Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-20-26_MONDAY_6AM

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Morning news and commentary and later is there any way to strip pensions from disgraced congress members? Analysis with Demian Brady, Vice President of Research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.

This hour of the Bill Meyer Show podcast is proudly sponsored by Klauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for more than 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. Now more with Bill Meyer. Welcome to Monday, the 20th of April. And we're going to see more more rain coming today. Does it mean that the drop predictions will change any, unfortunately, which that were the case? But welcome to the show.

What is on your mind? We have some time to kick things around this morning. 770 5633 770 KMAD, the email bill at Billmyershow.com. Let me pull up my show notes. I just realized I hadn't pulled them open. I can't believe it. I had my news stories. I've got my coffee.

Always have to have a coffee, right? Got to take care of that. And gosh, you're going to talk with Demian Brady this morning, vice president of research at National Taxpayers' Union. And it has to do with, what do you do about these Congress critters that end up being found And, well, dipping wicks into the hired help pool and, in other words, all sorts of sex scandals and kind of corruption going on. And yet people resign and they end up keeping their congressional pension. Well, there's a group and his group is actually working to bring more accountability to it and maybe start going after the pensions.

And I think that'll be pretty interesting to talk about. Dr. Douglas Frank is going to be coming to Jackson County. and let's see that is going to be Tuesday it's going to be a week from tomorrow Tuesday 6 till 830 at the Jackson County Republican Party that's going to be the party

office on 1st Street in Central Point on Front Street pardon me in Central Point did they get that right yeah okay but it's in Central Point the Central Point headquarters now and we're going to be talking about what this is all about these various algorithms how this works out and when it comes to election integrity

And Dr. Frank is considered the gold standard on this. He's the one that I was first finding out a number of months ago when I saw him at a Josephine County event that Dr. Douglas Frank was speaking at. And he was talking about, hey, you know, boy, we're really overachievers here in Southern Oregon. 105, 106 percent of registered voters are registered to vote in Josephine County and pretty similar numbers in Jackson County. In other words, more people on the voter rules than actually exist. that there could ever be any kind of hinky that goes through this. Now, what I'm curious about, though, he claims, he claims it in a lot of election systems, and I don't know if it's the Oregon election system or not, and that's what I want to talk with him about. Are we dealing

with any kind of algorithmic, in other words, sort of computer-massaged counting issues? It doesn't appear that are counting machines that, as far as I know, are not connected to the internet and such here in southern Oregon and are just plugged into the you know the secretary of states a hive mind so to speak you know the results are i mean do we have the same problems that that we see in other states the challenge you run into is that faith-based voting which is what the vote by mail is is inherently insecure but anyway i'll talk with him about that 730 we're going to have that talk and a whole bunch more okay with dr douglas frank and he'll be in town like you said a week from tomorrow, 6 till 830 at the Jackson County Republican Party headquarters.

All right. Let's see. We had a Medford guy convicted of child sex pervert. Yeah, child sex abuse crimes is what it was called. And cut a plea deal on Friday, still going to prison for a long, long time. Paul Moser, Judge Moser, pro tem, ended up sentencing 38-year-old Anthony Grant of Medford to 15 years in prison. That's 15 years on a plea deal. It's Measure 11, and from what I understand on Measure 11, there's no like time off for good time,

so he's going to be in prison a long, long time. Something I noticed this morning as I went over the AAA oil prices, price of diesel actually went down. Yeah, 15 to 20 cents over the last week compared to a week ago. That was actually a little bit of good news. This is Southern Oregon, Southern Oregon pricing, by the way. So that actually worked out pretty much in the positive deal as far. as regular gas up about a nickel in Jackson and Josephine County.

It's interesting to observe what has been going on here because we're now, what, going into the eighth week of two weeks to flatten the Iranians. And it's a little more challenging, I guess, than we thought. And ceasefire not really holding. We have a U.S. Navy destroyer firing on a cargo vessel attempting to sail to the Iranian port. That's the one that blew the hole in the engine department. he had the Iranian-flagged vessel going around the North Arabian Sea toward Bander Abbas-Iran when it was intercepted by the USS Bruins issued warnings that it was in violation of blockade because the whole idea is that, hey, if Iran's going to say that we're going to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the president more or less coming out there and saying, well, guess what?

No one's going to be going in and out of your ports either. You know, see, what do you think about that, right? I was really surprised, you know, looking at the stock market and such that everyone's doing the happy dance on Friday when there was talk about things being better. And then, well, you know, I'm going to think it's really better or really settling. You know, if we can hold this for a week or two, maybe there's some real progress, right? And then sure enough, it's just like a few hours after they were doing the happy dance on the oil markets and on the stock market on Friday, then boom. Right back to the mess that it was before. Now, they're not throwing a lot of bombs at each other yet,

but, you know, still, it's not over until you're able to make this hold for a week or two or several weeks, really. It even is, it's not going to be over. There's a lot to... A lot of moving parts on something like that. And speaking of which, I had a listener, Judy from Gold Hill, Judy Beals writes me, says, Bill, junkyard dogs and street fighters are rude, crude, and take direct action. That's how they get the job done. We have one in the White House now whose tactics you criticize almost daily.

