In this episode, John Rush speaks with Ken Cuccinelli about the importance of maintaining election integrity amid changes in political landscapes. Explore the significance of transparency in elections and the controversies surrounding mail-in voting. Hear about the advancements and the ongoing work required to improve election systems nationwide. This episode sheds light on the complexities of managing a fair election process.
SPEAKER 12 :
This is Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 16 :
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 12 :
With your host, John Rush. My advice to you is to do what your parents did. Get a job, sir. You haven’t made everybody equal. You’ve made them the same, and there’s a big difference.
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SPEAKER 07 :
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.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, hour number three, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. As I said a few minutes ago, Ken Cuccinelli joining us now, chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative. Ken, welcome back. How are you today?
SPEAKER 07 :
I am very well. I hope you are.
SPEAKER 11 :
We are very well. It’s been a fun, well, it’s been fun since November, but it’s even gotten more fun over the last couple of weeks, and it’s going to continue to get more fun, I think.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, it’s gotten very real in the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yeah. Even just this week alone with some of the findings on, you know, the checkbook and what’s actually happening at the Treasury and so on. And Ken, you’re kind of dovetailing that into the election end of things, which is, you know, which is where you come into play. And I… I don’t have a crystal ball. I know you don’t either. But what do you foresee with all of the changes that are happening right now? You know, Trump, the administration, the things that he’s tackling. And I’m guessing that, you know, election integrity is probably on that list someplace. But what are your thoughts there?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. So, you know, I lead the election transparency initiative I have for four years. And and it’s important for people on the right to realize, hey, it’s nice that President Trump won the election. But he won it by enough that people weren’t paying too close attention to the election issues. Right. We still have a lot of work to do across this country. Your state is absolutely no exception. Correct. You know, the heavy reliance on the mail. I don’t know how bad the post office has to get until states start ending that. because I know the numbers from looking at them today, I know there were about 1,000 ballots that never made it into the Utah election count simply because the post office was too slow and didn’t mark the dates on the ballots. And for states that are reliant on mail, the continuing decline of post office performance has a real meaningful effect on our elections. In one of our most Democrat cities in Virginia, where I still live and where I served as the attorney general, I talked to the woman who is now the senior election official in the whole Commonwealth of Virginia. And for five years, she has been advising people not to put their ballots in the mail because of how unreliable the postal service is, no matter how far out. from election day, you’re mailing the ballot. So we have a lot of work to do to clean that system up all over the country. We’ve made real advances, but our right of center allies need to stay on the field. There’s a lot more work to do.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, and we talked in the past even in regards to voter ID. To your point, the mail-in ballots in a lot of states, in our case here, we try to encourage as many of our listeners to drop them off and not mail them at all, although that’s not how most people do it. To your point, they’ll just put it in the mail and off it goes. But the whole voter ID and making sure that the right people are really voting, in my opinion, Ken, that has to be something that happens in every state.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, absolutely. And look, the way the election transparency initiative works, we work state by state. And that’s the way elections happen. Got it. Every state does things differently. And, you know, to put my old Department of Homeland Security hat on, people don’t think about this very much. But in the same way that we’ve all been advised to diversify your financial portfolio for anybody who invests in anything. Right. And there are good reasons for that. Well, We have a diversified security portfolio as a nation. If you think in terms of Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, if they want to try to interfere with our elections actively, and I don’t just mean Facebook ads. I mean actually try to get into the machinery. Well, there isn’t one system to get into. There’s 51 different systems. And I can tell you that the danger, first of all, they don’t know who’s going to win what elections, right? So are they going to go into all 51? Are they going to try to guess which states they’ve got to go into to accomplish whatever their goals are? And every time you go into one, you raise, as an intruder, you raise the risk of getting caught. And it’s not linear. The more times and the more states you do it, your danger goes up exponentially. So the fact that we operate 51 different systems. is actually a security benefit to us. It is a good thing. And it’s our history. It’s our constitutional history.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, yeah, and I’ve cautioned people in the past that have called in and have said things, and I think they’re just not thinking through it correctly. So sometimes you, I, have to kind of correct them on this. I’ve heard some that would call in and say, oh, we just need a federalized election system. No, no, no, no, no, no. We don’t. We need to keep states’ rights added to your point.
