Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 11-11-25_TUESDAY_7AM

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

11-11-25_TUESDAY_7AM

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Klausur Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at Klausor drilling.com. I just love stories of celebrities in United Nations people going down to Brazil. And, hey, we're going to gorge ourselves on donated beef and pork and lamb. And then tell the rest of the world why are you eating that meat? How can you eat that dead animal? barbecue sauce I would say but you know be that as it may oh man 7705 633 Steve's from

Sunny Valley said he was going to call you back Steve I would love to talk with you right now not that I would normally direct to a to a listener but he called he called me during the break right before I was going to go with a Paul Dreson and I was saying if we were really worried if we were really concerned if we were truly concerned about the price of real estate we would be reducing the terms of loans because long-term loans. I know Trump would like a 50-year loan. Trump would like a 50-year loan. He's a real estate guy.

It's fine. But I would dare say that part of the reason, part of the reason besides the fact that the Federal Reserve with our funny money system, it's always about constant growth. It has to always grow. It has to always expand. It has to always inflate. always inflate. That's the way our money system and financial system is designed at this point. But if we really cared, if we really cared about, you know, real estate soaring out of sight,

it would reduce, I think part of what drives this is to be able to mortgage it out for 30 years. I think that's part of it. Now, if you think I'm insane, let me know. If you think it might make some sense, fine. I'll share a couple of thoughts here. Scott ended up writing me this morning. Scott Sefer from Jacksonville on the home mortgage, Bill, I'm 71 years old and can remember when my parents were young were looking to upgrade our home that the mortgage on the home that they wanted to purchase could be assumed.

Oh, boy, that's, okay, boomer, Scott. I'm teasing you, Scott. I'm a boomer, too, all right? But anyway, that mortgage could be assumed if the buyer could come up with the equity in the mortgage and qualify to be able to make the payments. that way a person could avoid the current mortgage interest rate. Think how that would work today for mortgages that are in the 3 to 4% interest rate instead of the current interest rates for a new mortgage. I believe that banks recognize this, and that's the reason that assumable mortgages disappeared, right?

You are, Scott, that's certainly part of that. David writes me this morning, David Schott, Bill, most people taking advantage of the much lower payments will be selling those houses within 10 to 20 years, just a matter of fact. the rate gets them into the house initially and gets paid off when they sell when they're able to afford a better home. Okay, yeah, fair enough. My point being, though, is that if the whole idea is to be home ownership rather than mortgage holders, we should lower the term for mortgages rather than increasing them. Ten-year mortgage. Fifteen, maybe 15 is the maximum, and maybe 10-year ends up becoming the standard. Of course, that would drive real estate prices lower. It would naturally do this. And then, of course, if you've got your, you know, $500,000

crapshack right now, like I do, it's not a crapshack, but, you know, I always like that term. There's this guy down in Los Angeles, Dr. Housing Bubble. He used to do a blog years ago. He talked about, you know, the $2 million crapshacks, something that used to be $50,000. back in the 1960s, now a $2 million crap check at LA, you know, that kind of thing. But anyway, we can talk about that if you want. I'm thinking, lower the term. Maybe

we do it over a number of years and stop the rampant runaway inflation on real estate. Because the thing is, is that we've now been conditioned, I guess, to think of real estate as now our investment now. Our house is now our investment rather than a good place to

live and something to build a legacy again. We never pay it off. and you never pay off you're dead. We're the government, too. But let's kick that around. Hi, good morning. This is Bill. Who's this?

Welcome. Oh, this is a discronal, Jay. Yeah, Jay, what's on your mind? I like your last guest, Paul. He sounds just like Ted Nugent. He does a little bit, doesn't he? You know, the way Ted talks. Yeah, he totally does.

But really why I called you is don't be giving your address out, man. I mean, they know you're at work right now, and they know that you live up on Crave. No, my wife is there and she's heavily armed, okay? Don't worry about it, okay? Okay. All right. That's all I want to say.

All right. Thank you, disgruntled. Everybody knows where I live because it's been put out in the paper. I can't help that. They put my legal name out there, and they think that they're breaking, you know, this really intense news of some sort, whatever. Hi, good morning. This is Bill.

Who's this? Hello? Bill, this is me? Steve, Sunny Valley. Good to have you back. back, let's kick this around. I'm thinking if you really wanted lower real estate costs and affordability to go up, you reduce, you prick the bubble that is known as real estate right now, and you go to a 10-year loan, and then all things being equal, real estate has to reduce

to the ability to finance it if you're going to do that. What do you think? I think that reducing real estate is going to lower the nest egg of a lot of people who are counting on it to continue to rise. And I don't think that making it affordable and making their accessible are the same thing, people can get into a car that they can't afford a longer term loan. But that... It's the same thing. Except that, you know, it really is the same principle, though. Now they want to have 10-year car loans. Same sort of thing. It's BS. Right. Except the car depreciates the second-hand drive it off a lot, where the home continues to appreciate, even if you don't pay it off, you do have equity when you sell it.