And then Friday, you spend 10 minutes plus complaining that no street fighters showed up with the GOP debate. Did the organizers stipulate decorum rules? Anyway, why not jump into the hot seat and run for it, office yourself and see how that works out? Really enjoy your show, your interviews are superior, though sometimes you miss making a direct point. Like when discussing the Oregon kicker issue, you fail to mention that the state keeps up. two percent of them anyway. Some people might not know that. But it annoys me when you go Lars Larson-esque. Lars Larson-esque. Oh, okay, that I actually would go out of the occasional rant. Is that kind of what you're going at? Judy, here, you know, I'm always going to be honest with you.

I'm going to tell you what I'm thinking here. I once again gave President Trump my vote, but I don't give him my brain, and I don't think any of us should either. That's just the way I tend to look at it. And President Trump is quite often, he's Mercury. and a massive contradictions. And he tends to do things from instinct, and his instincts are usually pretty good. Sometimes, though, when you're a war plan, you've got to be a little more careful

because he was being warned a long time that Iran is not like knocking over Maduro. And I think we pretty much found that out. Iran is very much decentralized. And in fact, I was reading an article from the Wall Street Journal, which is not Trump unfriendly, but not necessarily a Trump licksperson,

middle either, you know, for media. And they were talking about him expressing a lot of frustration that he's not able to bend the Iranians to his will the way he would like. And even though he's just blowing things up left and right, it's a different type of enemy. And people who knew what was going on in the Middle East tried to, I think, tell him that, Judy. But I don't think he wanted to listen. I certainly know that Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn't have wanted him to listen to that because this is something that Israel has been wanting for a long, long time, too,

the destruction of one of their main enemies, all right? But I don't know. The timing, this is the real challenge, the way I looked at it, Judy, is that this is politically dangerous for the president, and he has little enough support within the system right now. And let's say that if we end up having a bloodbath in the midterms, because energy prices and food prices are still problems, because that's all people that are going to care about.

They're not going to sit around there. They're not going to be those altruistic type of individuals that are saying, I know there were some people on my Facebook page, and I kind of make fun of it a little bit, in which they go, oh, you know, I don't care how high the fuel of the food gets here, as long as my grandchildren don't have to put up with an Iran. It's nice to say that, but that's not the way most people are going to end up voting in the,

midterms. Not that the Democrats are necessarily going to get lots of Republican votes. I don't think that's the case at all. But it does tend to depress the base. That's what I get concerned about. And frankly, there are other things that sometimes President Trump will say that

makes me kind of scratch my head. Like, well, he ran on getting rid of the FISA court. That is a horrible thing. And I'm going, all right, President Trump, wonderful thing. This secret court. Secret courts shouldn't belong in America.

He becomes president. Now he says, you know, I am willing to give up my rights for our great military and our great country. And that's what he said the other day. He was that deal for FISA. And you can understand why people who voted for him kind of like scratch the hand going, wait a minute. This is not what I asked for. It's like, you know, and so you have to, you even have to hold our guy accountable. That's all I'm saying.

And when he's doing something we think is right. Great. I've got to tell you, I've been real happy with his judge picks. No doubt about that. Matter of fact, I was reading another article. I also think that was Wall Street Journal. I was reading a lot of Wall Street Journal over the weekend that President Trump is going to tighten up on his judge picks and making them more personal because there have been sometimes that in the last administration or his last administration, the first administration, he had some of those squishes slip through. Amy Coney Barrett as an example. Yeah, wants to be a little tighter on getting more conservative judges in there. And I'm real happy about that because, you know, that's long-term influence in the courts.

There's the good and there's the bad. Now, as far as me complaining about no fighters in the Republican Party, I'm not saying that there aren't any fighters in the Republican Party, but I'll tell you when you saw how the Oregon Republican Party conducted that debate. It wasn't a debate. That's what I was yelling about. That's what I was so hot and bothered over. It wasn't a debate.

It wasn't about protocol. It was essentially false advertising. That was not a debate. That was an event that the Liberal League of Women Voters could have put on. We'll ask you questions, and then you can all answer in turn. You know, round-robin fashion. You know, that's not a debate. And the reason, Judy, God, God love you.

I appreciate your writing and trying to hold me accountable, too. The reason why it's so important to see some fighting and some disagreement among these Republican candidates is that the ballots are going to drop in a couple of weeks. Did you realize we're that close? The ballots are going to be in the mail. They're going to be people going to start voting in a couple of weeks. And I don't think the four top contenders have really differentiated themselves and called out the BS that the other candidates may have that they think that they're better. That's why I thought it was so important and they have them all on the same stage.