SPEAKER 07 :
Then you can get a post office version of, of elections. Wouldn’t that be great?
SPEAKER 11 :
I mean, we’re already seeing with what Doge is doing how bad things are screwed up there. You really want them running elections?
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely true. Absolutely true. And one of the things I learned as the Attorney General just of a state government, and by the way, we were elected, we were voted the best managed state in the country. And as the AG, I got to see kind of everything going on. My thought was, You’ve got to be kidding me. Well, God help the other 49 if this is the best. And, folks, I’m telling you, Doge has only begun to uncover the muck you’re going to see. There are things government has to do, but it’s always overkill. It’s always too much money. Frankly, we’re bankrupt at the federal level anyway.
SPEAKER 11 :
We sure are.
SPEAKER 07 :
And we need to we need to shrink it and simplify it. And they’re just making that more obvious. And I’m glad we have a president who’s willing to put his energy behind actually doing that. I hope he’ll start cutting budgets all over because we are bankrupt.
SPEAKER 11 :
I, you know, Ken, my prediction is I think he will. I think, you know, give it time. I think right now it’s sort of show and tell on, hey, America, look at what’s really going on. And by the way, we’ve only scratched the surface. Wait till we get into some of these bigger, you know, quote unquote accounts that are out there. Medicare, Medicaid, some of the others that are out there, you know, whatever. Wait till we start showing you some of the out-and-out fraud and theft, by the way, that’s going on in some of those areas. Building credibility, I guess, Ken, is the way to say it, much like you and the election integrity end of things. The more credibility you build, the more power, the more clout, I guess I should say, you have moving forward.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, so let’s talk about that. So you remember the explosion in 2021 and 2022 when Georgia was reforming its election laws. By the way, they did far less than, say, Iowa had done only the month before, but nobody said boo about Iowa. And the left came in with it because it’s a southern state. Oh, Jim Crow 2.0 and Stacey Abrams and the president. And you know it’s bad on the left if the Washington Post says, is saying joe biden and stacey abrams are lying and the washington post was saying that that’s how far out of field they were so fast forward to the 2022 election and uh what happened they had the highest minority turnout ever um the university of georgia which despite being the sec is no right-wing institution They surveyed Georgia voters after the election, and you would be amazed at the percentage of black voters who had complaints about the Georgia election. The number was zero. Zero percent. And on the flip side, when they asked people, do you think the election ran well or superbly, black and white respondents were literally within tenth of a percent of one another. So it didn’t matter what color your skin was. You just want good elections to operate better. And Georgia made their election system better. And despite all the hue and cry, it worked better in 2022. And they made more improvements and made it work better in 2024. They still have work to do, just like the rest of us. But you need to be really cautious, listeners, about the screaming memes of the sky is falling on the left about cleaning up elections being a bad thing.
SPEAKER 11 :
Absolutely.
SPEAKER 07 :
Ask yourself on a common sense level, how can this be bad?
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, it’s not, and I think at the end of the day, Ken, people want their vote to count. That’s why they’re doing it in the first place. And I also believe that the more they believe their vote counts, the more voters actually turn out. That’s my other thought process as well.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and that’s why our name is the Election Transparency Initiative, because we agree with you. We believe transparency counts. is the gold standard you should be able to see everything right down to the computer code because we believe in open source code not proprietary for any machines we believe you should be able to see absolutely everything in your election except how your neighbor marks his or her ballot there you go and um that transparency and not hiding anything is how you gain confidence in the outcomes. So people can duplicate what happened with open source code. They can see all of it end to end in real time. And they can challenge mistakes. You know, most often when bad things happen, they’re just flat out mistakes. But mistakes can also be a cover for actual fraud. So we can’t let either slide by. And more transparency is one thing we’ve sought. And by the way, we’ve achieved it in some blue states like New Jersey. So, you know, this stuff is just common sense. It isn’t left right. If people would drop their partisan blinders, we can get to better election systems. And we’re slowly but surely getting there.
SPEAKER 11 :
Ken, what’s the best way for folks to follow you and help out if needed?