What causes that to appreciate, though? What causes it to appreciate? They're not making any more land, and people are still having kids. So it's scarcity. It's all scarcity. Yeah, but what kind of society, what kind of stable society is it to just have an immense wealth transfer from the homeowner to the new, you know, from the new family that is just trying to get out. How do you, how do you square that? Because we're at the point where I think there is a real societal stability issue with our real estate and cost of housing, wouldn't you? Well, well, if you make it easier to get into the home, I mean, you're going to pay rent wherever

you are, and then government never stops charging taxes on property. Sure. So you never really own your home. But you are building equity. And that equity, you can cash out when you're older and get into a smaller pace and pay it off completely. Whereas if you're never able to get into that first home because... Yeah, but they can't get into it right now. But they could if it's just like the poor people buying expensive cars on a seven-year or 10-year loan instead of a three-year loan. I mean, you could get in. And once you're in, I mean, you've got to pay rent anyway.

Uh-huh. So why not make that rent go towards something that could grow in value? And you could... No, well, I think the system is a symptom of our funny money, you know, Federal Reserve thing in which everything has to inflate. I think that's been the main asset inflation that we've been talking about. And we're trying to convince ourselves that somehow this is a nest egg in the future, you know? That's the only way that the government is going to get out of debt is by deflating the value to the point where...

Well, we inflate it. you're saying, inflating the value is what you're saying. The Weimar Republic, you know, you sold your house for 500 Deutschmarks, and you couldn't buy breakfast with it after a train ride to the next city over. But, you know, that 500 Deutscheichmark still goes to the same towards paying off the loan. Okay, all right, fair enough. Hey, I really appreciate your take on that, Steve, from Sunny Valley, and we're going to continue this.

If you're on hold, you're going to be next online, okay? But give me a chance. We're going to go through Fox News in just a second, and then right back to it. I'm thinking instead of 50-year loans like the president's talking about, if we really want to pop that bubble and get housing affordability back, part of it I think would mean that you would have to reduce the number of years that you could finance a home instead of increasing it. What do you think?

Whether you're building a new house with gas appliances, adding air winds Wednesday night and Thursday. 12 minutes after 7 on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday, 7705-633. And I was posing the question of going in. the opposite direction. President Trump is saying, hey, we got to get more kids and more people into a 50-year mortgage. Let's go to a 50-year mortgage, which I think is utter nonsense. I think it's utter nonsense. It's kind of like going down that, you know, that Japanese way. It's kind of like, you know, trying to cover up a squishy and weird real estate economy.

But I'm thinking, if anything, we should be reducing the years that you can finance a home. that would naturally drive it down because all things being equal, we drive down the price of house. Affordability ends up being there. And maybe we could actually get to the point where we own homes instead of saying, okay, where's the greater fool around to buy my house so that I can get my $100,000 out of it or something? I'm just looking at that we might have a healthier,

a healthier, more sustainable housing market if we were like that. Also, you have to repeal a lot of state laws, too. That's certainly part of that. But let me go to David. David, how you doing this morning? Welcome. Oh, I'm good, Bill. Great show.

Thank you. What are you thinking? I know I'm kind of cutting against the grain. People probably don't want to hear this, but what do you think about that, 50 years versus maybe reducing it instead? I think there's a problem with spending 30 to 50 years of your life to just have a place to live. You know, first of all, you mentioned building a legacy and family.

equity. What happens, let's say you have a parent or grandparent die, and they have like a half-million dollar house and they leave the family. What typically happens is the errors fight over it. The lawyers take a third, and then the people who get something, they get a little... And by the way, the lawyers are another aspect of the parasitic landfill economy, too. You know, getting a third is something, right? Sure.

And so what happens to the surviving years end up getting a little bump in their payments for their consumeristic hellhole they're stuck in, right? No real family wealth. But the other thing is, you know, you spend this 30 to 50 years of your life paying for this house. What you get a lot of times is you get a little box kind of closer together in a neighborhood, which is a place to go sit in private and watch your TV and put a bunch of stuff that most people will, if you ask homeowners have lived somewhere for at least five years or renters, what they complain about is how much stuff we accumulate as Americans. We hate to have to move. We have so much junk we store. And the other thing is we're all, we're shoehorned together in these neighborhoods. But let's, you know,

let's say that's what you get. But we don't even actually take advantage of the, of the neighborhoods we live in. People have not sat around. You'll look to either side of yourself in a subdivision. And, you know, I don't think people have spent a lot of time even with those people that they're living in close proximity to and taking advantage of, you know, the, like, have you ever had a bonfire with your whole, with your whole neighborhood? Have you ever had a bonfire out in the field out there off Delta water or something. You know, it doesn't happen. Yeah, well, yeah, part of it I think also has to do with fire safety issues.