This was the time to have hashed it out. And even the liberal media said, boy, you know, they didn't really take many shots at one another. Yep, and they should have been. Because the job right now is to take shots at one another, rise to the top, get the primary votes. Then we make nice and get together and have a little get together and say, all right, let's cut the deals and move on to win in November.

Okay? That's all I was getting at, all right? And, Judy, I'm going to give you an email of the day. Email the day, sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson and Central Point Family Dentistry.com. Central Point Family Dentistry.com. While you weigh crowns, that is a big specialty of theirs. And, Judy, I appreciate you writing and your listenership. And even if I do, oh, irritate you sometimes if I get a little Lars Larson-esque. Of course, I could never be like Lars.

I don't know how he does it. That man is a talking machine, man. It's like, I don't think I could even breathe like him. I think he's an amazing individual. He's in the right industry, that is for sure. He does six hours a day, six hours a day, sometimes seven or eight if he's on TV. I think he's doing that right now, too. Just amazing.

625 at KMED. What's on your mind? Tell me, this is the Bill Meyer show. Did you know that SISQ Pump Service does much more than service pumps? In addition to providing pump installation and repair, Siscu Pump installs water systems and storage tanks, water filtration, systems plus conducts real estate well inspections and flow testing. And with their drilling division, they can consult and drill your well too. At Sisku Pump Service and Rotary Drilling Company,

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626. Let me go to, gosh, we have, uh, the they have, uh, the they from the Applegate. What was your name again? I didn't write that down. Go ahead. Oh, my gosh, Bell. You should know my name by now. Sorry, my voice is kind of going in and out. I don't know if I caught a little bit of a bug. You know, I just, you know, the thing is, Vicky, you know, Vicki, the thing is, you ever had that situation? I was just talking with you, Vicki, and then all of a sudden, I go to you, and I don't know if that is just, you know, I got a thousand things going on to my head. It's just like, I know you. I've only talked to you like 40 times over the last. month or so. But anyway, what's on your mind?

It's called a brain fart. Yeah. So I'm going to have to get a little bit of that, gosh, what is that, one of those brain supplements that they're always talking about, you know? But anyway, what's on your mind, huh? So we just got a long tractor to be able to mow our fields. And a friend of mine informed me that starting May 1st, they're going to be adding 10% more ethanol to the gas. so it'll be up to 20%. So just a little tip, you're not supposed to use, I guess, that much in your lawn equipment or your weed eaters.

So they're at town and pump by the mall. They have a separate little pump that is just the 10% ethanol. Well, don't they have, now I bought ethanol free from them. Do they no longer have ethanol free? That's what it is. but she said that that's what you want to put in your lawn equipment. Otherwise, it's going to mess up the engines on your equipment. Yeah, you're right.

If you can, if you can possibly do it with your lawn equipment, use 100% gasoline, and they do sell that at some of these pumps. I hope that they're not using the E-10 for the special pump. But I did hear that they were talking about going to E-20. which, of course, you know what that means, Vicki. That means that the gasoline is being encrapified, and there's less energy in that, too, which means your gas mileage goes down, too, because of that.

I heard it was like it's almost like adding more water to it. Well, it's not adding more water to it. It's just that ethanol alcohol has lower energy content for the same amount of liquid than gasoline does. So you have lower fuel mileage when this happens. Well, I guess I'm only going to go to 1 to 30 in 2.6 seconds instead of 1 to 60. There you go. There you go. All right.

But thanks for the tip, already. You'd be well. 770K UED. Thank you, Vicki. Nikki sounds like she has allergy this morning, doesn't she? 629. Hi, who's this? Good morning.

This is Minor Dave. Hello, Dave. Sorry, Vicki. Sorry that you're not feeling very well. I just wanted to say, is Bill? Yeah. When an announcement comes out that there's a ceasefire and all that, you always need to wait a couple weeks because five minutes later it can change. Yeah.

You'll find this interesting, Dave. I picked up a story out of the Investors Observer. You know, I've talked to reporters over at Investors Observer now and then. In fact, how to get him back on. You know how they reported it this weekend with the ceasefire? You'll find this interesting. Okay, hang on, just take a listen here. It says, right on cue, another Iran-piece escalation round took place over the weekend,

and the markets are about to open lower this morning. The absurdity of perfectly timed geopolitics is even more absurd because both sides appear to be insider trading their announcements. On Friday, there was a major spike in S&P 500 futures contracts, betting that the market would go up with over 300 million. worth of long positions added in minutes. At the same time, $760 million worth of oil shorts, betting that oil would go down, were offloaded. And just 21 minutes later, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz open,

resulting in $50 million in profits for people in four hours. And the same thing happening on March night. So the suspicion that they have is that there's bits of leaking going on within the financial world, from the political world. It sounds like it, and you know, this is actually breaking England and NATO. Do you think about it, NATO didn't help us in anything? So they've already started pulling out of Spain soldiers. They're going to close bases.

