Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-15-25_TUESDAY_8AM

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

04-15-25_TUESDAY_8AM

The Bill Myer 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 www.clouserdrilling.com. This is Kevin Wallace for NBC5 News, your place. It's Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. 55 degrees is going to be a nice day. Hello, Dave over in the Iron Gate. And you wanted to talk a bit about, I was talking about my pebble in my shoe about the income

tax today, of course, being the day to file. I really don't like this, you know, confessing your sins to the government. I also don't like wages for income for labor being treated differently than wages from other sources, or income from other sources. I don't like that. But that's me. Well, I was going to say is it basically makes you a wage slave because I'll show you an example. I worked with a guy that made the same amount of money as I did. We started

at the same time. Dave, start that again. Your cell kicked out. Go ahead. I said, I worked with this guy that we started the job at the same time and we were making the same money. And he showed me his stub. I showed him my stub. And he goes, wow, they take a lot of money out of you.

And I said, but you have six kids and you get the child income tax credit, right? Right. I don't have any children. I'm not married. So I don't have eight dependents. I got one at the most. And, and he goes, and I said, he says, well, I noticed that you're claiming one. I said, yeah, I'm claiming one because I don't want to overpay by claiming zero, which sometimes if a job is short, I would claim zero. Other times I could claim like four, not pay anything out of my check, but I always kept track of it. But he said that he got an $8,000. He was paying only tax he was paying with Social Security, but yet at the end of the year when he filed his taxes, he got an $8,000 rupee fund.

Now, I guess that, well, what you're showing though is the social engineering, which goes into the income tax rules and laws, right? Right, right. And he said, well, doesn't that make you angry? I said, not at you. No. No, I'm not angry at the people that use the tax laws. I'm not at that. But on the other hand, of course, the tax rules, maybe though this was the reason they did they made the tax rules the way they are is because they are looking at declining income or declining a population ultimately at least native in fact they've been looking to uh... to to have essentially illegal aliens uh... rebuild the population base of the united states so

i suppose that's a good thing you know to encourage the species to reproduce. Certainly, you know, I understand that sort of thing. But ultimately, wouldn't we be better off with some sort of a national sales tax, ultimately? I know sales tax, we sit around here and we were revolted by that here, or we have revulsion for it. I think a national sales tax is much better because you can choose not to buy something and it's only for new stuff you would buy on the secondary market used stuff you wouldn't have a sales tax on it under a lawful system because yeah and a lot less

paperwork to Dave lot less paperwork you know to not have to file a you know an income tax return to not have to confess sins to the federal government, I'm good. I really would be. Yeah, I think the gas tax is the first tax because it's nobody's business when you, you know, when you pay your taxes. And of course, Salem wants to screw that up too. All right, Dave, I appreciate the call, but thanks for kicking it off here. It's Open Phones on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday.

We can talk about taxes, we can talk about anything else on your mind. I'm going to share a pebble that people are having up on Skyview Drive in Jackson County. It's open phones on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. We can talk about taxes. We can talk about anything else on your mind. I'm going to share a pebble that people are having up on Skyview Drive in Jackson County. I wasn't even aware of this, but boy, they've got a world of hurt over there. This hour of the Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit Fontanaroofingservices.com. Since 1936, go to draftKings.com slash. Here KMED and Krantz Pass on 1059 K290AF Rogue River in South Jackson County on 1067 K294AS Ashland.

17 after 8. Great to have you here. 7705633. It is open phones on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday. And by the way, if you're Brad, Brad, I hung up on you accidentally as I was trying to put you on hold. Operator error. Call back.

We'll get you in, okay? All right. pebble in your shoe Tuesday and by the way if you're Brad Brad I hung up on you accidentally as I was trying to put you on hold operator error call back we'll get you in okay all right we go to Steve oh Steve now you say that a couple of things you wanted to talk about first off you are almost greatest generation or else one of the oldest baby boomers one right kind of right there on that deal. I was talking about the the generational divides a little bit earlier and I don't blame Millennials and Gen Z's for some of the proclivities. Some of this I think was brought in government schooling and also maybe lack of parenting and that was

probably from either probably from the the older boomers I don't know but how are you thinking this morning huh? Well first let's talk about Trump and what he's doing. And he, he's actually trying to transition us from the post World War II economy, whereby the United States gave concessions to Japan and to South Korea and to Europe to Japan and to South Korea and to Europe to try to build them up. And those concessions just have gone on and on and on and nothing has ever been done. Well, it's kind of like everything else where there's nothing that's more like a perpetual motion machine than a government program most of the time, right? Well, yeah, exactly that.