SPEAKER 07 :
So you can follow me on Twitter at Ken Cuccinelli. ElectionTransparency.org is where we are on the web. We love to have folks support. We work with lots of other groups on the right of center and anyone else who will work with us on the left. I’ve had the opportunity to do that when they’re willing to agree on common sense solutions. And that’s worked very well. So we’re going to keep pushing. I appreciate you keeping a spotlight on this issue. You definitely in your state have work to do, and we’re happy to help do it.
SPEAKER 11 :
Ken, I appreciate it very much. Thank you for the update and for joining us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Good to be with you.
SPEAKER 11 :
You bet. Have a great evening. That’s Ken Cuccinelli and his last name, if you want to follow him, by the way, on Twitter is C-U-C-C-I-N-E-L-L-I. Ken Cuccinelli. That’s how you pronounce that. It’s a little different than what it sounds as far as how you spell it. Geno’s Auto Service coming up next. And remember, Geno’s is with a J. Speaking of how you spell things, if you need something done to your vehicle, they’re there to take care of you. It’s genosautoservice.com.
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SPEAKER 05 :
This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all joining us today. I had a text message that came in, so this isn’t in my notes, but you know what? I thought I would cover this. I thought it was a good question. And somebody asked me, would I start a business today in today’s climate and business climate and so on? And my answer back was, yes, of course I would. In fact, with the coaching and things that I do, I help new businesses get started, not on a weekly basis, but I help new businesses get started on a fairly routine basis. And yes, I would start a business now. With that comes, and this is where I guess somebody says, you need to write your own book. Well, that’s easier said than done, and I’m definitely not a writer. I would have to find somebody that would write for me because that is not my forte. Charlie is my grammar and spelling expert. I am not that person. You guys all know that I’m just a redneck that ended up on the radio and writing a book and not really in my wheelhouse. If I could find somebody to help, I might be interested. And then it would be, what do you write the book on? because there’s lots of topics that I’m familiar with that you could probably write a book on, but starting a business would be one of them. And I think anybody looking to do that, usually, not always, but usually the biggest problem that I see in starting a business is, I don’t even want to say how many fold it is, but there’s several things people get into that they don’t think about. Number one, and you’ll hear this a lot, most are underfunded. Now, I will say that you can be underfunded and still make a business work. I’ve done it. Now, having more funding always helps, makes things a little easier, although in some cases it might make it too easy and it may still fail. So just because you have funding doesn’t mean it’s going to work. It just makes things a little bit easier, lightens the stress in some cases. Second of all, I don’t think most people, you know, they’re good at their trade. They’re good at their craft. But when it comes to running a business and handling everything to do with, you know, marketing and the books and HR with employees and the regulatory end of things and so on, most aren’t very good at all those things. They might be really, really good at their craft and typically are. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be good at everything else. And unfortunately, when you’re starting off, depending upon the size you start off at, going back to the capital end of things a moment ago, you may not have enough capital to have all of the people you need to do those things I just said. you may be doing a lot of those yourself. That’s typical for a lot of new owners. They’re wearing a lot of different hats. Now, I’m one that says they should get rid of some of those hats as quickly as possible, but that takes time, and you’ve got to get things built from the ground up in most cases. Now, I think the other thing, this one’s a big one, by the way, and even coaching, I see this probably more than anything. Most people, and again, I’m trying to be as nice as I can here, Most people don’t have the gumption to own their own business. And I don’t know how else to say it. They don’t have the drive. They don’t have that understanding that when I’m starting out, I’m liable to put in 80 to 100 hours a week getting this thing off the ground. And I might do that for the first year or two until I really get things dialed in. I don’t think most people really understand that end of things. And I don’t know. I’m trying to be nice here. But I just don’t think most people really comprehend that end of things. I think some people think that owning a business is easy. They’ve watched somebody else do it. They think, oh, man, if that person can do it, I can do it. And so off they go. Off in business, they’re off and running. And they think they can do that work in 40, maybe 50 hours a week even. And I’m here to tell you that there’s very, very, very few new businesses that you can get by doing that with. There are some. This comes back to the funding end of things. And there’s some folks out there that can maybe do that. If you look at even the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, who’s now going through everything in our government regarding spending and the waste and so on, you can go back and like the guy or not, doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you’re on, you can’t fault him for this. There’s been many a time in the businesses that he has owned and started, he slept there. Meaning that guy is working if he’s not sleeping. And he’s probably only sleeping five or six hours at that, and he’s back up working again. He has been known to sleep on the factory floor at Tesla. True story. I’m not exaggerating in the things that I say, meaning he’s the richest guy in the world and still knows how to work. That’s my point. And I think the other point of that is he didn’t get to be the richest guy in the world by not knowing how to work. And I think