Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 01-07-25_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Former 4-term Ohio Congressman Jim Renacci talks the speaker race, the inside workings of Congress, the potential for the Trump Agenda, political conversation continues with former Jo County Comm. Baertschiger - Dem operatives paid to be here, other news.

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clouserdrilling.com. Here's Bill Myers. 12 minutes after 7. I always appreciate former congressmen that are able to come on and talk about it because a lot of times there's only so much candor you can do when you're in the middle of the negotiations.

You know, you've got to keep some of the cards close to your vest, that kind of thing. Well, joining me is four-term U.S. Congressman Jim Renacci from Ohio. And it was the district, what, Medina County? It's over by Akron. Would that be fair to say here, Jim? Welcome, Congressman. Good morning, Bill. And yes, that's exactly right. We're about 15 minutes west of Akron and about 30 minutes south of Cleveland. And when did you serve in Congress? When did you get out? I ran in 2010, and I was there for of those things where you got primaried out, or did you just leave on your own accord and said, hey, I've had enough, you know, a good 10-year run was fine? How'd that work?

Well, it's interesting because I wrote a book after, and I said to anybody that's there, and again, I have a lot of colleagues that are there more than eight years, but in my book, I said anybody that's there more than eight years is part of the problem because it became frustrating for me. I was a business guy, successful in business, was part of the Tea Party 2010 run, and I wanted to make a difference. And what I found was that I went to Washington. I would spend a week there, be away from my family, and get very little accomplished. And I know people, when I say this, say, well, you know, you're serving the country. But for a business guy, accomplishments means, you know, you get something done and you move on to the next project.

And what I found over my tenure in Washington was that we just weren't getting anything done. And the frustration occurred. I really believed it was better to go back and serve in the state. So what I did was I left on my own accord and ran for governor. And at the time, President Trump asked me to get in a Senate race because the Senate candidate had dropped out, gave me just a four-month window to try and defeat Jared Brown, who was just recently defeated. And I was not able to accomplish that. But my goal was really to run for governor and change our state. I truly believe the best way to govern our country is to make 50 states work independently, and the federal government should have limit power and authority.

Yeah, and that means you also need to have good people in your state legislature. Now, has Ohio been arguably going redder, or is it just kind of bumping along the way it always has been? Because you're not that far from Cleveland. Cleveland's still pretty blue. Pretty blue town, isn't it, really? Yeah, so what's interesting about Ohio, it's really a Midwestern, rust-belt state. When people say it's Republican, I can tell you that we have about 20% Republican registered. We have about 20% Democrat registered, and we have about 80% Independent. So I would tell you, I'm sorry, 60% Independent. So I would tell you it's an independent state. It leans conservative. It's definitely a Trump state, as he was able to win again by 11 points.

But I think what's happened in Ohio is Democrats have decided that both parties don't fit them and they've moved toward Trump. And that's why Ohio has become more of a Trump state, not a Republican state. Yeah, I'm glad to hear that, too. I went back there for my 45th high school reunion in in in Milan. I told you I grew up in Milan, Ohio, or at least a good portion of that and was surprised to and I was pleasantly surprised there to see just a huge, huge signage for Trump. And it was just like everywhere. And I thought, oh, yeah, he's got this one from the looks of it.

I wanted to go back to your experience, though, in Congress, because you volunteered to take yourself out of it. You didn't want this to be your life's work, so to speak. Before we go there, tell me about some of that background, because from what I understand that you've, at some points, you've ran 60 businesses, created some 1,500 jobs, employed 3,000 around the state. What kind of business have you been involved? What kind of businesses? Just curious. Well, it's interesting. I was in healthcare, but I was also in construction. I had a few bars and restaurants. I had a few Harley-Davidson dealerships. I had a couple of car dealerships. I was a CPA, but I was really an entrepreneur. And I took over troubled businesses. So that meant that I was taking over a lot of different businesses, golf courses. I had a whole gamut of different businesses. I really enjoyed that. I get up every

day and change the face of Ohio by fixing businesses, but primarily healthcare. I owned and operated multiple nursing homes. Like I said, if you think about it, bars and restaurants, nursing homes. I had an arena football team. I had a minor league baseball team. So I had a gamut of businesses. What drove me to Congress, though, Bill, was that my Chevy dealership, and a lot of people might not remember that during Obama, dealerships were taken away. My very successful Chevy dealership was taken away from me. And that's what drove me to running for Congress. Otherwise, I probably would have still been just buying and running more businesses.