Most of us aren't real comfortable with that. It's usually dry in the fall, you know. Well, well, I'm just saying like, okay, let's say, you know, you work. Yeah, get a fire pit or something like that, yeah? No, I can't, I can't say I have. I can't say I have, no. Okay. Yeah, the resource of living close together, which I don't really like living in that way,

but I have lived in town before, and the thing is, you know, let's say that all you can afford for your $450,000 is a quarter acre or an eighth acre lot with a house, a stick bill at home from the 90s. It probably needs a bunch of work. And all we want to do is close the door and watch TV and store our stuff. So our problem with housing is not going to fix itself relying on Fannie Mae to change the duration. I think it's really interesting what you said. Like, I'll tell you what, Bill, I rent, I'm not going to spend. I'm not going to buy into this thing. You know, I'll handle the changes or whatever, but I'm not going to spend 30 to 50 years of my life so I can have a place to store stuff and watch TV.

Okay, I appreciate the opinion. Thank you, David. Let me go to David, a different David, minor Dave. Hello, Dave. Go ahead. Yeah, I was going to say, in Oregon with Senate Bill 100, you have restrictions on where you can buy, and then, you know, you got permits and regulations that get in the way. and so like down here in Ciskew County, just to get an address, you need to give them $2,000 in a building plan

to get an address on your property, which is ridiculous. You know, it's ridiculous of all the regulations that they want to control. And then everything else that you have to go through to jump through that, that also artificially boosts the cost. of that home too, doesn't it? Any kind of home you would build. Right. Okay. You know, there's a lot of things that could be done different that would help people out like me. But what do you think about? I don't want a mortgage. Okay. All right. I get that. But see, that's my point, too. It's like we're looking at extending the financing as being a panacea when the panacea is that real estate is overpriced because of the 30-year mortgage, partially.

also due to government restriction and you know you get to the point where people are not looking to pay this off they're looking to find the greater fool to uh to take on their you know to take on their home i shouldn't say greater fool but looking for someone willing to to to pay them off and they're able to do this with a 30 mortgage 30 year mortgage and now they're talking about 50 year mortgage which why not a thousand year mortgage exactly right we get that intergenerational debt how about that. Maybe that's what we do now. Intergenerational servitude. You'll never own it, and with property taxes, you'll never own it again. To me, it's just a, well, it's just a continuation or an inflating of the debt servitude kind of thing to increase, to actually increase the term of a

mortgage, but I don't know. Tom, I'll go to you here next on this one before the hand of the update. What are you thinking? Well, you know, I look at it at the housing crisis, the homeless crisis, health care crisis. It's all symptoms of our dishonest monetary system, which way over-centralizes power. But I would also agree with you that, yeah, the money matters, the money being devaluated, devalued, the money going to Wall Street first when the Federal Reserve does create, which then inflates stock assets and in bond assets. Those are various things, too. It's the kind of stuff, though, that's never on the ballot, though, as you well know. Yeah, it's all legalized racketeering. And speaking of which, you know, when you, quote, buy a house, your payments are mostly in the beginning going towards interest. So you pay, you know, say $2,000 payment or something like that, maybe $1,900 just going to interest.

So you go through the years, you know, your 50-year mortgage, maybe at 30 years out, maybe you've paid 10% of your house, actual value. Yeah, most of the real paydown happens in the final few years. And the only reason why your payments on your house right now are going more to interest than the actual principal is because they passed a law that says most of your payments are going to go to interest. interest. You know, the whole thing is absurd, and it's really a symptom of, as I say, the dishonest monetary system, which, you know, most our money is kind of gone to war. Yeah, okay. But still, let me take it back to the mortgage, though. Yeah. Trump says 50-year. I'm saying, okay, to me, the 15-year mortgage, at least, should be standard, and maybe 10 years, the one that we would actually strive for.

if anything. A, you would have the actual real opportunity to purchase and actually own at least the land in name you would own it. Yeah, the government still taxes you on it, no doubt about that. But at least you'd have a chance to really pay it off within a reasonable span of time. And I think it would also cap some of that appreciation of it. You know, you wouldn't be seeing the, you know, anything that's going up when it comes to property of four or five percent a year. That is totally unsustainable. You know, the wages aren't going up like that, right? Of course, and that's part of the problem.