you could look at it as much as I’m not a big fan of the Bezos and Bill Gates and so on of the world. When those guys started out working out of their garages, I guarantee you they worked hard. They were working nonstop around the clock. At one time, Jeff Bezos was actually acquiring the books. because that’s what Amazon started with, was selling books. And at one time, he was acquiring the books, shelving them, packing them, shipping them, the whole nine yards. He did it all himself. He didn’t have anybody else. He was it. There’s pictures of him in the garage of his house doing this. That’s where it started. So when somebody asks me, you know, would I start a business, my answer typically back is, well, of course, yes, I would. Now, would I recommend somebody else? You know, I have to have an interview process with that person to tell you whether or not they’re a good fit or not, because honestly, I don’t know. And I’ve done that sometimes. I’ve actually had people come to me and say, you know, I think I’m thinking about doing such and such. I’m like, let’s talk first. Let’s have a discussion, which I’m always willing to do. Free of charge. Always willing to have that initial conversation for free. really finding out, are they a good fit for this? And, you know, sometimes they are, and sometimes they understand it. They’ve got the tenacity. They know exactly what it’s going to take to make things work, how much effort’s going to have to go in, and so on. And I’ll be just straight-up honest. There’s other times where I look at that person, and they’re saying all of the right things, but I know in my heart they’re never going to make it. They don’t have the willpower and the wherewithal work-wise to make it work. And I’m not saying, because I think this is another misconception that owners get caught up in, is just because you work hard doesn’t mean you’re going to make money. Now, you have to be smart about what you’re doing and how you’re working and so on, because just because you work hard doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful. I’ve known some very, very, very hardworking individuals that weren’t super successful. They were hardworking, but they weren’t super successful. So you’ve got to combine that hard work with… the proper smarts, I guess I could say, and knowing what to do and where to work, by the way. And I think also the thing that helps when you start a business and you start growing and so on, it’s also knowing when do I need to hand things off? If I hand that off, will I actually be better off at the end of the day because I’m freed up to go make more money somewhere else, and I’ll let this person do that job that I don’t need to do anymore? And these are things that not every business knows and understands and doesn’t even know when they get to that point, and that’s where consultants and coaches like myself come along and try to help those individuals recognize those things. But my point is I had a text message come in, would I start a business? Yes, I would. Now, with that was all of the caveats I said earlier that you have to remember and think through. And the other thing too, about a new business that I don’t think enough new businesses do is you got to do your due diligence. Who is my customer going to be? How am I going to market to that particular customer? How am I going to set my business up to handle that particular customer in that right way? Because one of the things that I always ask a business when I first start consulting with them is, number one, who’s your target customer? Narrow that down for me. And by the way, initially, the answer I get back is, well, anybody that wants to spend money. No, wrong answer. Wrong answer. Every business has a target audience that they’re going after, a target customer they’re going after. And no, you don’t want every customer. In fact, there are some customers you need to fire. You don’t need them as a customer. They’re awful. They’re draining your business. You’d be better off to give them a $20 bill and send them on their way and never deal with them. You’d be money ahead. Yes, there are those kinds of customers. For those of you that aren’t in business, just tune out for a moment because those of you that are will understand everything I’m saying. So you need to really know who your customers are, how you handle it, and so on. Now, the other question that I always ask that most people get wrong. is I always ask, who’s your competition? If I ever wrote a book, this is what I would say. Who’s your competition? And you’ll get all kinds of answers back. If it’s an auto repair shop, well, it’s a repair shop down the street. If it’s another type of a retail establishment, it’s their competitors around town, blah, blah, blah, and you get my drift. That’s usually what they’ll rattle off. And my answer back is, wrong answer. Wrong answer. You know who your competition is? Anybody out there that’s taking the same money from your customer that you’re trying to get. That’s the right answer. Now, I know some would argue with me on that, and you’d want to define that competition a little bit closer. But really, folks, when I just said that everyone is your competition that’s trying to pull that money out of that customer’s pocket, that’s the reality of who your competition is. Meaning you’ve got to do every single thing possible that you can to do things correctly to make them spend money with you versus anyone else. So if you can handle all of those things that I just mentioned and do all of that correctly and have a good plan, would I start a business? Absolutely. Still the best way to make a profit and to stay ahead in this world. and do some of the things even that our guest at 4 o’clock mentioned when it comes to taxes and things along those lines, owning your own business is a huge tool that will benefit you greatly if you do everything correctly and make it work along the way. So Roof Savers of Colorado is up next. Dave Hart, who, by the way, is a great business and a great model as well. He does all sorts of roofing, commercial, residential. He’ll extend the life of your roof with the RoofMax product. He’ll fix minor repairs or do anything else that’s needed when it comes to your roof. It literally is everything under one roof. 303-710-6916.