Yeah, isn't that interesting? Was that due to the, in essence, government takeover of General Motors and Chevy? Right. When General Motors was taken over by the government, they basically downsized, got rid of 1,200 dealerships across the country. And mine was one of them, even though it was successful. Never saw it coming. And really, there was no reason for it to happen. It's one of the reasons why I said I'm going to step in and run for Congress.

Yeah, I'm so angry I'm going to go into Congress. Jim Renacci, by the way, is with me. And he's a four-term congressman left in 2009, 2010. And I wanted to find out, you said you were very frustrated there, you know, being in there because you wanted to get something done. You went in there as like the Tea Party movement got subsumed or sucked into the conventional, would it be fair to say conventional country, I guess it's an old cliche, you know, the country club, Republican Borg of that time. Would that be fair? Was that your experience there? Well, I think some did, some didn't. I think what many found was it's a very difficult thing

to change. It's why now you see people get so frustrated when some of the Freedom Caucus members stand up, one or two of them stand up to stop a speaker. I mean, because what's happening here is the majority do fall in to this group that just says, well, I'm going to go along to get along. And to go along to get along is one of the reasons why our country's debt has gone, if you think about it, from 2010 this group that just says, well, I'm going to go along to get along. And to go along to get along is one of the reasons why our country's debt has gone. If you think about it, from 2010, when the Tea Party said $9 trillion was too much, it's almost $36 trillion. Oh, how naive we were then, huh? You're thinking, boy, $9 trillion. Oh, hey, listen,

we could throw a lot more on that before it's a problem, right, Jim? Well, we really shouldn't be. and it's another reason I left. I was blessed to be on the Budget Committee, the Ways and Means Committee. I can tell you I know the budget inside and out. I know the way and what needs to be done to fix our deficits, but I will also tell you nobody will touch that because most of the reasons our deficits continue to skyrocket is because we have expenses, mandatory expenses. Many of those are Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Interest now is going skyrocketing. But until somebody reforms those programs, I'm not saying they have to be

eliminated. They need to be reformed. Until somebody reforms them, our deficits are going to continue to be out of control. And there is no Democrat or Republican that is going to be willing to look at reforming the entitlements. I mean, it really is our Western social welfare programs that we're talking about. I know people say, yeah, I paid for Medicare and I paid for Social Security. But most people get way more out of it than is paid in. It's a math problem, right? Nobody really wants to deal with that. And by the way, I'm looking forward, I shouldn't say looking forward to it,

but I'm going to have to depend on that too. So we've been trained to have 15% of our income taken, Jim, and then we're supposed to be taken care of after that point, right? Here's what's interesting about Medicare. The average couple pays in about $135,000 and takes out about $330,000. So you're right. It's a math problem. It doesn't work. The other big issue is a majority of time, and boy, people hate to talk about this, but the majority of expenses in Medicare come in the last 100 days of somebody's life, and nobody wants to talk about that. So it's not about

medical care as much as it is dying care, right? Exactly. And until we confront that, Social Security is the same thing. It was an entitled program set up. It was a great program set up, but it was based on people dying at age 65. And now they live until 78 to 80, and nobody seems to want to change that. They have bumped. We haven't been able to bump the retirement age up, but still, we've added so many programs to it. The one that drives me nuts, Bill, is that, and God bless the spouse that gets this, but most people don't realize that a spouse that doesn't work her entire year or his entire year gets 50 percent of whatever the other spouse has gets when they do retire and that was never calculated into the to the numbers either which also causes some problems and you

can imagine jim that touching any of this stuff would be uh like instant political suicide neither side you know both sides do understand the problem right i mean republicans and democrats they can add and subtract right they know right well absolutely and you know what's interesting bill when i was there i tried to do a instead of having a state of union address with all the pomp and circumstance i ran a bill up i could never get it passed it was going to be a fiscal state of the union and it was going to be done by the comptroller of the United States. And believe it or not, Republicans and Democrats fought me on that, and it never got accomplished. How much of the spending that they're talking about in the incoming Trump administration here, Congressman,

how much of it does Congress actually control and how much of it is sort of on autopilot as you had mentioned earlier if you were to you know balance it out what's interesting and i'm just going to give you round numbers but about we bring in about six trillion dollars in treasury which is a big number it's it's by the way it's a record number nobody wants to talk about it, but it's record revenues. And and but I'm sorry, we bring in four trillion. We spend about six trillion. We bring in four trillion, which is a record if not all, of the money that comes in the United States Treasury. Everything else is deficit spending.