How many people can actually pay a house off in 10 years with giving the funny money system? Now, the people who are investors, they're rich enough to invest in the stock market and so forth, they could do it. Yeah, they could probably pay tax, just to pay cash, though, with what they have. I just think it's an interesting deal to go the opposite direction, because the longer the term that we make, the more natural price depreciation and inflation you're permitting to kind of go there because people will say, hey, we can get you in at this payment, Tom.

It's what they do, right? Just like a car. Like you said, it's debt servitude for the rest of our lives. I think Trump is, I like some of the things he's done, but coming up with what solutions like that shows to me that. Yeah, it's trying to fix a symptom rather than the underlying problem. Exactly right. All right. Exactly right. All right. Appreciate the call. Taking your call, too, on Pebble in Your Shoe Tuesday, 770-5633.

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Pebble in your shoe Tuesday, 724-770-633-770 K-M-E-D. Anne-Marie wrote me yesterday. Good morning, Bill. I was listening to you the morning when you were discussing, let's see if I can find this. I missed it. It says, Good morning, Bill. I was listening to you this morning when you were discussing all of the misfits and the

transgender and such, and I thought I would share an email I sent to state representative Dwayne Yunker you might find it interesting says my daughter got laid off from her job this is what she wrote to state rep Yonker where she had been for five years

she needs some assistance for her and her four year old and she sent me a snapshot of her application for the SNAP benefits while filling it out I was appalled I don't know who else knows about this but when you fill out an application online for SNAP benefits there are two sections

that refer to what is sexual orientation, how do you identify, and they want you to describe your gender? Can you explain to me why the state of Oregon needs that information when you were filling out an application to feed your family to survive? I guess if she identifies as a chicken, they would send her to get food at the Grange Co-op. I was able to find a printable form, but those questions were not on there. I'm attaching a picture of her screenshot. I think you have to actually start putting in your name on their website, and that's how they get away with it. Apparently, it was on the unemployment paperwork as well.

Is Oregon behind on updating their forms, or are they just dragging their feet trying to poison as many people as possible? I thought President Trump would have stopped all of that nonsense. Is this Tina's way of shoving it down our throats without us knowing about it? I'm just totally disgusted with how this is even a thing. It's a proud Oregonian that is not willing to move out of state or be a chameleon to all of Salem shenanigans. We want to take a stand against those that are trying to brainwash our kids and community, but will we be heard? What would you recommend? I know a letter to our governor

won't do any good. Maybe we should write to the president and let him know that our state is being run by a governor keeping all of her twisted ideas still in place, even though it's against his policy. Well, truth be told, Ann Marie, what we're looking at right now is that this is state policy and you are looking at state forms and state the state is absolutely all in on DEI didn't earn it and oh my gosh you know we need to know we need to know how you have sex we really of course I don't know maybe maybe the governor gets a perverse pleasure out of knowing everybody's sexual orientation who knows is uh governor Kotech there on like a Kind of, what are some of those apps, swipe left, swipe right?

You know, I kind of think, oh, okay, just kidding, all right. But no, you have to start wondering, why is it? But this is kind of going back, Ann Marie, to what we were talking about yesterday is that we are living in the debris like Paul King's North talks about in that book that I've been reading that I found so enlightening that, when you have the Christian stories and the Christian underpinnings of Western civilization falling away from us and have been destroyed, in essence, in our secular government, something will always fill that vacuum. And what has filled that vacuum are people filled with this whole idea that gender is just a societal construct that it is whatever i choose to be and that however i choose to be my gosh

you must stand up and salute it uh how do you fix something like that i don't know how you fix that kind of um how do i put this i don't i don't want to be unkind but it certainly is mental illness on a mass scale but it is uh i think ultimately rises to the level of I am God and you will believe whatever I say, no matter how much nonsensical it is. I think this is part of it when you have Western civilization that has collapsed. This is just the extension, the continuing of it. Hey, back when I was a kid, I mean, I know in the bad old days of the 1960s, and I'm watching them complain about the commercialization of Christmas in 1964 with a Charlie Brown Christmas.

This is nothing new, but it is the continuing, it is the continuing degradation when you can't even agree on biological truth from the same people that are telling us, you know, follow the science. Follow the science. Yeah, yeah, you're a dude in a dress, okay? But then that's hate speech, I suppose. The solution for it at this point, getting Governor Brown, Governor Brown, sorry, Governor Kotech, I look at Brown and Kotech's kind of interchangeable, really as far as many of the policies. A lot of this does spring from the governor's point of view

and the executive orders of official state policy. A lot of this is. We do have an election next year. It's a tall lift, high lift, and chances are Christine Grayson is going to be the standard bearer for the Republican Party. I know there may be some other people running for it. It's even talking about that, the former Trailblazer running for it, but he hasn't declared. You know, that hasn't happened yet. You have Danielle Bethel.