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 05 :
Live and local, back to Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. We are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. And some of you, by the way, I love you listeners. You’re great. You guys that text as well. Thank you very much. I appreciate each and every one of you. One of you said, see, John, you could write a book. You just did like the opening chapter and some of that with what you just did that last segment. So you guys have a lot of faith in me. Thank you, by the way. I appreciate that. And lastly, too, I want to make this because somebody texted this in as well. Got a lot of business owners, by the way, that listen to me, which I appreciate each and every one of you. And you know where I stand when it comes to those things. Somebody said that, you know, a lot of people think business owners just print money. You go out back and print money. Yeah, I wish it were that easy, folks. I wish it were that easy. If you know any small business owner, you have them in your family, friends, whatever, trust me, they work super hard. They are doing things that nobody else is doing. Even when they get to be quote-unquote successful, and maybe they’ve been doing it for a long time, believe me, they are still working hard. They are still doing things behind the scenes to make things happen. And no, they are not just printing money. As much as all of us in business would love that to be the case, like the federal government does, Yeah, no, we don’t have that ability. We don’t get the same handouts that you’re seeing Doge go through right now when it comes to those things. Speaking of, speaking of, we don’t have this kind of job. This is an article I looked at yesterday. New York Post. Top paid. This is the most top paid federal employee. We all thought it was Fauci, but he was up there. But this guy’s higher. Top paid federal employee is leaving his ten and a half million dollar a year job after Trump because we’re getting rid of him. Now, this is the Tennessee Valley Authority CEO, Jeff Lyish. He is the highest paid federal employee with a compensation package of $10.5 million a year. He abruptly announced Friday that he was retiring 11 days after the return to office of President Trump, who during the first term slammed Lyish’s ridiculous pay and vowed to fire him. Yeah, this guy does need canned. There is not… A single job anywhere outside of the President of the United States inside the federal government that deserves that kind of pay. I am sorry, folks. You cannot convince me, and I think you’d have a hard time convincing anyone, by the way, that any federal employee should be paid that kind of money. Sorry. That’s not how that’s supposed to work. When you work for government, back in the day anyways, I know it’s changed from that, but back in the day, and Charlie, if I say anything wrong, please raise your hand and correct me, but back in the day, you went to work for the government. Because you knew you might not make the same hourly or salary wage that you would work in the private sector, but you knew your benefits were going to be much better. Your retirement package, your health package, and all of the days off, you knew all of those sorts of things were better. And that’s what governments did to entice people to come to work for them out of the private sector. Charlie, am I pretty correct in that? He’s agreeing. I think most of you would agree with me as well. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is any longer. The governmental end of things is offering just as good, if not better, pay packages in a lot of cases than what the private sector does. Now, some would come back and say, well, John, don’t we want the best and the brightest working in government? No, actually, no, we don’t. We want the private sector to be the best. And what we want the federal government to do is to support the private sector, not the other way around, by the way. This is where, by the way, a lot of people in government have it wrong. I, as a business owner, see this completely opposite of the way most do. I want the best and the brightest in the private world, and I want government supporting those individuals any way they can, not hindering them, but encouraging them to do more. I also feel like government should be set up with lots of systems in place whereby those systems are running what’s supposed to be done. And very few people are doing it because in today’s world, especially with technology, most things could be automated to where you don’t need nearly. Folks, I don’t think I’m exaggerating here. You could literally fire at least half of all governmental workers, if not more, by automation. Literally by automation. And it’s something that, again, I talked in the 3 o’clock hour. If you got a chance to hear me, I was talking to Steve House. He’ll be back with me next Thursday. I’m going to see if he won’t get with me and really dive into some of what I’m talking about because he’s really big on a lot of the things that I’m talking about and understands that fully. I’m pretty in tune with a lot of that as well. And let me tell you what. Anytime I go and deal with anything governmentally speaking, all I do is look at it and say, oh, my word, you guys are archaic in what you do. You are still living in yesteryear. The problem with government, though, is once you start a person, once you start a department, it never ends. It just keeps going and going and going. Just like this particular job, this guy that’s CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Ten and a half million dollars a