Wow. That is pretty sobering. And when it comes right down to it, people will say, well, the trust fund is going to be going dead or will be broke within the next few years. But even then, in the trust fund, I've tried to talk with folks about this for a number of years, and maybe I'm just arguing about semantics, but there really is no there. There's no there there in the trust fund, is there? Because essentially it's an IOU just off of the regular taxes coming in to government right now? Well, here's the other problem. So the money goes into the trust fund and then it is invested. But you're only allowed to invest in treasury bills. So

Bill, you want to know a whole other issue that needs, when I say reforming, if you're only invested in treasury bills, think about that during the COVID time. You were lucky to be making 0.002% on your treasury bills. I mean, I know I'm a bad person. Well, yeah, what kind of a return are you getting on something like that at that point? So the Social Security Trust Fund doesn't grow. That would also mean, though, that you're hiding government inflation too, aren't you, in essence, by doing that? Yeah, that's exactly right. So you're never covering the inflation. So when people say, well, I put my money into that trust account and I want to get

it back, you'd be better off to hand everybody back their money. They probably would make more money on it anyway. You know, if you put that money, if you remember, George W. Bush wanted to put it, wanted you to be allowed to invest in the market and the Democrats went crazy and, you know, people said we can't do that. But if you have invested that money in the stock market, you know, 15, 20 years ago, now we might be talking about having maybe an opportunity to keep our trust fund solid. But aren't we really, but Congressman, aren't we really talking about the symptoms in which, you know, in a low, this super forced low interest world that we've had up until very recently from the Federal Reserve, which is punishing savings, is that there was no way to get any kind of return in anything without being a stock market speculator. And, hey, you could win big. And as we've also known, a lot of people can also lose

big depending on which side of the uh of the investing you know that you're on isn't that really what we're talking about well that's true too and by the way um because we've kept interest rates so low we've actually taxed seniors who don't get in the stock market because there's a there's a reverse tax i call instead of instead of getting that 6%, 7%, 8% return on your money, which you're used to. And some people might not remember this, but back in the 1980s, you were getting 12% and 13% and 14% return. You're barely getting 1% return on your money now. And that's a tax as well. But it's a reverse tax but nobody ever talks about what do you think will eventually be the kind of reforms that Congress you know will do

Congress will have to reform it at some point but there's no political will to do it right now and I think you were finding out how frustrating it was to talk about it it would have been so much easier to fix it a few years ago I guess but are we going to be means testing uh some of these uh these various social programs as time goes on or are we going to eliminate the cap on uh paying into social security so you know you know it doesn't matter if you make a million dollars you're going to pay social security tax on that what do you think so here's what's interesting and we went through all these believe me we've talked about them all when it comes to social security if you raise the Security, if you raise the cap, people think, well, that'll be the answer.

No, it won't, because there's very few people that go over the cap. You know, there's a very small percentage. So, yeah, it'll do a little bit, but not enough. But think about it. When you do that, you're also hitting the businesses for another 6%, so it hurts the businesses. That's true. So by doing that, it affects the businesses, and it gets us very little additional return because there's so few people that are over that cap. So that's one problem.

I actually introduced measures where we mean stuff. In other words, why does a billionaire get Social Security? Why does a multimillionaire get Social Security? And the answer is because they paid into it. At least that's what they'll tell you. But the truth of it is, and I remember sitting in a Social Security committee getting kicked by one of my Republicans when I said, listen, there are many people sitting at this table that are not going to need Social Security. It's an insurance fund. It's not a retirement fund.

It's to take care of those that really need it. And, you know, that became a negative discussion as well. So until people want to talk about some of those things, I think, Bill, what will happen is the system will have its problems. You know, in 2022 or 2032, I think we're set that the system will only be able to pay about 75% of what it's paying out now. Hey, you know, that's what I'm supposed to go on to it at age 70, 70 and a half or something like that. That's my, hey, lucky me. Yeah. So you'll get 70%. But I think what will happen is everybody laughs and says, well, the government will never let that happen. They'll just increase spending and cover it.