Yeah, that means that they don't have the same kind of protection. But, of course, you know, I don't know if you were a Gulf state right now, a golf state, Would you want to be depending on the United States to defend you right about now? I'd be thinking twice. Yeah, yeah, because they ended up pulling a lot of material and men out of that area because of the dangers from the Iranian attack. So I'm hoping that they get this all patched up because it is very important to preserve the petro dollar, wouldn't you agree? Yeah, yeah.

And the thing about the petro dollar is, you know, England, created that. So, because they don't have a Navy to back up like we do. And so they've been using us as the financial markets like, you know. Yeah, I don't know if I agree with you that England created the Petro dollar. It seemed to me that Kissinger created the Petro Dollar along with Nixon and the rest of them, you know. They're the ones in charge of our Federal Reserve. Yeah.

Oh, I know that's what you claim. You make that claim. I don't know if I agree with you on that, but we'll agree to disagree for now, all right? Well, you're going to see that England's going bankrupt. Okay, it doesn't make us any better, does it? Yeah, it does, because it gets rid of the imperial global markets, replaced by industrial markets of the United States and we call it sovereign nations. I'm going to have to think a bit about it that, Dave, okay?

Appreciate the call, though. Thanks for check it in. 633. We'll catch up on the rest of the news here, too. And then we'll talk about clawing back pensions. Any way to do that with corrupt Congress critters? I think that's it. I would love to see the ability for that to happen. This is the Bill Meyer show. Do you ever get that feeling the walls are closing in on you? From stress? No, from hanging out in our basement. What do you mean? There's a wall that's actually starting to close in on us. It's cracked and boat. Well, we have two choices. Number one. Watch it get worse. Or? Or call the lead construction. for a free estimate. Foundations, basements, and concrete walls adjacent to a slope can crack and move, compromising the integrity of your home. Malek Construction can repair the problem and correct the issue that caused it. Visit Malekconstruction.com. KMED News, here's what's going on. A Medford man convicted of child sex abuse crimes is headed to prison. That verdict part of a plea deal Friday, as circuit court judge pro tem Paul Moser sentenced 38-year-old Anthony Grant of Medford to 15 years in prison the Measure 11 crimes. The Iran conflict, creating volatility in the oil markets, and that reflects in our fuel prices in Southern Oregon. Oil prices plunging Friday on news that the Strait of Hormuz

was opening and oil prices going back up now that it's closed again. A gallon of regular up about a nickel this week. AAA reporting Jackson County is 509 for regular, Joe County 514. Diesel has actually gone down 15 to 20 cents compared to a week ago. The average cost about 625 a gallon. We're expecting rain today. That doesn't change the National Weather Services. Seasonal Outlook just released. That prediction is hotter and drier than normal for the next three months in the northwest. Idaho also expected to join in the warm and drought conditions. California could go either way. And Oregon Health Authority expressing concerns in what they claim is a growing measles outbreak, mostly in the northern part of the state. One was hospitalized recently. That person released in doing okay now. But overall, 20 cases of measles have. been reported so far this year. Bill Meyer, KMED News. I'm Susan Lee, and this is the Fox Business Report. Tensions in the Iran conflict are pushing oil prices higher, though still below $100 a barrel, and stock futures are under pressure. A major building supplier is taking on another business. QXO is buying insulation company top build for $17 billion. Energy companies are looking to other parts of the

world for new sources of oil and gas away from the Middle East. The Wall Street Journal says Exxon Mobile is expanding in Nigeria for Chevron. It's Venezuela. The surge in energy prices is providing the oil industry with a windfall of cash. Farmers have sued deer over the extremely high cost for repairs to tractors and harvesters. Deere settled the case this month, but the Wall Street Journal says the settlement still needs to be approved by a federal judge in Illinois. That's your Fox Business report. I'm Jannie Kosovo, invested in you. Most investments today feel like second jobs. Real estate, you're a landlord. Stocks, you're a day trader. Crypto, you're a full-time researcher. You've got a life to live.

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and keep their overhead down to provide you expert repair and installation at a reasonable cost. Call completed Electric Plus and get those electrical repairs and upgrades completed and off your to-do list. and mention you heard it on KMED to save an additional 5% off their already affordable rates. Visit completed electricplus.com. The Bill Myers Show on 1063KMED. Delighted you're here, 637 this Monday morning, and joining me is Demi and Brady, who is the Vice President of Research for the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, the NTUF. And he runs the NTUF's taxpayer budget office, produces analysis and commentary.

and so otherwise, you go in there and you dig into the numbers. Isn't that right, Demian? Welcome to the show. That's right. Yeah, we try to provide better budget information for Congress, helping to improve transparency of the cost of the bills that they produce and the costs of the various benefits that they've given themselves. So we have our work cut out for us, and we try to inform taxpayers about what's going on with their money.

I would imagine that it doesn't matter that if it's the Trump administration or the Biden, administration or the Obama administration. They always try to shade the two costs of most bills, I would imagine. That's just something common in politics, wouldn't it be? Yeah, and there are budget gimmicks that both sides of the aisle like to use that we're trying to shed light on and help get rid of so that we don't. And that's why everyone says that their bills are paid for, but then somehow the deficit keeps climbing.