year. Now, for a lot of you listening, you could do that job for a year or two and pretty much be set for life. Because you’ve got to pay taxes and stuff out of that. I understand that. So you’re not netting $10.5 million. I get that. But even if you netted half, most of you could work one year and live the rest of your lives pretty comfortably on $5 million. If you did things correctly. So yeah, I’m with Donald Trump on this one. This guy doesn’t need to make $10.5 million. That job itself doesn’t need to be making $10.5 million. And how much is too much? Well, personally speaking… This is probably a bigger topic I could take a whole hour and spend. But my feeling on top government officials is this. If the president of the United States, who, by the way, has the lion’s share job of what goes on in the federal government, the current one does. Our last one slept in the basement most of the time, so he doesn’t count. But typically, your president has a lot on their shoulders. They are going to all sorts of meetings. They’re traveling. They’re doing different things. They’re meeting with dignitaries. They’re figuring out budgets. They’re handling this. They’re handling that. They’re doing press conferences. You all see how much Donald Trump actually works. By the way, probably one of the hardest working presidents we’ve ever had. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that. So my feeling is, when it comes to federal workers, is whatever the salary of the president is, nobody else should be above that. That’s my feeling. If the president makes $400,000 a year, there should not be another federal working making over that. Period. Period. I don’t care what they do. I don’t care what they’re in charge of. That’s how I think the pyramid, if you would, the pay pyramid in the federal government should work. Now, if some in there feel like there are jobs worth more than that, then they better figure out a way to change what we pay the president. Because, again, I feel like that person is at the top rung and everything else should fall underneath that person. That’s me. I know I know others would look at that differently. And I realize that the president has a lifelong salary, not of the 400 K. But I get it. They’re making money for the rest of their lives. That’s the agreement we’ve made as the citizenry to do that, which, by the way, I’m not I’m not against that. As you can look at any president, including Obama, and look at what they look like coming into office and then what they look like going out of office. And believe me, they age. It is not an easy job. I don’t envy any of those guys that are in that job. It is not an easy job. Now, I also understand they’re pretty well set for life once they do it. And I understand that’s a part of the pay package. But I’m going back to what should federal workers make? The top ones. And I’d have to run through the list and determine what some of them make. I know Fauci makes more than the $400K. This guy was making $10.5 million. And I understand there are football coaches and things like that that are quasi-government employees that are making millions of dollars. I’m not including them. That’s a whole different world that I’ve talked about with my son and Andy many, many times. That one I’m not counting because that’s a whole different world. They are a money-making arm of that entity, so that one doesn’t count. In most cases, look at Boulder, CU Boulder with Sanders, with Deion, and the reality is he has brought money into that college and the town even that far exceeds what he’s being paid. He is a money generator, not an expense. So I don’t look at those guys in that light. I’m talking about regular government officials that are running a particular department in government like this guy. And again, my feeling is they shouldn’t make any more at the end of the day than the president makes. Some of you may disagree, may agree, send me a text message. But to me, that’s what needs revamped inside government. Now, you’re going to ruffle a lot of feathers if you do what I just said. And that would have to be done, by the way, through Congress. You’d have to pass some bills and turn those into law and establish some of these things, which frankly needs to be done. Once again, I’ll remind everybody, we are a country that is broke. By definition, we are $36.5 trillion in debt. $36.5 trillion in debt. And our unfunded liabilities, if I roll on down, hang on, I’ve got to look at the debt clock. Our total national debt… is not counting the trade deficit and so on. So our total debt… Hang on, it takes me a minute to find this. Is… By the way, it’s way above that. Total U.S. debt. It’s $101 trillion. $101 trillion. So… When you look at it that way, there’s not a single business owner, CEO of a large company, and so on, that would look at that and say that we need any government worker making $10.5 million a year. That one pretty much is self-explanatory. So, again, we need an overhaul completely of some of the things that are going on right now in the United States of America because we are a country that is deep in debt that we’ve got to start getting our way out of, or our great-great-grandkids are going to be paying for this. Not us, but they will, and we’re doing them a huge disservice if we don’t fix this. Speaking of finances, Golden Eagle Financial is up next. Al Smith, and whatever you’re trying to do to get to retirement, please talk to Al today. Find out if your plan is there, if it will work. If you don’t have one, he’ll devise one for you. But talk to Al today. He’s got all sorts of options on that. Golden Eagle Financial, klzradio.com.