And that's, Bill, the truth. That's probably what will happen. And the system will continue to go. Really, the day of reckoning will be our children and grandchildren, which is why I still fight every day. Because when the debts and deficits grow so big that they're unsustainable, that's when the day of reckoning will come. And that's when members of Congress, the House and Senate will have to say, wait a minute, not my fault. It's all those people in the past.

And the truth of it is, it was all these people in the past that were not looking at it to fix it. Congressman Renacci, what kind of governing majority is Speaker Johnson looking at? And if you were to be a prognosticator, how much of the Trump agenda, how safe is the Trump agenda going through this particular Congress, in your opinion? Well, first I would tell you the Speaker's job is the toughest job there because it's like herding calves. It's going to be very difficult. And when I was in Congress and a member of the House of Representatives, we had a 29 seat majority.

Who was your speaker at that time? Who was the speaker? Was that Boehner? Well, we had Boehner and Ryan. Yeah, that's right. Boehner and Ryan. Yikes. Right.

And we also had Trump as president. A lot of people forget. We had the House, the Senate, and the presidency at one point in time and did not get very much accomplished during those years. But what I will tell you is even with the 29-seat majority, we had that thing called the Freedom Caucus, which was 40 members strong, including Jim Jordan and others, who fought everything. And then we had another caucus, which were the Moderate Caucus, who fought everything. And then we had another caucus, which were the moderate caucus, who fought everything. They were made up of about 40 people, and they stopped even immigration. I don't blame the president for immigration, even though people want to blame Biden and everybody else. It's the Senate and the House that are in charge of the laws to fix immigration. We had bills on the floor, but couldn't pass them because 40 people on the left and 40 people on the right

in our own conference, in our own Republican conference, stopped some of these bills. Well, today, with a majority of one or two, Speaker Johnson is going to have one of the most difficult congresses. And I doubt he's going to be able, it's not going to be as easy as people think. When you say not going to be as easy, does this imply then that there will be more deal-cutting with the Democrats in order for the Trump agenda to make it through, just because when you have one or two, you're going to have to please some Democrats, whether you want to or not? Well, absolutely. You're going to have to. And by the way, that's the way Congress has to work.

I mean, you're not going to get it done because think of the tax cuts and extensions. There are at least 12 members of the House that live in salt states, which is the state tax. And they want that state tax cap to be eliminated. But to do that, though, means that there's a lot less revenue from those states, right? Well, what that means is, you're right, it changes the amount of revenue coming in. But you're still going to have 12 members who represent. What I tell people is, if you think about it, the best way to understand Congress, sit around your table at Thanksgiving and try to get your family to agree to one or two things

and then put 400 more people at that table and good luck. I think that goes a long way to explain this. I had a friend who just messaged me about this here, Congressman. He was wondering if we could have – could we have refinanced all of that $30-something trillion in national debt at the record low rates a few years back? Or would that have not been something that was possible to do? Do you know? Well, we could have. I mean, but nobody was going to buy those bonds. I mean, we did the best we could. We probably could have done some more long-range bonds.

We could have done some of those things. But today, now that interest rates have ticked up, it'd be a little more difficult. Sure, there are some things we could have done different to try and lock in some of those rates but uh you know again you're selling bonds and uh how many people want to buy a one percent bond for 30 years or 40 years of it it uh it wasn't too attractive maybe it was during covid but as we got out of covid it uh it changed drastically indeed it sounds to me though that uh you would be looking forward to not looking forward like happy but uh inflation we're still going to be dealing with an here, inflationary economy. Would that be a fair way of putting at it, or looking at it, rather?

Well, you know what? President-elect Trump said it best. He came out about two weeks ago and said it's going to be very difficult to reduce inflation. And even though we complained that inflation was the driver of the problems of everyone around the country, what really was the driver is all this spending. And until we cut spending, inflation is going to be out there. And the COVID spending, which by the way, Republicans and Democrats supported, put so much money into the economy, it caused the inflation that we're still living with.

Now, thank goodness, most of that COVID spending is coming to an end, which will help. But you have to admit, when you dump that kind of money into a system, and Bill, let me give you an example. In a little town in Ohio, Wadsworth, Ohio, where I live, and I was the mayor of that town at one point in time, we used to sit on $7 or $8 million, and we were as happy as could be. During COVID, with all the COVID money coming in, they were sitting on $84 million. Really? Yes. What do you think that little town did?