Yeah, the moment that you hear that, oh, the bill's paid for, You need to have like a big buzzer and a big alarm clang of some sort is just liar, you know, that kind of thing. Okay, well, Damien, I want to talk with you about some people. We've had just a plethora of scum-sucking Congress critters

go for the exit lately here. And from what I understand, depending on how they play their cards, they get to keep their pension, isn't that right? It's a pretty generous pension. Tell me about that and what you're working on here. Yeah, that's correct. So any member who's been in Congress for at least five years is eligible for the congressional pension plan. And the amount of that starting amount of their pension is based on how long they've been in office and there's a cruel rate tied to when they got elected and their highest three-year averages of salary, which has been frozen at $174,000 over the last several years, a couple decades or a couple decades. so. So back in 2007 and then in 2012, Congress passed some laws, and NCU and NTF helped lay the

groundwork for these laws that cut off pension for members of Congress who are indicted for corruption, abusing public funds and getting kickbacks and competing with investigations. So there are penalties on the book. And then, you know, there was a loophole in those laws. So even if a member was sitting in jail after they've been convicted, they were still allowed to get their pensions, even if they had, I mean, as long as they had appeals going against their original conviction. So we helped get the No Corruption Act passed, which cuts off that loophole. But we saw this week with, last week with the resignation of Eric Swalwell in California and Tony Gonzalez in Texas, they have some serious allegations against them, but those are not

covered among the crimes that lead to pension forfeiture. So Eric Swalwell is a relatively young man at age 45. He'll be eligible for his starting pension of $22,000 when he turned 62 and 2042. Tony Gonzalez wasn't in office for too long, so he gets the minimum starting pension of $8,700. And now is that, when you say $22,000, is that per month or per year? That's per year. Yeah, it'll be the starting amount for that first year. And then after that, it gets adjusted for inflation going forward, and there's formulas that check that. Yeah. What is the highest congressional or senatorial pension someone can get?

Do you know? I mean, is there like a cap on what you can get? Yeah, there's a cap. There are a couple different programs, and they've reformed them over the years. So there's not too many people left in the original civil service retirement system. Steny Hoyer just announced his retirement from Congress after this current session, giving his length in office and he also held some leadership positions, which bunches bumps up his salary.

He's eligible for starting pension of $125,000. The starting amount is limited by, it's a certain percentage of your salary. It can't be greater. I can't remember what that number is off the top of my head. And then the other interesting case, of course, is former senator and vice president and president Biden. So his time as vice president counts towards his Senate pension. And then as president, he gets this whole separate pension.

So between the two, he stands to collect about $417,000 this year, which is more than the president collects. Oh, it's not bad pay, really, at least on a pension basis here. The house pensions, that kind of sounds a little thin gruel, though, wouldn't you agree? It's not exactly a huge amount of money. It doesn't sound like it. Well, we know it's important for them because look at the case of Marjorie Taylor Green. She said that she was going to resign from Congress, and then she picked a date several months out that just gave her five years and three days of service, which locked in her starting pension, which is the minimum starting an out, 8,000, 7.

hundred dollars. And there have been reforms over the years to tighten it back because the original system, the one that Steny Hoyer was in, was much more generous. And so there have been reforms over the years to try to contain the cost for taxpayers. You know, I'm kind of torn sometimes between two extreme ways of looking at this, Deming. And by the way, Deming and Brady is with me. He's the Vice President of Research for the National Taxpayer Union Foundation. Is that, all right, what is a a typical Congress critter get right now? How much is it per year? $174,000. $174,000. That sounds like a lot of money. I don't think it really is, though, when you figure that you have to, you have to have a separate home.

You have to have a home in the district, and you have to have a home in Washington, D.C. too. I would imagine that gets kind of pricey, doesn't it? Honestly? There are members who have tried to, every now and then there's a push to income. the salary. So under law, it's supposed to be increased automatically every year, the congressional salary. But every year for a long time now, Congress has voted to block those automatic pay increases. And I'll have a paper coming out this week about a related issue because there is a handful of current and former members of Congress who are suing, saying that many of those votes that blocked the automatic pay increases violated the 27th

amendment to the Constitution. And so they are seeking retroactive back pay. And this, they're seeking damages that could ultimately cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year because if, if they are successful, then it will increase their back pay. And then they can go and say, hey, you underestimated our pension. So that's, that's a huge liability. There's something that they should really think carefully about before they proceed because the ultimate damages are going to fall into taxpayers. And we already have a really massive debt. You know, Damien, I couldn't even tell you what the 27th Amendment is without looking it up. Which one is that?