Nice woman talked with her last week, but very young. I don't know if he's necessarily seasoned enough for what is needed at this point. It's most likely going to be Christine Drazen. I'll tell you what I'll do. Christine Drazen's coming on the show tomorrow. I'm going to ask her about this. And I wonder what kind of an answer she would have to this when you have state policy, which has absolutely nothing to do with any discernible,

biological and scientific validity. she must have something to say about identity politics because if you're running for a political office, she has some take on this and she'll be on May 10. I'll ask her what she would like to do because I think a lot of this does come from the top down. The head in Oregon has been rotting. You know, we're a fish and the head's been rotten for a long time, all right? And it could use a little changing. I think that's one thing we could consider, okay?

731 at KMED. In your quest for driving excellence, Mercedes-Benz of Medford. Middle Road in Metford, no-wires-now.com. Restrictions apply, call for details, internet and cell phone service not provided by dish. Want to continue with some more emails of the day. Certainly the one I had from Anne-Marie was a good one. Emails of the day. Those are sponsored by Dr. Steve Nelson and Central Point Family Dentistry.

Get your appointment. CentralPointFamily Dentistry.com. Freeman Way, it's next to Mazelon Mexican Restaurant. In fact, I'm going there tomorrow for a teeth cleaning. But I think what you'll really like about this is that they get you in and out. They value your time, nice waiting room. But, boy, they're run like a well-scrub machine, and they just get you in and out. All business-like, very friendly people.

I think you'll like them. Central Point Family Dentistry.com. Continuing with these emails, Hans writes me, Hans Albuquerque, Debt versus Tariff, media reports, the federal government is feeling gangster rich from tariffs these days, Bill, so the Don announces $2,000 payments to Wii serfs coming soon. Treasury Secretary Besson estimates a half trillion a year in current tariff revenue coming in. Why not just pay down the debt? A trillion in two years equals just over a 2.6% reduction on the $38 trillion current balance. Is not that anymore

financially sound long-term decision, putting America first, or maybe this means keeping America first in the debtor's jail. The serfs will blow through the $2,000 in five minutes, shiny new GOP re-election object versus fiscal responsibility. That's the takeaway, I think you're right about that, Hans. People are getting nervous. They're looking at the midterms, and what kind of a giveaway can we have? I think that's true.

Michael ends up writing me about this. Bill, it would take at least 31,000 years to count to a trillion. All right. It's a wake-up factor when the jackwagons want $1.5 trillion. checks attached to spending bills and how does a member of U.S. Congress get rich? 12-0s at a trillion, all right? Thank you. Jeff from Selma writes me about the mechanics' flat rate manual. Some people were writing me about that yesterday or angry about the flat rate. And Bill, the flat rate manual sets the time

to do a job and say two hours. The shop charges the two hours, according to the manual. The mechanics get paid according to the manual. So, if the mechanics take one hour to do the job, they get paid book time, which is two hours. If the mechanics take four hours to do the job, they get paid book time again, which is two hours. This actually allows a shop to quote a job to a customer for two hours, regardless of the length of time the mechanic actually takes to do the job. However, shops are not obligated to use a flat rate manual, as it can oftentimes be a losing proposition. It works for dealers where the mechanics see the same vehicle with the same issue over and over again.

At my Chrysler training in Detroit back in the 1980s, our class was in the shop where they do their flat rate studies. They do the operation 10 times and then they average the time. That's how they come up with the flat rate. Jeff, thanks for letting me know.

The email bill at Billmyershow.com. Talking politics, Herman, bunch more. There's a lot of things to talk about this morning. Got it all coming up. If you were a medal winner in the 2025 Best of Southern Oregon magazine presented by Dusty's transmissions and have not the launcher that is right for you and

your family. Hi, this is Lisa, the Hughes Lumber Girl, and I'm on 106.7 KMED. Former Senator or State Senator Herman Beyrichicker joins the program. You know, Senator, we don't have to worry about climate change or global warming any longer because Elon Musk is now out here and he's saying that AI satellites should adjust sunlight to prevent global warming. It's what you should know about that. So we'll put it. AI in charge of how much sun gets to us? What do you think about that? Oh, great, wonderful.

I remember there was that old movie back of the 90s, what was it, Austin Powers, which you had Dr. Evil, right? I could just imagine this because I could just imagine Elon Musk as Dr. Evil, anything, I want a trillion-dollar pay package or people will die, and then, you know, the music starts. Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, and we worry about legislators being in charge of us. Now we're going to put AI.