They spent $84 million. And that little town in Wadsworth, Ohio is probably one of the drivers of inflation, but I'm not just going to blame them because it's the state. There was multiple cities. Take that city across the country and think of how much spending we were kicking into the economy. And I'm told that the reckoning is occurring here in these small towns and cities now because that money has dried up, but yet some of them actually just built up the size of their staff, of their government, right, during those times.

Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. You know what I said? I said we should have taken that money and paid down bonds in the city, and, you know, the council looked at me like that. Are you crazy? Yeah, they want to spend. Everybody wants to leave with their name on a plaque.

I guess so. Congressman Jim Renacci, former Congressman Jim Renacci. Jim, final question here. I know you're going to want to run for governor again in the near future. Or what do you look at your future prospects here? You know, I'm going to continue to look at that. I have not made that decision yet, but I will tell you that I still truly believe the best way to fix our country is to have strong governors who say no more to the federal government. We're not going to,

we're not going to listen to you anymore. We're not, now to do that, and I'll give you Ohio, Ohio brings in 25% of the money that comes in Ohio is federal spending. So the minute you tell Ohio federal government you're not going to listen to them anymore is the minute you reduce your budget by 25%. But I'll also give you an example, and this is not just Ohio, it's other states. You know, when you have those regulatory pushes put on you by the federal government, it increases your expenses. So let's get rid of the regulatory request of the federal government. Let's get rid of their spending. Let's bring down spending across the country. Every state should do it. And let's tell the federal government no more. So I do think Ohio, look, I started out in Ohio with $200 and an old beat up car.

I became a very successful businessman because of Ohio and because of this great country. But I do fear for our children and grandchildren, not only in Ohio, but in our country. And I think it's going to come down to, in every state, let's take back what our founders said. We should have 50 individual states, and let's slow this government spending down. Yeah, and not tap dancing for the government grant stream funding, which also means that essentially the federal government controls everything about all the states. You end up losing your agency, really, is what ends up happening. Absolutely. All right. Absolutely.

Hey, Congressman, you have a website still, or are you just doing social media what do you do where do we go jim jimrenac.com j-i-m-r-e-n-a-c-c-i.com we still do podcasts i talk about national issues state issues and anybody can look there and see we've had some really good discussions about the federal deficit on on one of my podcasts just recently i'll bet you. Congressman, a pleasure talking with you. Thanks for having met you. It's good. You as well. Take care now. 737 at KMED 99.3 KBXG. When was the last time you had your well water tested? The EPA recommends that all private wells be tested at least once a year. If you can't remember when you had your water quality tested, it's time. Water quality can change radically from year to year, and you don't want to mess around. Grants Pass Water Lab offers next-day results for bacteria tests and a speedy three to five days for the full reporting that meets all state requirements.

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Oregon Republican lawmakers are again pushing the OSAA to bar transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports. State Representatives Dwayne Youngker and Ed Deal sent a letter to Peter Weber, president of the Oregon School Activities Association, asking him to protect the rights of biological females in athletic programs. They suggest a separate open category created for trans students. Jackson County has a new district attorney. Former Chief Deputy D.A. Patrick Green was sworn in Monday. His biggest case as D.A. nears. Former Asante nurse Danny Marie Schofield faces 44 counts of second-degree assault for her alleged role in replacing prescription fentanyl

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Josephine County, of course, Chris Barnett, Ron Smith going in there. Jackson County, Patrick Green, new district attorney. Randy Sparacino is a new Jackson County commissioner. Of course, we have Michael Zarazinski, mayor of Medford. We got a whole new city council, new mayor, Clint Scherf in Josephine County, and Grants Pass, gosh. And then we have Herman Barachiger, former Josephine County Commissioner, who is now just sitting around paying bills. But I still like to pick your brain about how you see the political races and everything else playing out this time. How are you doing, Herman? Great to have you back on. Good morning.

I'm doing great, Bill. Good to be back. Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's. Well, I did. I had a wonderful time. I'm just kind of curious, though. I know you as kind of an ants-in-your-pants kind of guy like me in some respects, right? You're not just sitting around all the time gathering moss, that kind of thing. How are you holding up with that one day of retirement? Out of the county commission?

Well, you know, I have so many hobbies and I live on a ranch. It's not hard to find something to do. My latest project is restoring a 1973 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. Oh, yeah? Getting to the end of it. Yeah, maybe by another week it'll be done. Yeah, those are just wonderful. Is that the one that has that just almost indestructible straight six-cylinder engine in it? Is that the one?