So it was one of the original Bill of Rights, authored by James Madison and introduced in the very early years of the Republic. And it says that members of Congress cannot alter their salary without an intervening election. So they're saying that many of these votes have violated that. Oh. But, you know, then you get into the question of whether, because they're keeping their salary the same, did they really modify their salary regarding the timing of an election? So it's a really complicated case. There's something else that has kind of concerned me that if low congressional pay, and I'm not sitting around crying over it, all right, because everybody signs up for it and, you know, they do their gig. But it does seem to be that the vast majority or are really good.

good amount of them get very wealthy and arguably on inside information and sweetheart deals while they're in the Congress and Senate. Do you agree with me? It just seems pretty obvious. That's what's going on. Yeah, there's been lots of concerns about that. Many members of Congress seem to do above the average when it comes to returns on investments in stocks.

So it seems like something going on there. And there is an effort, a bipartisan effort, though there are some agreements on the best way forward to try to do something about members of Congress involved with stock trading without providing, you know, we want limits and honesty, but we also don't want to dissuade successful people from running for Congress. So that's the balance in trying to figure out the best reform for that. Well, let's be honest. I'm thinking that we would all be perfectly wealthy if we just all just did Paul Pelosi's stock picks. It's just amazing, you know, being married to Nancy Pelosi. He must have just got it psychically through what she knew and what was.

coming. That kind of thing, right? Yeah, it's a good stock tips to follow, to see what she's up to. Or maybe what we should then require is that all of our 401Ks just follow what the Congress critters do. They're going to vote in their own best interest, and then we'll

all get wealthy. What do you think about that, Demian? Maybe that'll be the... That's not like that could be a good strategy. Okay. All right, so as far as, clawing back the pensions here, of people who resign in disgrace, I mean, is there a Is there any rule which protects – now, if someone has actually thrown out of Congress, do they lose their pension? Is there any way to do that? Or do they get their pension anyway?

No, they were facing Swalwell, in particular, were facing an expulsion vote. And I do not believe that that automatically does anything regarding any benefits that are provided via serving in Congress. It might list – there are restrictions on access to the physical. facilities. That might be affected by that, but their pensions are not impacted. Now, there have been, there was a law introduced just last week by Senator Josh Hawley, that would add the things that Swal while being accused of. That's something that would result in a member losing their Congress, if convicted of that. But things like that can't be enforced retroactively. So he would be safe, but anyone down the road after that bill, if it becomes law, then any future congressman accused of both seen crimes would then face pension forfeiture. I would hope so.

You know, Demi, and the point being with Eric Swalwell especially is that it was probably the worst kept secret in the world that he was a nasty individual. There's just no doubt about that. And, you know, the rumors and the smoke for a long, long time. But at the same time, in the United States of America, I don't like the idea of necessarily the accusations that don't convict you in a court of law being used to affect you? Where am I right or wrong about that? That kind of thing, even though I'd love to see them stripped.

Yeah, it seems to happen in politics quite often. People get what leverage they can. But, yeah, that's why it's important to distinguish at times like this that there are allegations and hasn't been adjudicated by law enforcement yet. Okay. Yeah. As far as I'm concerned, if you're convicted, that's one thing or another. I mean, you're serving time.

You know, there's something else that's going on at the National Taxpayers Foundation that I would love to find out more about. And you have something in here, an article about taxpayers shouldn't subsidize perks for wealthy former presidents. Could you explain what that's all about? Do you know that off the top of your head? Just curious. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that relates to the issue we mentioned earlier with President Biden, who's eligible for two separate taxpayer funds.

funded pensions, one for being president and one for serving in Congress for so long. So the benefits for former presidents were provided after Truman, Harry Truman left office, and it was reported at the time that poor Harry was down on his luck and needed some taxpayer support to protect the dignity of the former president. So then they established, they get a generous pension that's tied to the salary, of a cabinet secretary, and they also get office expenses for life. There's no restrictions on where that could be or how much, and then funding for staff and then supplies and transportation,

and security is a part of that as well. So, but these, it turns out once his widow's papers were released decades later, that turns out Harry Truman had a lot more money than, It was known at the time. It was quite wealthy. And, you know, of course, in the modern era, former presidents are all extremely wealthy and have so many opportunities to go out and generate additional wealth for themselves. You know, $100,000 million speeches, things like that happen all the time as a former president. Isn't that the case?

And then, you know, on top of that, they're getting this office spending for life and the pension. So Senator Joni Ernst has introduced legislation. that would cap the pension amounts to them and put some limits on the office expenditure, you know, based on how wealthy they are, that provide some relief for taxpayers. And I think you can build on that, too, do we really need to be providing office expenses for the rest of their life? It seems like it's something that they use to generate book deals and speech opportunities. I think we can go further and limit the subsidies. So what about when it comes to subsidies or the buying of secret service officers?

I mean, if someone is very wealthy like a Biden, and I would dare say President Trump, can't they afford their own security or is that something we should continue to provide in your view? I would not want to weigh in on that. I'll leave that to security experts. When we are talking about repealing this, I'm talking about the various perks that they get apart from security. Now, they do have the option to decline that as well. I see. And the amount provided for that is not available to the public.