SPEAKER 14 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
All right, up next, it’s Dr. Scott Faulkner. And as I say all the time, if you’re looking for a doctor that really looks at and feels the same way we do here on A Rush to Reason and KLZ, look no further than Dr. Scott. He’s got all sorts of things that help you with your health. Give him a call today, 303-663-6990.
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SPEAKER 04 :
It’s time to leave your safe space. This is Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right, and we had a texter, I think somebody called as well, mentioning this, that President Trump in the past, I’m not sure about this term, has taken his salary and donated that to the charity of his choice and so on. And yes, that is true. I don’t know what he’s going to do this term. But keep in mind, in everything that I’m talking about, as taxpayers, we’re still paying that. So even if he doesn’t, take the money. He is taking the money and then distributing it out to somebody else. As taxpayers, that’s still coming off of our backs when it’s all said and done. And again, I’m not upset about that. I’m just reminding, even though he gives his salary away and has in the past, it still costs us money at the end of the day. And it is $400K plus $50K of personal expenses that he gets as president. This probably won’t shock any of you, but the whole TVA, which, by the way, this is a public utility. You know, federally owned utility is what I should say. Tennessee Valley Authority, which I don’t even want to get into that. Shouldn’t be, in my opinion. That’s a whole other conversation that I won’t go down the road of. But there’s other employees, by the way, that are making a boatload of money. It’s not just this guy. So the CFO, John Thomas, makes $6.3 million a year. The COO, the Chief Operating Officer, Don Moll, makes $5 million a year. General Counsel, in other words, this guy’s an attorney, Dan Fountain, he makes $3.3 million a year. The chief nuclear officer, and some would say, well, maybe this guy needs to be making some decent money because he’s in charge of the nuclear end of things. He makes $3.3 million. So I guess really quick math, if you take the 10.5 plus the 6, almost 6.5, you’re 17, 22, 23, 24, 25. You’re about $28 million in payroll for that one utility just with your top dogs. And keep in mind, this is a utility that services one of the poorest regions of the country. I want to make sure I add that in. Not that it matters if they’re serving New York City or L.A. or someplace like that, but just to keep it in context, this is a utility that’s serving the poorest section of the country, and yet these guys, the top dogs, are making almost $30 million a year collectively. You talk about something that needs a revamp, which I hope Trump and Musk both look at, it’s this thing. What an absolute fleecing of taxpayers. Absolute fleecing of taxpayers. And someone would say, well, that’s probably figured into the price of power and this, that, and the other. Doesn’t matter. Get rid of those guys and lower the price. Cut the cost. Help out the people that need the power. Again, poorest area of the country that this is serving. And I’d have to go look. Some of you might even know the answer to this. Are we subsidizing that? Do these guys make a boatload of money because the Fed, we are tax dollars, are subsidizing this somehow and the end user still doesn’t pay any more than they would someplace else? Or is all of these salaries factored into the kilowatt hour cost? that these particular customers are paying. I don’t know the answer. That’s not in this article, and I’d have to go look that information up. Maybe some of you know, a little homework for some of you. You can figure that out. Text me back. I’ll report back on it. But this is the kind of garbage, yes, I’m calling it that, the kind of garbage that needs to stop. Once again, these are federal employees. And somebody reminded me as well that don’t forget, you know, we’ve got leaders here in Colorado that have led RTD and others that have made ginormous salaries as well. Totally wrong also. Totally wrong also. I would go as far as to say in the state, any state, whatever the governor’s salary is, no one in the state should make any more than that either. I would use the same principle there that’s used in the feds. Period. It’s simple equation, by the way. If the governor makes X, no one else, no other Colorado state employee can make any more money than the governor. In fact, I would I would pass a law if I was running for