And politicians have figured out a way to richen themselves by doing that. So the only way that Trump could see to get us out of that mode was to dramatically change everything just by putting a tariff on everybody. And of course, you can make cases for any particular business or any country that, oh, this is unfair. But it's really the only way that he can see to change things so that the world is a more fair place for United States. Okay, you know, now what is a more fair place for the United States here? Because we are by far the largest economy out there,

and we hand over little fake pieces of paper to other places and they send us real stuff. So how badly are we being ripped off? Well, we're being ripped off because we keep having these huge trade deficits. But a trade deficit is nonsense. It just means that somebody uses their advantage to... This is where I disagree with the president, and he can bring up the former president that was the big tariff king, though, and it's not the world that it was when McKinley was doing Big Terrace. Well, that's true. It's not. But at the same time, we're at a disadvantage because all

of the basic industry jobs have gone elsewhere. And it's been partly because of the policies of this government and people who take advantage of it and enrich themselves by allowing that to happen. But the bottom line is we don't make things here anymore. And we have this trade deficit. So he's trying to do two things. He's trying to get it so that we

can make things again in this country. But remember, we have a trade deficit because we're also the federal, we are the world's reserve currency. You have to run a trade deficit. Otherwise, there is no trade because everybody settles trades in dollars. We have to, that's why we've gotten to the point where we export our inflation. And you can say you don't wanna do that, but if you wanna say, okay, we don't wanna be the world reserve currency any longer, and we wanna have trade surpluses, et cetera, et cetera,

that's gonna be a super big change for the United States. Would it not be? Yes, it is gonna be a change. And I don't know that that will ever happen if we're gonna maintain the strong dollar, which is what you're talking about. But if you want to make an effect, a change from the policies of post-World War II, whereby we gave advantages to countries to let them build up their economies, and they don't need

to build up their economies and they don't need to build up their economies anymore. They have a strong economy. They have strong economies and there are just huge imbalances in European automobiles for example. There's just huge things out there that don't let the United States compete in the world market. Okay, all right. Steve, I appreciate that. Now go ahead and do the generational thing. You wanted to comment on that earlier. Okay. Well, you know, I was born right after the end of World War II, and, you know, nobody had much of anything. Everything was put into the war effort. And so, you know, my parents,

my dad joined the Navy and he got ulcers, so he got out and he worked in a mill up in the woods all during World War II. My mom cooked for 14 men on a wood cook stove. Their view of the world was so different than it is today. And you know, I lived the first couple of years of my life in a tent with a wood floor because they didn't have anything. Dad managed to buy a piece, an acre of land and build a house on it, one two by four at a time. So, you know, I just saw the world in a different light than most people do.

I was a baby boomer kind of going to college when the transition was happening from World War Two people into okay baby boomer kind of land where the value of that college education was so high and the reason that college education was so valuable is because during World War Two if you had a college education you were an officer. That's right. If you didn didn't, you were a grunt. So people looked at that and said, hey, this is a way for me to have an advantage. All right. Point well taken.

Thanks for the call. 770-5633. It is Pebble in your Shoe Tuesday, 823. Hi, good morning. Who is this? Welcome. Bill, it's your friend Brad. Good morning.

Brad, sorry I hung up on you earlier. Go ahead. What's on your mind? We're still friends. You know, you always have these great discussions about grant stream funding and what happens downstream. And not only are you absolutely right, but this is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Why? Because we know that 30%, roughly 30% of Oregon's budget is made up from federal downloads. So on a $30 billion budget, that means that the federal government's part of that is about nine billion. We know

that this administration is serious about getting states to comply with the executive orders. And so they want to take a meat ax to that, sure, and I would also add, probably get us in line with federal policy via that meat axing, wouldn't you say? Well, yes. And the important thing, I think, to understand is, is that Trump isn't just going after this reservoir of money. He's going after their money machine. He's not just going after this big pool of money that the progressive left has been building up for years and years and years, he is disassembling the equipment that manufactures the money. And for that we say, Godspeed. I say, Godspeed, if that's the case. We know that all the top positions in Oregon are funded by out-of-state money. So if we limited