But we do know how much they get. We have a report on our website showing how much is going to each president over the years. All right. Demi, and I really appreciate the talk this morning. You can read up more on these subjects, and I will link to all of this. It's ntu.org, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Well, I'm glad that the, well, with all the, the unionized government employees,

it's good to know that there's a national taxpayers' union here, Deming, and thanks for being on the show. Thanks for having me on. All right, you'd be well. 652 at KMED and KBXG. The following preview has been rated immature for all audiences except metal roof enthusiasts and small children.

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Man, I miss playing football. Ever since I turned 40, I just can't find that fire I used to have. Think it could be lower testosterone? What do you mean? I was feeling the same way. After 40, the body has less. testosterone and men lose their edge. That's why I take Nuggenics total T2. That's the testosterone booster, right? Yes, but Total T2 is their brand new formula that sky rockets nitric oxide

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call the show at 7705 633 770 kmED 656 and change a little bit of open phone time have it get to it. Let me grab it on the line. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this? Welcome to the show. Brother Louis. Brother Louis. Brother Louis, how are things this morning? And what's on your mind? I would imagine it has to do with the Iran war. You think about that a lot lately. Yeah, you're right. I do. I don't know why everybody is because we're in a game of chicken here. Hey, hold on just a second. Louis, are you on a speakerphone? Yeah, but I've, no, I'm not. I guess. I just hear a lot of echo in the room. Could you get on the handset? Just curious. I am now.

Oh, much better. Much better. I can hear you much better. Now what's on your mind? Go ahead. Oh, yeah. I mentioned before the game of chicken, and I've been listening to retired Colonel McGregor and occasionally Scott Redder lately, and especially this morning,

the Colonel McGregor, you said that, you know, basically we're in a trap, which I think fits perfectly with a game of chicken metaphor. Okay. How does Ritter tend to look at this as a trap that? I'd like to hear that analysis, please. Turn my volume up. I couldn't hear you.

Scott Ritter part? Yeah, yeah. How is it? What is the trap part of it that Scott Ritter believes? The trap is that Trump is not going to say Trump is not going to accept defeat. and Iran, and they're all saying that Iran has won the war because they do have a Samson option. Well, they're not saying that either. That's my idea, too. My ideas are like, this is a game of chicken, and Iran is not going to chicken out. And so that means who else is there to chicken out is Trump, and he's not going to either.

So we're in trouble because Israel is getting pounded, and they're going to feel like they have a good account. excuse to use nuclear weapons. And what does that mean? You know, that's, that's kind of where I'm, what I'm thinking is that this cannot end well, unless the U.S. will actually withdraw, and there's no off-ramp. Their best chance at an off-ramp was when they went in to get the nuclear materials, and they left all their equipment, and they had to blow up all the equipment because they couldn't get back off the ground. Okay. Well, let's, let's think about it. Yeah, Are you one of the people who believes that the pilot rescue was really about trying to get into a facility, nuclear facility? Is that why you're thinking you're going down that road?

Is that what you think? That's where it was located. That's where it. Okay. All right. Let's, you know, now you say that Trump can't afford to lose, and you're right. You're right. You're right about that.

Politically, he needs a win out of this one. Yeah. Now, the point is, though, Iran's command structure is very, very. decentralized. We know that. We've talked about that before. And I don't even know if I could really tell you who's running and who's showing up in Islam is bad. I think I want to start calling that. Instead of Islamabad, Pakistan, Islam is bad. Can we just rename it that? But anything, I'll just pardon me here, Louie. I'm just cracking myself up. Okay. I get that joke, though. It's a good one. Yeah, all right. But in all seriousness, the blockade, though, the blockade is bleeding.

Iran though? Is it not? I mean, if you're keeping all trade from going in and out of Iran, they have limited ability. In fact, I think they're right up against their ability to store oil right now. And if they do that, then they're going to have to shut their oil fields down. If they shut their oil fields down, usually that ends up damaging the fields now or damaging the field sometime permanently. And it's very difficult to turn that stuff on and off, as you well know, if you study it in that, and it sounds like you probably had. So, are you sure that the president doesn't have more leverage than you're giving him credit for? Just saying.

McGregor said this morning, the thing I heard this morning was 18 hours ago, but he said that Iran, if the sea fire ends and we start bombing them again, they're going to retaliate by taking out the oil facilities on the Gulf of Oman. Yeah, yeah, okay. And then once again, those are the sort of attacks that it will take months, if not years, to repair the damage from and get oil flowing again. Exactly. Yeah. Okay.

Boy, so irresistible force meeting immovable object is what we have here, right? Yeah, but she, Iran is saying that we're not going to give in because we're dead if we give in. That's their big leverage. Do you think that making them dead? Do you think that making enough of them dead would change that equation? somehow? I'm sorry, I didn't hear that question. Do you think that making enough of them dead?