office here in the state of Colorado. That would be a law I would run on and I would make that so every single government employee in the state couldn’t make any more than that period, no matter what they’re doing. To be fair to the taxpayers. But see, folks, these are the things that no one ever talks about. The left definitely never talks about this stuff. Don’t bother me to talk about it. Because, again, I’ll repeat myself. My feeling as an owner of a business is government’s role is to help me in business do better. Not the other way around. I am not here to help them. They should be here to help me. And those of you that are business owners, I think you would agree with me. Government’s role, fed, state, local, whatever, should be there to help you, not punish you and be your enemy. But for a lot of us in business, government is our enemy. Literally, they are the enemy. You don’t want those guys fishing around anything on any level. Because typically we know what that means. You’re going to pay something by the time those guys leave. That’s not how it should work. Now, should we have some standards and make sure that people can pass fire codes and things like that? That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about some of the other frivolous things that some of you as business owners have to go through, some of the forms you have to fill out, some of the nonsense you have to deal with federally and locally. That crap should stop. Once again, government, local, state, national, should be there to help your business, help it grow, help it do better, not the other way around. That’s my spiel, and if I was running for any office anywhere, that’s what I would be telling people. That is, by the way, the proper role of government. All right. Speaking of the proper role of government, we have education in all states. Unfortunately, it sucks. And we have kids literally that are not learning how to read. A high percentage of them are not learning how to read. Almost half. You can help with that. You can give out some books to some of the folks that you know. You can use this in your own family. You can use it in your workplace, whatever it happens to be. Just get the book. You can buy multiples. You get 10% off by using code KLZ. And if you buy two or more, you get a free hat. And you can have these personalized as well. Just send an email off the website. Go to jimmyandandrew.com.
SPEAKER 15 :
Reading is fundamental to understanding the world, and that’s why author Mike Goldstein wrote American Stonehenge. This breathtakingly beautiful book was written in order to bring parents and grandparents together with their children to enjoy stories while they learn to read. The book follows a boy and his immortal telepathic dog, with whom he communicates as they travel through time to learn about the dog’s experiences through history. The book is historically accurate, including the illustrations, so you and your little one will learn something about the history of God’s beloved Earth. The time that you spend with your children laughing and enjoying this beautifully written book will be something you treasure for a lifetime. Learn more about American Stonehenge and the adventures of Jimmy and Andrew by going to klzradio.com slash read and flip through a free preview of the beautiful prose and illustrations. That’s klzradio.com slash read to learn more.
SPEAKER 05 :
Stay up to date with Rush to Reason after the show on Twitter at Rush to Reason.
SPEAKER 11 :
All right. I was just telling Charlie as we end the show here today, I was telling him through the break, frankly, the message I just talked about when it comes to, you know, owners and the proper role of government and what government should be doing and so on. Frankly, folks, that’s some of the things that our state party, the state GOP, should be training our candidates on and how to speak to people so you’re at their level. But unfortunately, we don’t do that. And And I think I know why, but we don’t do that. We should. We need better leadership. We need people that will talk about things the way that I just did to you all. Otherwise, folks, we’re not going to win elections in Colorado. We’re not going to move the ball forward. So, all right. Movies tomorrow. Let me look them up really quick for you. We’re going to be doing Heart, Eyes, and Love Hurts. And then, of course, favorite commercials, Super Bowl or other. Text in whatever your favorite commercials are. We’ll talk about those tomorrow. Have a great night. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