That's correct. 3.9 liter, yep. Yeah, we used to have one of those for our radio station vehicle. We would go up to transmitter sites for it, and then it became way too valuable to be beating up on the trail. And I think the company back at that time sold it off. Well, it's been a body-off restoration, so it's coming out. It's better than it was the day it was made. Well, good.

I look forward to seeing some pictures of it, maybe even taking a ride with you someday in it. Hey, wanted to kind of get your view since we're going to be within the next few days going into a long session. And of course, you are a veteran of both the State House and the State Senate. And so we're going to be picking your brain about this. I can't help but think that what I'm hearing out of the state legislature is that it is going to be a time for punishing. Would that be a fair assessment that this is going to be a time for punishing the people who may have voted for President Trump? And this means punishing Republicans that are in the state legislature. Is that true? Do you think that's true or not?

I think that there will be a certain amount of that. So the anger, the absolute anger by some people of Trump getting elected will be taken out on Republicans here locally. I also think the legislature is going to try to figure out how to raise more revenue. I mean, the Oregon legislature just can't have enough revenue. It's amazing. And so now that the ARPA funds and all that COVID money is pretty well gone, even though they've put it in departments and they'll claw it back so they're probably good for another year but after that i mean they want to continue living high on the hog and um they're going to go after more taxes more revenue somehow i i will i will bet

you a hundred dollars on that one what do you believe will be their ripest because the ripest targets here because they've gone after businesses in the past year with the corporate activity taxes except the corporate that's where they'll just raise the rate because oh they just need a simple minority vote to raise the rate oh so you don't have to get that high vote level. No. The tax you do to create the tax you do, but to raise the rate or broaden the base, you just need a simple majority vote. And they already have a super majority anyway, don't they, in both? Yeah, but then the Democrats that live in the swing districts, they can vote no.

So that way maybe they'll get reelected again. All right. So look for punishment here, probably more punishment against business. Do Democrats in Oregon in the state legislature, do you think they really understand that they're killing their seed corn or they're eating their seed corn every time they tax a business that doesn't make money? No, I don't think. I think the level of understanding by members of the House and Senate has actually declined a lot. I think they simply just don't understand. They just don't have the world experience to understand. I mean, right now we have a gentleman who was basically raised in Somalia in a camel camp and immigrated to the U.S.

That's all good and everything, but in a short period of time has risen to be the leader of the Democrats in the Senate. And I just don't think that individual has enough experience for that position. And the reason I bring this up is that what a lot of folks don't get about the business activity tax or the corporate activity tax. It's a sales tax. Yeah, it's essentially a sales tax, but it's a sales tax. But it's a sales tax. It's one of the most evil taxes in some ways because it'll hit these businesses, all of these businesses. We're saying we want to get more businesses and get people going to work for them but the corporate activity tax taxes you whether or not you make money all that mattered is that the money went through your

company and whether you ended up using the money that went through your company to uh to pay your internet bill or pay employees or whatever it is it's not not profit. And so, you know, it's just one of the worst ways of going about it because it punishes any kind of business that has a lot of money going through it but yet may not have a lot of profit. Like, well, think of what we've been talking about in the past about the supermarkets and how the supermarkets are crying and trying to emerge in the state of Oregon now because they're having trouble making it. Well, I think the biggest example is Biomark closing all their pharmacies.

Yep. That was one of the biggest victims of that. People wondered why they did that. And the pharmacies took a lot of money. There was a lot of money that went in there for all those drugs, all those expensive drugs. But they had to pay a percent off of that on top of it, even though they may not have been making money on that right and that's how that works correct it's a tax it's a tax it's not a tax on profit it's a tax on cash flow and um and and a lot of these you know companies um what you know two and a half three% is their profit margin. And so when you tax them on their gross, it just doesn't work. The math doesn't work, Bill.

Yeah. Speaking of math, someone was asking me here just a moment ago, did Dutch Bros finally split to Arizona or didn't they split corporate-wise and get out of here? The corporate headquarters has moved, yes. Yeah. I imagine a lot of it had The corporate headquarters has moved, yes. Yeah. I imagine a lot of it had to do with this kind of taxation. Fair enough. Oregon, yes. Oregon is not a business-friendly state.

It's just not. You just look at the numbers. You know, I always go to, there's a publication called Good States, Bad States, and they just put all the statistics. I would say that they're nonpartisan. They just put statistics. It's all about numbers. And when you look at it, Oregon is, they're right there with New Jersey. You know, they're just, New Jersey, New York, they're not a good place to do business. And that's why big businesses are moving out of these places.