campaign contributions to just inside the state of Oregon, Christine Dresden would be our governor, Dennis Richard Dennis... Lenticum. Lenticum would be our secretary of state and what later would be our attorney general. But because the left has these big pools of money out there, they can literally, I mean mean there's only 4.2 million people in Oregon that doesn't take that much to influence an election. Would you actually like no campaign financing from outside the state? Do you think that would be a way of going about this? And I don't know how this would pass according to Citizens United and First Amendment issues because First Amendment is protecting political speech more than anything else. What do you think? I don't, yeah, so I don't think you need to get into the constitutional limitations on that sort

of thing because what we're having here is we're having a discussion about the practical limitation. Once you make this money unavailable because they don't have this money manufacturing monster that they used to have, it's going to make it a much more level playing field. It's not a level playing field when literally tens of millions of dollars can come in from outside of the state and give people elected officials that they otherwise would not support. Very good point. Thanks for making it, Brad.

770-5633. Pebble in your shoe Tuesday. Hi, good morning. And who might you be? Who's this? This is Gene. Hi, good morning and who might you be? Who's this? This is Gene. Hi Gene, welcome back. What's on your mind? Okay, one thing. Have you figured that maybe those National Guard in Mexico is being sacrificial goats? No weapons dressed in shorts and polo shirts? Yeah, by the way, I do have to stand corrected.

I just got an email, a news report that they are going to be in uniform, but still no guns. Can you believe that? Good target. Yeah, I know. I'm just thinking, man. I didn't get that. All right. What about the other point you wanted to make?

Go ahead. Well, I watched the, believe or not channel 12 news. I was trying to get the weather and for grants passed and President Trump was on he said he would like to send American criminals the hard criminals to El Salvador, but he can't. It's against the law. Francine should have listened to all of it. Okay. We should have what now listened to? I missed your statement there, Gene. Say that again.

We missed it all or what? Francine should have listened to all of what he said instead of just what they were putting out. Okay, got it. Appreciate the call, Gene. And you have a good one. 770-5633. Good to hear from Gene and Joe County.

Let me go to you. I don't know who's here, but we're going to find out. Good morning. Morning, Bill. This is Steve in Sunny Valley. Hi, Steve. Yeah. So the other Steve is a boomer, but if he had been born a year earlier, he would have

been part of the lost generation. And that's the generation that people always forget about between the greatest and the boomers. So kind of the silent, isn't that a term, the either lost or silent generation, right? Right. Right. And you're absolutely right about Gen X. They will not

listen to anybody tell them to go get a vaccine. Yeah, and that's why I'm thinking, you know, Pfizer's paying this Elizabeth Banks character to go out there, come on, come on, Gen Xers, let's, you know, this is our shot. It's time for us to take our shot. Or take our shot. It's like, what? And I was born a couple years after you, and consider myself a Den-Xer, I just do, because I was in the computers when I was young and everything else. Well, I'm 1961 and I find myself with kind of a toe in each one, in each generation, because the touchstones of the older baby boom generation, you know, Woodstock and the civil rights stuff and things. You know, I was just a little kid then, you know? It didn't have the same... I was three. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And so that's why they've almost talked about people like you and me, they term it, some demographers call it Generation Jones, Generation Jones, kind of like a little subset between Generation X and the Baby Boomers, the main, you know between generation x in the baby boomers the main you know who are to the baby boomers and a little bit of that that feel of both really i feel like they changed the goal post i remember when i was in high school i was gen x oh yeah in 1963 birth really yeah oh i always thought it was 1965 was the dividing line there, I thought. It is now, but it wasn't originally. I'm sure they changed goalposts on that one.

Anyway. But the thing is though is that Gen X was like considered the slackers at first. I honestly think that many of them became very good parents as time went on from what I've read. I hope so. I know we homeschooled our kids. Yeah. Well, I think that's part of it,

not really trusting institutions, and so they took a lot of that on themselves. So good for them. Appreciate the call, Steve. Let me grab another...actually, I'll tell you what. If you're on hold, I will get right to you. We'll have another round of calls here before news. And this is the Bill Meyer Show, 770-5633. There's been a crew of roofers out there for nearly three decades. 28 years. News Talk 1063 KMED. This hour of the Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing.

For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit FontanaRoofingServices.com. And you know, when you have the polka, you know Brad's here from SLM. Slovenian Lives Matter. How you doing, Brad? What's on your mind? here from SLM Slovenian Lives Matter. How you doing Brad?

What's on your mind? Hey, you know, I know how old you are. Yes. Do you realize you're a senior? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Well, I guess, you know, you become a senior citizen these days if you are 55 plus, right?