Oh, great. Oh, I tell you. We'll talk more about the legislators here in just a moment. But shutdown, I guess, is going to end pretty soon overall, right? It's looking like that. Oh, you know, listen, there's a lot of stuff going on in the Democrat Party right now that, you know, the casual observer may not pick up. But, you know, like I said earlier, I think Chuck Schumer, Senator Schumer's hairs on fire, but I don't know if that's possible, but let me tell you something.

There is big divide. You think Chuckie's on the way out, honestly? What do you think? Most likely. Yeah. Now, I think that, you know, my analytical mind says that what's happening to the Democrats is probably, it's probably good for the Republicans, but bad for the country, okay? because I just, they are absolutely going far left.

They're going so far left that they're past their horizon. And it's obvious that even what we think of as the left in Congress right now is kind of scared looking over their shoulder. That's the impression I'm getting right now. Even the Hakeem Jeffries, who has held up as the darling of the progressive left, I don't think is far enough left for them now. There's even talk about a challenge for him in his district, too. So I'm thinking. But the good thing is I don't think the country's ready for that.

I don't think the country wants socialism and communism. I don't think the country wants this stuff. So it could be a blessing in disguise for Republicans, but nevertheless, I think it's a horrible thing for the country. Yeah. Out of the Trump administration, I can't help but notice a couple of little nuggets right now. Do you think they're sweating over there on the affordability issue? That seems to be what's going on with all this talk about 50-year mortgages and $2,000 tariff, bonuses, you know, dividends, that kind of thing.

Is that how you would interpret that, just kind of shopping for the 2026 midterms? Absolutely. I mean, you know, it's time to give out free ice cream, and so that's what they're thinking of doing. Okay. Hey, we've learned. It works for the Democrats. You know, that's why we're, what are we, $38 trillion or $39 trillion?

I think it just hit $38 trillion recently. But, you know, a trillion here, trillion there. Eventually you get it some real money, I guess, here, Herman. That's a lot of free ice cream, but that is all free ice cream. That's what that is. No, we'll talk about reining in the spending, though. That is for sure. Oh, boy.

Well, you know, Milton Freeman always says the thing to keep your eye on is the spending because the spending of the federal government is actually the true tax. Is it definitely what now? Sorry? It's actually the true tax number. The spending. Oh, the spending. It's got to be paid by taxpayers.

Okay. True tax. Okay. One way or the other. It's the spending, not the actual taxing. Because then when they borrow to continue the spending, then you're taxed that way. way too through the inflation, right? That's where he's going. When Congress votes to increase the debt, they are putting the burden of tax on every

citizens without really voting for it. See what I mean? See how clever that is? Oh, yeah. It's really cool. And not in a good way, okay? All right, Herman. So we're not going to fix D.C. today. I wish we could, but I don't know. The feeling there is that it's just going to continue to spin like it does, all right? I do want to talk a bit about Oregon politics today, and there was an amazing hit piece that was in the Oregonian, and of course it started off with smacking around state representative Dwayne Yonker, and it all had to do with legislators hiring their spouses or relatives in order to work within that system.

And all the people that they profiled, from what I recall, they were all Republicans, even McIntyre, Emily McIntyre was part of this, all the rest of everyone's there talking about how they ended up hiring and having their people on their staff. And I thought this was something that has been going on for a long, long time. And that it's necessary because, well, first off, we're only a part-time legislature. I could be wrong about that, but how do you see it? You've been in it on both sides. Well, so historically, the Oregon legislature, which is a citizen legislature, meaning part-time,

when I first got in there, the pay was like $1,500 a month, and then you got a certain amount for your office, and then you could spend that money however you want to run your office. historically legislators hired their spouses, Peter Courtney, the longest serving president. He hired his wife for years. Senator Monroe, he was there for over 20, I think 24 years. His wife was his L.A. Betsy Johnson, her husband was her L.A., Brian Bocquist. So I can go on and on and on. The reason that they did that is that supplemented.

income because serving for $1,500 or less before I came, it was just not realistic. So what had happened is the more left than normal got in there. And do you remember we had pay equity? Remember that pay equity? Oh, we got this pay equity. Oh, yes. I do remember pay equity. I was a few years ago in the legislature.

They came up with that, right? Right. So pay equity, pay equity. And so they, oh, we're going to, you know, everybody needs to be paid, you know, if they've got a doctor's degree or a master's or whatever. They get more points and you get points for experience and points for this. And so they pass this pay equity bill. And then somebody said, hey, what about the legislature? We don't pay our people worth of darn because we didn't.

I need to supplement my staff, you know, was Mr. Sellers, and I would pay for his motel room because his pay was so low. There's no way he could pay for his own motel room, so I'd pay for it. So anyway, the legislature said pay equity. It doubled or more than double what the L.A.'s, which means legislative assistance, make. it was incredible. I just shook my head. There's nothing. But you see, that also tells you the inflated cost of a government employee, doesn't it?

Oh, yeah. It's crazy. So anyway, so now everybody's making all this money, not the legislators. The legislators got a bump. We're tied. The legislators are tied to the judges. So if a judge gets a 3% raised and the legislature gets a 3% raise, Because nobody wants to stand up on the floor and vote themselves in a race.

So we'll just tie it to somebody else. Okay. So we can vote to give judges the raises, and then the legislature automatically gets raised. Yeah, but the Oregonians tends to be focusing on is that, you know, gosh, there's just no oversight about this. Who cares? And let me tell you something. Who cares? That's the stupidest thing.

because in the political theme, you have to hire people in your office that you can trust, okay? Because you're using political tactics and you have objectives and stuff that you don't want leaving your office. So you have to hire people you trust. So naturally, you're going to go to either close friends or family members that you believe are qualified. Exactly. Exactly. And who cares? Nepotism. Oh, nepotism, shmpetism. Who cares? I'm going to hire somebody that I can trust and that will do the work. And I was very successful at that. But it's also, but also when you're hiring a family member, it's making the legislative position almost, I'm talking about that being a senator or a state rep. it makes you able to pencil the job, because otherwise you're probably giving up your main job,

especially during the sessions, special or otherwise. You know, I'm so sick. I'm just, I used to get so sick of the whining and sniveling of these Democrats, because almost all the Democrats, not all, but oh, I'd say 95% of them, lived in the Portland area. So they drove home every single night to their nice, cozy home. Well, everybody in Southern Oregon are out in eastern Oregon, they have to have either a house or a hotel room, right? Right, right.

And so I used to buy a couple motel rooms. And, you know, I would buy them in a big block for the whole session, so I'd get a discount and all that kind of stuff. But that's how I did it because I couldn't drive three hours. And somebody like, somebody, you know, like Farioli or Ben, they have to drive eight, nine. Or Hansel or any of those. But yet it's these stuttering, snobby Democrats in Portland saying, you know, you guys, you're hiring your spouses so you can have more income. Yeah, I would think you'd have to in order to.

Yes, you do. And it's been known forever. But the Democrats did it as much as the Republicans. Now, that's changed a little bit. The other thing is, as Mr. Wagner, you know, how he can stay in the Senate as a Senate president. You know how? It's because they give them jobs. Peter Courtney was assistant to the dean at, I'm not going to say, the university for 20 years.

He never did nothing. I don't think he had an office there, but he got a paycheck every month from him. So that supplemented his income. Same with Rob Wagner. He gets a paycheck, you know, and I don't want to tell you from where right now. But he does, trust me. And so they will supplement these incomes for these legislators. And, you know, the Oregonian knows the history.

How dare they write such a... Well, they only went after Republicans in the South and the Eastern part. And so, you know, you just knew it was a hit piece right from the beginning because I know you had told me in the past that Democrat legislators do the same thing. I guess, you know, this was something else I was wondering about, and if this has any play, You were talking about the need for being able to hire people, legislative assistance and helpers within your office as a legislator that you can trust, all right? And if you were just to go up in Salem and hire people, hire anybody from the Salem legislative worker pool out there, chances are you're getting a hard left government employee, wouldn't you? In essence, because of the way that this, because of the way Salem operates, you know, being the center of power.

Yeah, and, you know, I had an office full of interns. Of course, they don't, they don't get anything. I think they get a stipend now, a little stipend, but I always had an office full of interns. And I had every, every type of person under the sun. Yeah, but what I was getting to, though, is that if you couldn't hire family then, you would end up essentially hiring Democrats as a Republican to staff your office, would you not? You could. Yeah.

You could. And there's been, there has been people that have been suspiciously characterized as a Democrat in Republican clothing or the other way around, you know. Yeah. And that has infiltrated people's offices. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I've suspected that. I think that's really what the Oregonian is.

doing with this particular hit piece is that they would like that. They would like that to change the rules. I guess there was a proposal to change the rules over the last, I don't know if it was the last legislative session before, but it didn't even get a hearing. I don't even think the Democrats want to go there. I don't think you can do that. I don't think you can do that because now you're alienating a person from working in the Capitol. I don't think you can do that. Okay. Well, So I'm going to bring on, I'm going to bring on Dwayne because they were kind of snidly sneering that his schoolteacher, his wife, a schoolteacher is not qualified somehow to be within the. Who's qualified for that job? You're not qualified until you have.

What makes you qualified is doing it. So, you know, I'm so tired of these people. You know, really give me a break, all right? And that's what they're trying to do. Now they're trying to run everybody's office. See, before, your office was your kingdom. You got your office. You got, you know, so much money to run your office.