That's going to put a little more pressure on the situation here, too. Let us talk about the political landscape here, even though, you know, gosh, it was great to see what happened in Josephine County. There was some moderately reasonably good news in Jackson County, too, with some of the elections. I can't help but think that overall, the Democratic attacks are going to, if anything, increase. And I looked at what happened with the new charter changes that were proposed, both in Jackson and Josephine County. I looked at the recall of John West, the former commissioner. You know, all of this, it all strikes me as essentially Democratic operatives working under the cover of,

well, we're just doing this for the people. We're out here protecting the people of Southern Oregon from these bad actors, that sort of thing. And where do you think we're going here on this ultimately? Because you've talked about Southern Oregon being on the Democratic Party's target list for a long, long time. And I can't think that's going to change anytime soon. No, I'm fairly convinced that there's paid Democrat operatives down here in Josephine County and Jackson County. And it makes sense. I mean, they've it outside money. For them to spend a quarter of a million dollars in Josephine and Jackson County every year for paid operatives is just a drop in the bucket. And because the new

tactics, there's all these new tactics. And the one that I'm observing in Josephine County right now is where we get these people that change their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, and then they start joining these groups and then changing the groups. And one of the biggest examples is the Women's Republican Club. Now, remember, the Women's Republican club is not the josephine county central committee right but they've gotten extremely moderate with these new players that have joined the club and from what i understand there is bad blood hatred between the the republican women's club and the actual republican Party in Joe. And that's because I believe that the people that are in the Republican Club aren't really true Republicans.

They don't they don't represent those values anymore. So. So would it be fair to say that that in both counties, in both Jackson and Josephine County, be on the lookout for the false flag Republican? Would that be, I need to put a label on it. The false flag Republican is what we're going to be looking out for. No, it is. And that's just a tactic to divide and conquer, is to try to create so much disruption within a party that the worker bees in the party get so frustrated they just quit work and they just stay home you know it's that's what it's all about it's divide divide divide and conquer i mean that's a tactic that lawyers use in the courtroom all the time all right now what are you most happy what are you most happy with here in your years as a county

commissioner and what were you wishing maybe you could have done a little bit better in retrospect? It's kind of interesting to look back afterward. Well, I think what I'm most proud of is my transparency. I was always trying to make sure that what was going on the inside was exposed to the outside. Now, whether people picked up on that or not, I've been accused of not being transparent, and I'm like, I just shake my head. I probably, you would search long and hard to find other people that have been as transparent as I have. But, you know, I think what I could have done better is raise money.

Oh, yeah? I was never real good at it. I was uncomfortable in that space. When you're talking about raising money, are you talking about raising money politically or raising money for the county? Yeah, raising money politically. Oh, okay. about raising money politically or raising money for the county money for politically politically okay yeah i was never comfortable in that space for asking for donations you know it was just it's just not it's not how i am but the reality is if you're in if you're in political leadership it's a must it's an absolute because without without it, you just can't move the party forward.

That's just the reality, Bill. How well do you think the Republican Party has of, I'm speaking of the state operation, because you've been an ORP chair, too, in the past years. Right. What are they looking like, in your view, moving forward? Is it just kind of like where they're going to be there just to go along to get along? Or do you think there's some reform going on there? In the grand scheme of things, Oregon as a conservative state is pretty low on the list. So, you know, the national money is going to flow to places that can make a big difference. So they struggle. They'll always struggle there. and they can do it in the state of Oregon, is to get more Republicans to register to vote and to vote.

The numbers of people that are conservative thinking in Oregon is very significant. They just choose not to participate, Bill. All right. If you were giving advice right now to the incoming commissioners what would you tell them and josephine county is going to be all about the budget and um it's going to there's going to be some very very difficult decisions made you know they're they i guess yesterday they uh their first meeting they decided decided to terminate the rent agreement for a dollar a month with the community library here. In other words, they're looking at everything and a freebie rent.