Isn't that how they term it? Oh, you know, what's so interesting is how many dynamics, dynamics affect seniors. And yet we are the, we are the major force in the economy of, of senior wealth, the senior population. Well, at least that's where most of the wealth is still gathered at this point in time. Hey, the reason I called, I study food supplies and because many of your listeners are seniors, it affects us as consumers. And what I'm getting to is there are several food items that are having tremendous inflation rates. I'll give you four. Olive oil. Olive oil has had a huge impact because the production rate is

Decreasing because of some conditions that are in the growers economy, there's some diseases that are affecting All of trees I was not aware of that So olive oil could be something that if you can get it at a good price get it now tuck it away Well, we're talking 30 to 40 percent rate increases. That's good to know. All in all. Okay.

And if you're going to tuck it away, you might want to get it in the can, right? The can would probably protect it for storage longer. I would imagine another food item, oranges. Oranges is having, the growers are having an immense impact on the disease that's affecting the trees in production. Therefore, prices are going to go up. So to be able to buy oranges now is a better purchase than buying oranges later. Okay fair enough and what are the other two quickly here I'm just almost out of time. Okay, avocados and rice. Both of which supply will be reduced dramatically prices will follow. I'm figuring that we're going to see that and also more use of avocado oil too which I'm now using exclusively for my real frying heavy-duty frying. Absolutely.

It's just something for consumers to know. All right. Hey appreciate the call there. Thank you for the tip. Can't really store the oranges but I can store avocado oil and I can store the other stuff that you were talking about. All right. Olive oil. You can do that too. Let me go to Richard. Richard's in Medford. Hi Richard. Yes, good morning Bill. Morning. I was just listening to your conversation earlier about income tax and sales tax. Yes. Theoretically I'd be in favor of a sales tax if it replaced the income tax. But has anybody ever come up with a number of what percentage it would require to replace it?

I recall last time they were trying to do it in the state of Oregon, I thought they were talking about a six or seven percenter is what they thought it would it would take to do it. I'd almost have to look that up Richard and it is a yeah I want to say six or seven percent but don't hold that to hold me to that okay all right. Yeah well just a just curiosity question because I think if they did one or the other. That's just it. They never want to do one or the other though, right? They want a little bit of everything, I think, is what they're trying to do. Yeah, they just want more. Thanks for the call, Richard. And line four, I don't know who's here, but we'll give you a quick bite. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Listen, Gene. Gene, we already, good morning. Who's this? This is Gene.

Oh, Gene, we already had you on. What's up? I know. I'd like a second bite, though. Okay, well, you haven't called for a long, long time, so I will defer to my elder, okay? Okay. I consider myself a war baby, and I am not violent. And as far as that goes after they had the experimental drugs there's no damn way I trust any manufacturer of drugs. Well gosh you're more generation X than than you think.

Nah, I'm a war baby. I was born during World War II. I know I'm just teasing you about that, Gene. Appreciate the call. 770-5633-770-Camey. See if I can grab one more before we have open for business and news. Let me go to the next line. Hi, good morning.

Who's this? Hi Bill, it's Rich. Rich, how are you? I heard you talking about taxes a little bit ago. Okay. And you said something about a sales tax. And there's one reason that Oregon has never passed the sales tax.

And the reason is the dirty, wily, scallywags, no matter what they say, they're not gonna quit taxes they already have. And I understand that suspicion. I really do. I don't know if it's a suspicion or a fact though, buddy. Yeah, yeah. Maybe so, maybe so. and repeal the income tax and eliminate it. That would almost have to be referred to by the legislature because I think you couldn't do it on an initiative if it dealt with more than one item, right?

You can only do one thing at a time in a... Very true that way. Yeah, yeah. And so that makes it tough for the citizens to do it. Right. But what would be the thing with the way they put on stuff now, like just you know the half percent tax that some all of a sudden it just appeared and we didn't have to on cars and you know considered the luxury tax. No one had any

vote on that. Oh that's because it was a corporate activity tax put on by our state legislature. That's why because they wanted that. Do you think they're not going to do that in the future if they get a sales tax? Because I think the whole position is, mommy, can I have more? Yeah, you're absolutely right. But of course, I don't know. Income tax in Oregon is very progressive and you get up to that 10-11% mark very, very quickly. Oh, I agree. So it is a big burden on the poor, too, for sure.

Appreciate the call. Thank you for making that. And then we're going to close the calls here for a little bit. This is the Bill Meyers Show.