When I had the caucus, I got, I had a hell of a lot of money then to run the caucus office. And then how you spend it is your business. But when pay equity came in, they said, oh, no, you can't pay this person more than that person. and this person needs to get paid more than that. And so now the legislative body was in charge of how you're spending your office money. It's all about control. It's every time you turn around, those people want to control you. Well, there's no reason why the Oregonian, we wanted to bring this up,

unless they thought it would help the Democrats. I don't see any reason why they would do it otherwise. Oregonian is a left-leaning newspaper, which has been... Apparently, there is not one Democrat who has hired a family member ever that the Oregonian was able to look at. Oh, God. I just gave you some. I know you did. And I appreciate that. Hey. And you know, those people, I'm not criticizing, like Senator Rodman wrote, God, he was such a grand fellow to serve with.

What a colleague. Even though we were on that, you know, I would talk to him and we would talk. about issues and he'd kind of agree with me, you know, and he says, yeah, but you know, Herman, I got to protect my left. And he was right. And remember, and his wife, she was just a jewel, you know, and she was there every minute that he was there. And she was always out at the front desk and just a great person. And he was there for a long, long time. And even after being there a long, long time, the left took him out, Shimea Fagan. She moved into his district. and then ran against after he had served that many years. Final question I have for you this morning.

Christine Drason is going to join the show tomorrow at 8-10. And ask for some time. I'm glad to have her on. And she is realistically going to be the Republican nominee unless lightning strikes and something else happens. So she's going to be most likely the candidate. That's the way it's looking at this point. What would you ask her if you had the opportunity?

How would you change the direction of the state? Okay. All right. I'm just making up a few things here because I know that there are other people running, but ideally, though, she's the one plugged into the money, too. Probably has the best chance of raising the money. What do you think this is going to be, a $5, $6 million one? No?

I think you're getting too far out over your skis, and I'm not going to get involved in a primary. But I think there's some other people out there, too, that may be showing up to the party. So I'd keep my powder dry. Okay. All right. Well, I just thought I'd ask you. All right.

Yeah. You know, and let them all compete. But, see, that's the thing. And, you know, you and I have talked about it before people try to get me to run for governor and everything. And I just, I don't see, unless you can get the legislature, too, I don't see how you can. realistically in four years, changed the directory of the state. You may slow it. You can slow it down.

But there's too much built-in rot through policy, isn't there? Right. I mean, you've got to remember every single department is 10 layers deep in Democrats running them. And so now you've got to start getting rid of directors and assistant directors, assistant directors. And you've got to find people to replace them. Not enough people to hire, right? It's thousands and thousands of people. Wow.

You're going to do this in four years. So. Yeah, you almost need a super doge in Oregon, wouldn't you, make that happen? Oh, well, no, you can fire them. The fire, getting rid of them is not hard because they all work at them. You know, it's the replacing. You know, the funny thing is they're talking, you know, they're talking about it in the federal government, too. You can fire, you can get a lot of these lifers out, and they have been in the Trump administration.

But they can't find people to. replace them where they want them right now. Yes, you can't find people to replace them. Yeah. Interesting times. That's, it is. And the way Republicans are moving out of state Oregon, what are you going to get? Well, I know what we'll do.

We'll pass a law that says if you're a Republican, you can't leave. You can't leave. It's the Hotel Oregon. You can check out any time you like, but you just can't leave, okay? Hey, I heard you're talking about mortgages, and I'll leave. this little note with you. The best mortgage is the one that's paid off. Agreed. And anything that gets in the way of paying that off, I think, should not be part of it. This idea of a 50-year mortgage is just affecting the symptom, not the root problem. You got to get that paid off. You know,

my wife and I, you know, we had mortgages and because, you know, that's just how you have to start. But we had our site set off on pain, and we paid them, we paid all. our mortgages off on their different properties, actually very early in life, because we when, anytime we could throw more money at it. And what I realized years after, once those mortgages were paid off, you sleep much better. It's so much easier. It is so much easier. It's unbelievable once they're gone. Yep. You only have the mortgage of the government bill here at that point to worry about. Oh, God, that's another, we'll talk about that. that some other week.

Thanks, Herman. Talk to you later. Take care. Former State Senator Herman Barrett-Siger. This is KMED, KMED, H.D. H.D. H.E.1. Eagle Point, Medford, KBXG grants pass. Fox News is on the way here, and I am going to bring on State Representative Dwayne Yunker to talk a little bit about this hit piece that the Oregonian threw at him,

because he was top of the list, top of the list. And, of course, there's a reason why he was top of the list on the hit piece, no doubt. Make fall cleanup a breeze. Okay, a hurry cane with echo blower. from Zoll's Lawn and Garden Equipment. The Echo P B9010 is one.