You're not going to do that anymore, right? Just can't afford it. You know, it's costing Josephine County, you know, twenty five thousand plus just to do the maintenance on that building. Plus, now the roof needs to replace the AC needs replaced. There's hundreds of thousands of dollars repaired and they only contribute one dollar. And a month and that's not right. I mean, they went to the taxpayer, they went and they've got an assessment from this library district, which is kind of a hodgepodge put together. And supposedly

the people in that district that voted for it are the ones that are supposed to pay for it, because the people in the rest of the county didn't want it. That's why they're not in the district, but they're still paying for it. So there's some legitimacy. The criticism right now is that they threw the library out of the building. Well, we have been trying to have this discussion with the library for months now, and they have constantly said we're not available. Our attorney is not available. They don't return your calls. They won't come to the meeting.

They won't. They just they just been avoiding the conversation. And this new board just says, all right, you don't want to come well we'll just terminate the agreement okay so that'll probably bring them to the table all right i imagine so of course like i said there's always been as we've discovered over the last uh a few years here most of our uh public library districts maybe josephine county to a lesser extent are very much uh democratic party operative outposts okay in my opinion at least my observation i would i would say that the vast majority of supporters for the library are liberal leaning uh-huh yep and so so even liberals are

going to have to pay for the bills out of their tax revenue we'll just have to leave it you know it's it's actually to the point in josephine county we cannot afford it the money is not there and that's what they don't understand and i we get criticism i hear people all the time well you need to you need to fund this you need to fund that you need to fund this well with what oh use the general fund money um well that got a lot lower because they didn't uh renew that congress didn't renew srs funding and that went directly into our general fund so now we have lost that on top of everything else so it's to that point, Bill. Herman, I always appreciate the talk. Look forward to kicking it in with you off and on throughout the years, okay? You be well. We'll talk soon, I'm sure. All right. We'll keep talking to you, and hopefully that we can bring light on some of these issues so people have a better understanding that listen to your radio show. All right.

Former Josephine County Commissioner Herman Barachukar. It's a minute after eight. This is KMED, KMED HD1, Eagle Point, Medford. KBXG, Grants Pass. Did you pick up a few more leaves and debris than you would have liked this fall? Hi, this is Jeff with Quality Tree Service. Winter is the perfect time to prune your trees, and it's also when we offer our best rates of the year. Plus, with a proper pruning, you'll notice a reduction of leaves and debris falling on your roof and property next fall. Call us for a no-obligation quote. Along with our winter rates, we offer senior and military discounts. Call Quality Tree Service or visit us at qualitytreeservicemedford.com.

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call Clouser Drilling for a no-obligation assessment and estimate. And drill, baby, drill. Find out more at clouserdrilling.com. Stephen Westfall, Inc. is thrilled to announce the winner of their second metal roof giveaway for a well-deserving veteran. After sifting through countless inspiring nominations, it's with great pleasure that the Westfalls reveal Michael Kay of Rogue River as the winner of a top-of-the-line metal roof.

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and 10 or more ounces of jelly to either the Grants Pass or Medford location of Kelly's, we'll exchange that food for wiper blades installed up to $35 in value. Wipeout Hunger ends on February 7th. Kelly's Automotive Service, where we service your vehicle but take care of you. Welcome to the Bill Myers Show on 1063 kmed give bill a call at 541-770-5633 that's 770 kmed and it's open phones on pebble in your shoe tuesday steve's in sunny valley hello steve what are you making good morning yeah i just uh I just don't want to see our commissioners reward this shenanigans they did to get rid of West by putting in Pat Fahey. Oh, so you're talking about the Josephine County Board then.

Okay, so who do you think then should be the replacement for John West? That'll be something that the current board will make, that decision at some point. Anybody but Pat. I don't think that their interim wants to stay. will be something that the current board will make that decision at some point anybody but pat i i don't think that their interim wants to stay i think he's got other things he wants to do and he finds that uh being a commissioner just takes up too much of his time uh but he's the guy with the most experience right now uh andre andreas isn't that isn't that funny to think about it? The guy who was appointed. He's got two months. Not more than anybody else. Knows how to swing the gavel, I guess.

What a clown show. Yeah, there has been a little of that. A little of that going on in Joe County. No doubt about that. Jackson County, a little bit boring by comparison within that thing. Jackson County, a little bit boring by comparison within that thing. You know, Jackson County is just in the middle of trying to just ticket everyone that ever decides to go into downtown Medford. That's all. That's all the city's trying to do. Yeah, let's just strangle the golden goose. All right. Appreciate the call there, Steve. 770-5633. We'll catch up with the rest of the news here at Town Hall News. Kim Commando's digital update.

More of your phone calls, of course, always welcome on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday.