 1,500. What do you think?
SPEAKER 14 :
Still too many, but way better than it was yesterday.
SPEAKER 06 :
Oh, way, way better.
SPEAKER 14 :
And really quick, for all of you listening, and I’ve got farmers I know that listen that would most likely agree with me, handing out $100 billion, a farm aid, John, most of those farmers would tell you that we would just like you guys to leave us alone. How about we regulate ourselves and handle the crops and the things and so on on our own, and why don’t you guys just get out of it?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that’s the next big act.
SPEAKER 14 :
family it’s not family farmers a lot of them are big agriculture that are running these you you know in a lot of cases there are still states like nebraska where they can’t do that that way it’s still big family farms and so on but to your point john even in those cases it has to be a large family farm for them to compete otherwise it’s really hard to do right i mean the only real smaller
SPEAKER 06 :
that are left are ranchers that are raising cattle.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, they’re slash farmers. Yeah, there are, well, I have to be careful when I say this because there are some small farmers, but by and large, no, you cannot make enough money to make that work as a small farmer. And I know that because I’ve consulted some folks along those lines, and you can’t do that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Who wants to work 100 hours a week to barely break even?
SPEAKER 14 :
Or lose money every year.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, that’s your family farmer today because Big Ag has been able to put him out of business. There are people like John Bon Jovi or Bruce Bracing that get farm subsidies, and I guarantee they’ve never been on the farm they own.
SPEAKER 15 :
Right.
SPEAKER 06 :
They just bought it as an investment.
SPEAKER 15 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 06 :
But the other thing, and I couldn’t find whether it was a yes or no. I don’t know if you saw it. I think they pulled the raises for Congress out of there.
SPEAKER 14 :
They should have pulled that. Now, one thing I didn’t get a chance to check was did they pull the stadium out of it as well? They better have.
SPEAKER 06 :
They better have. Here’s the other thing. Congress makes $174,000 a year. That’s what the salary of a congressman is. $174,000. Not including the perks and other things they get on top of that.
SPEAKER 14 :
They get money for staff. They get some transportation funds and so on. So that’s not the only thing they get, as you know, John.
SPEAKER 06 :
They get big expense accounts. You’re right. And then, of course, there’s the slush fund when they do something stupid and they get that covered up. So when they say they need more money, no. You need to be… They should be paid the average… of an American worker, which I believe is… Last I read, it was like $44,000 if you averaged everybody out.
SPEAKER 14 :
If you really want to clean things up, you do it the way I said yesterday. It becomes a volunteer position, and you don’t make anything. You might get an expense account to help with AIDS and things along those lines, and maybe some travel I’d be okay with, John, but outside of that, you don’t make anything.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, here’s the other thing. They need to… If this Congress coming in has any guts at all, they need to pass… a law that says if the budget’s not passed and we shut the government down, there is no back pay for government employees when they come back. Because the government employees that are essential, say TSA, Border Patrol, all those guys, they work. The military doesn’t get to say, well, we’re not getting paid, so we’re not working. They’re working. It’s the The guy that works, you know, shuffling papers at the USDA, and I’m not picking on the USDA, it just, you know. Just came up, yeah, sure. Yeah, you know, he’s the guy that doesn’t go to work because it’s shut down, but then when everything comes back, he gets paid for those five days that he missed. Right. Or seven days or ten days or whatever the shutdown would be. That should be, no, you’re not going to get paid. We’re not going to pay you. And if you don’t want to lose money, give us five-year vacation days because I think they get a nice vacation, a federal vacation.
SPEAKER 14 :
Well, let me go through a few of the things that they do get since we’re on this, and I just looked it up and had time to do that while you were talking. So, of course, they get pension benefits that are two to three times more generous than those offered in the private sector for similarly salaried employees. So we all know they get that. By the way, that’s why a lot of them want to make sure that they’re in there for six years so they can actually get that pension. Senators automatically get that. They get health and life insurance, approximately three quarter and one third of whose costs respectively are subsidized by taxpayers. They get wheeled perks, including limousines for senior members, prize parking spaces on Capitol Hill and choice spots at Washington’s two major airports. Travel to far flung destinations as well as to their home states and districts. Despite recent attempts to toughen gift and travel rules, junkets are still readily available for many people. A wide range of smaller perks have also defined or have defied reform efforts from cut-rate health clubs to fine furnishings. I could keep going, John. So, again, it’s not just $174K they make.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, that’s plus, plus, plus, plus, plus. They probably, if you added all that up, is about $350K.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, I’d say you’re probably not far off in that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Before, then all the other little perks like, oh, we’re going to pass this law, so let me buy… a thousand shares of Apple before we change the law.
SPEAKER 14 :
Yeah, that’s another one that, by the way, they should not be allowed to do, period, as far as I’m concerned.
SPEAKER 06 :
I agree. But the biggest thing that none of this, it wouldn’t happen to you or I, if we were traveling in Belgium and we had an accident and fell and broke our hip, we, you or me, would not be flown to the nearest military facility and taken care of. Correct. But Nancy Pelosi was. That’s right. That’s right. You’re correct. She has health insurance. The other thing is they should all be required to be on the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, as it’s also known.
SPEAKER 14 :
Can’t argue that.
SPEAKER 06 :
And they should be no exemptions. And the last thing is their staff. Congressional staffers have more power than actual congressmen.
SPEAKER 15 :
You are correct.
SPEAKER 06 :
They should all be. That should be a limited job, no more than 10 years. You say too. Okay. Well, some of the staff, is more administrative. They don’t have as much power, but it’s like the aides that meet with, you know. That’s right, the lobbyists. They have a ton of power. That’s right. And so who’s the new guy coming in in five? What’s his name in Colorado Five? Jeff Crank, I think it is. Crank, yeah. Whoever’s place he’s taking, I can’t remember, he’s going to inherit their staff.
SPEAKER 15 :
Correct.
SPEAKER 06 :
And that person’s staff is going to try to manipulate him as much as they can. Well, you should talk to this person, not this person. So they can stay around. And that is the scary part.
SPEAKER 15 :
Agreed.
SPEAKER 06 :
Because a lot of things don’t change with all these new people because they get up. there and they get corrupted by the beach state. I’ve got to run, John. With that, I’ll let you go.
SPEAKER 14 :
Appreciate you very much. I’ll come right back. Let me get a quick break in here. American National Insurance is next. Paul Lewinberger, by the way, is a broker. He can shop what’s best for you when it comes to insurance. 303-662-0789.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560. All right, Joe, I got about 30 seconds. Go for it, sir.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s all I need. One modification to John’s suggestion about no retroactive pay. I think, you know, military, FBI, air traffic, they need, but you only need to single out one group. If Congress and their staffs got no retroactive pay, you wouldn’t see these shutdowns, or if they did, they’d be very sure. Can you imagine you’re a congressman, you’re AOC, you walk into your D.C. office and you have an office in your home state, and you’ve got to tell your staff, Go home. Go home because you’re not getting paid and there’s going to be no retroactive pay. Can you imagine the peer pressure on Congress?
SPEAKER 14 :
Huge. Huge.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s all they need to do.
SPEAKER 14 :
You’re right, Joe.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, not for Congress, not for staff. No retroactive pay. I get it.
SPEAKER 14 :
Appreciate it, Joe. As always, good stuff. We’ll be back. Kurt Rogers joining me here in just a few minutes. This is Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy.