No. You don't think it would make any difference? Okay. No, because Samson pulled the columns down and the roof fell on his head and he died. But that was his option. So you're saying that Iran's Samson option may not be with nukes, but is enough to just completely destroy the oil industry of the surrounding nations there? Exactly.

Exactly. And they're destroying Israel right now. to a point where nobody can believe that Israel is even putting up with it, and still wanting to continue. I'm not reading a lot about Israel damage, though, in the news. Why is that, you suppose? You know what? My volume is very low here for some reason, and I can...

Okay, I'll try it again. I'll turn up my microphone so it feeds you louder. Okay. Okay. So I'm not reading very much about the... about Israel being pounded. So are you, are we sure that Israel is being pounded

to the extent that that McGregor is talking about? Yeah, he's saying that, but he's saying that. No, how would I know? But, but Israel definitely suppresses any information going out about any defeats they have or any

damage they have done. Agreed. That's no. They're managing the news just like everybody else manages their news in their city or in their country. Okay. All right. So you're warning about the trap, and I guess we'll find out because we're in the eighth week of two weeks to flatten the Iranians. Okay? There we go. Yeah, and we're in a worse position than ever. So that's, it seems like. All right. We'll see. It may be what it seems. It may not be. I can't answer that one. Thank you, Louis. Always happy to take an opinion and alternate opinion this morning. Let me go back to the phones and take line two. Hi, you're on KMED. Good morning. Who's this? Hello?

Morning. Bill. This is Phil. Am I on? Yeah, Phil, you are on. Go ahead. Hey. Hey, just about the retirement situations with Swalwell and the Congress, whatever, but... Yes. I'm retired military, and I know if I do anything to disgrace the military, that they can take my pension and my benefits away. Really? And that... Yes, they certainly can't. So, as an example, let's say you go out there and you pull a John...

John Kerry or something like that and throw medals over the offense back in the days with that. Is that something that would rise to the level of embarrassing the military or how serious does it get? I'm just curious. Well, I don't know. I've never attempted to try it. And don't do that. I'm not advising that just to find out. Well, let's find out where their tripwire is, right?

You know, just like that situation where they said, you know, you can disobey illegal orders. And they were telling that one guy that they could take his military pension away. So I don't see how the Congress people can be any better than a retired military person and retain their pension. Yeah, put him under the same rule. That's really interesting. You know, I was uncomfortable with this. I understood where those anti-Trump Congress critters were coming from, not that I agree with him necessarily. but it's been well known forever and ever that technically, you know, all military people are supposed to disobey unlawful orders, right?

You're taught that even when you're signing up and training. Isn't that part of the job when you're being trained? Absolutely, but you damn well better be right because if you're wrong, you're going to Leavenworth. Yeah, exactly. Your head's cut off, right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, all right, got it. Hey, thanks, Phil.

Appreciate that. 770KMED. I would never want to get angry at people to say, hey, by the way, don't follow with this an unlawful order because, yeah, we're all supposed to do that anyway, but still, I get it. Hi, good morning. KMEDE.D. Who's this? Hey, Bill, this is. Yeah, it sure is. It's Steve, right?

Yep. I'm starting to recognize your sound. Go ahead. What's on your mind today, huh? Well, the propaganda from both sides is getting deeper and deeper, and there's a funny one for you. I heard that Iran said they released the name. of 50 U.S. soldiers that they had caught.

Really? And I asked AI about it, and AI said, this is an AI-generated story. Oh, no kidding. So AI said it came from AI. Okay, well, AI ought to know, I guess. I just thought that was humorous. Got to love it.

Well, you know, we all need a little bit of a break sometimes with all the nonsense, don't we hear, Steve? We sure do. But as far as the double-dipping thing, My grandfather was a lieutenant colonel in Army Intelligence in World War II. And then he went on to USGS and he was high-level, muckety-muck. And he got both pensions. And in 1978, he was pulling in $6,000 a month.

1978, $6,000 a month. Man, that was good pension money. And now I have worked in private industry for, you know, railroads. And I worked airlines. and there's two separate pensions, but I don't get both of them. I don't get Social Security and Railroad Retirement. I get one or the other. Okay.

And is the railroad retirement better than the Social Security or is Social Security better? Oh, no. Railroad retirement's way better. Oh, good. And it's not being threatened, but I'm only given the time that I spent with the railroad and all that time I spent with the airline is gone. Was there an airline's pension? they go bankrupt, one of those kind of things?

Oh, no, no. There was a very small airline tension, and after I was furloughed, it was just enough to move my family back from Oklahoma to Oregon. Got it. All right. Well, I'm glad you're around here anyway, all right, Steve. Thanks for the call. All right.

Yep. I love that story. Yeah, I'm going to tell you. You know, we need another, we need another joke. You've got to tell a dad joke here and put a smile on your face here. And Dad Jokes of the Day are sponsored by two dogs Fabricated. Two Dogs Fabricating on Brian Way off Sage Road in Medford. All custom jobs are under one roof.

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