The MeidasTouch Podcast - The GOP plan to eliminate social security and raise taxes EXPOSED & the massive Uvalde police cover-up EXPOSED

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

This episode features Paul Schroder aka “Texas Paul” who discusses the GOP plan to eliminate social security and raise taxes. We also hear from Los Angles criminal defense lawyer Sara Azari who discusses the Uvalde police efforts to block the release of bodycam footage from the Uvalde school shooting massacre.  The Mighty is a new program on the MeidasTouch channel featuring the best rants, musing, and responses from Meidas Contributors. New episodes of The Mighty is released Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday and new episodes of the MeidasTouch Brother podcast will be released Tuesday and Friday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new Mitsubishi Outlander brings out another side of you. Your regular side listens to classical music. Your adventurous side rocks out with the dynamic sound Yamaha. Regular U owns a library card. Adventurous U owns the road with super all-wheel control. Regular side, alone time. Adventurous side journeys together with third row seating. The new Outlander, Bring out your adventure aside.

Mitsubishi Motors. Drive your ambition. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest potash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. We'll be right back. Want to miss out? Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This podcast is supported by The RealReal. Want to know the deal with The RealReal? I'm always by The RealReal. Want to know the deal with The RealReal? I'm always shopping The RealReal. They drop over 10,000 new arrivals every day from the luxury brands I'm obsessed with, all up to 90% off retail. Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior, Cartier, Tiffany. P.S., it's super easy to sell on The RealReal. When I'm ready to part with my pieces, I can drop off or schedule a pickup.

And they handle everything from photography to shipping. Everything. All I have to do is get paid and start shopping for my next favorite piece. With over 38 million members and 40 million items sold, the RealReal is the world's largest and most trusted resource for authenticated luxury resale. No one else can say all that because no one does resale like The RealReal. Thousands of new arrivals daily at 90% off retail. And right now, you can get $25 off your first purchase at therealreal.com.

Go to therealreal.com to get your $25 off. That's therealreal.com. Hi, I'm Jordy, co-founder of Midas Touch, and this is The Mighty. The Mighty is a new program on the Midas Touch podcast channel where we feature the best commentary, rants, and musings from your favorite Midas Touch contributors. Our first contributor today is Paul Schroeder from Texas, better known as Texas Paul, a Midas Mighty favorite.

Texas Paul responds to the GOP plan to eliminate Social Security and raise taxes. Texas Paul, take it away. Hey folks, it's old Texas Paul. Republicans have finally put out some policy, and folks, it's ugly. We need to talk about it. Rick Scott, who's head of the Republican Senatorial Committee, who's responsible for trying to get their people re-elected, has been dressed down publicly by Mitch McConnell and privately attacked by other Republicans for saying the quiet part out loud,

he actually produced their tax plan. And it's ugly folks, it's ugly. It was left intentionally vague so that they could claim any numbers that you put to it aren't in the plan, but it has stated goals and there are only so there's only a one mathematical way to get to that goal. And the National Tax Policy Center took a look at it and said that anybody making a hundred thousand dollars a year or less is going to end up catching about a $1,500 a year tax increase. That's his idea for, quote, putting skin in the game. You recently put out an 11-point plan to rescue America, two of the big points of which are, quote, all Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount.

Currently, over half of Americans pay no income tax. It also says all federal legislation sunsets TO HAVE SKIN IN THE GAME, EVEN IF A SMALL AMOUNT. CURRENTLY OVER HALF OF AMERICANS PAY NO INCOME TAX. IT ALSO SAYS ALL FEDERAL LEGISLATION SUNSETS IN FIVE YEARS. IF A LAW IS WORTH KEEPING, CONGRESS CAN PASS IT AGAIN. SO THAT WOULD RAISE TAXES ON HALF OF AMERICANS AND POTENTIALLY SUNSET PROGRAMS LIKE MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND SOCIAL SECURITY. WHY WOULD YOU PROPOSE SOMETHING LIKE Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Why would you propose something like that in an election year? Sure. Well, John, that's, of course, the Democrat talking points. It's a plan. It's in the plan. But here's this thing about reality for a second. First off, let's talk about Medicare. But Senator, hang on. It's not a Democratic talking point. It's in the plan. He thinks that people making $100,000 a year and less just don't pay enough in taxes. And it gets worse from there.

Old Lindsey Graham went on a rant saying that Medicare and Medicaid is just eating up the budget, even though they steal from Medicare and Social Security every year to pay for everything else in the budget. Entitlements are going to consume the budget. Right now, we're at $20.50. We're going to have 185% of debt to GDP. Medicare and Social Security and other entitlement programs are worth saving. They're going to consume the debt. We're down to a small fraction of the federal pie

to run the discretionary part of government. So entitlement reform is a must for us to not become Greece. So he's talking about gutting Medicare and Social Security and the Republicans in general have come out with a idea they think is wonderful. They want to sunset Medicare and Social Security. And what that means is that it will come up for a vote every five years, and they'll have to re-approve it. And what we've seen Republicans do is flatly oppose something like that, and we Democrats end up trying to save it and

Republicans end up getting something really fat and juicy for their donors or they end up hurting Americans it's the way it always works they blackmail us Democrats and we Democrats end up taking it and we end up having to give something to Johnny Got Rocks, you know, the billionaire, in order for the Republicans not to do something horrible to your average American. We're not falling for that shit anymore. We're not doing it. We're not doing it. There is plenty of money to pay for Social Security and Medicare. Hell, there's plenty of money to pay for National Health Insurance. They just have to cut other parts of the budget that they're unwilling to cut. You know, I just don't understand how something as plain and simple as, say, cutting the military budget. We spend more on our military than every other major nation combined.

We can cut that. We can cut that and still remain effective. We can cut that and still remain effective. We can. The other thing is immigration reform. We're an aging country. We need more people paying into the till. Well, you're not going to get the white folks that the racists want. Europe's in the same position we are. They're an aging population also. You know, they're letting their racism and hatred bankrupt us. There are plenty of people that want to come into our country. Good people. You know, Hispanics are good people. And there are a lot of Hispanics that would like the opportunity to come here and build a good life and pay taxes.

Republicans just aren't going to have it. They aren't going to have it because they want their short-term power more than they want our country to be fiscally sound. It's really that simple, people. It's really that simple people. It's really that simple. We either bring in more immigrants or we age out and can no longer afford to take care of our elderly, which will be us at the time. Folks, it's time to vote blue. It's time to vote Republicans out of office. We can't accept the racism anymore.

We can't accept the stupidity and the out-and-out whorishness that is the Republican Party and its willingness to screw over your average American to benefit their wealthy donors. That's got to stop and only you can stop it. You have to show up and you have to vote Democrat in these midterms. It's that simple. I'll text Paul out. Y'all have a good day. Thanks Paul. Our next contributor is Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer, Sara Azari.

Sara expresses the frustration we all feel about the Uvalde police refusing to release body cam footage from the Uvalde school shooting massacre and the fact they have hired a private attorney to assist in covering up documents and records. Let's go to Sara. Release these goddamn body cam footage to these families and to the nation. documents, and records. Let's go to Sarah. They deserve answers, real hard answers, about what happened that awful day at Robb Elementary and what could have been done differently to save their children.

But there are some people who apparently don't want those parents to have those answers. Some of those people are Uvalde police and the city officials. The city and police department have reportedly hired a private law firm to fight in court so they won't have to release body camera footage and other records related to the shooting. These are families of 19 young children and two teachers, two adults, who are not getting any justice,

and now they're getting no transparency. Why? Because the Texas Department of Public Safety is trying to block the release of information and body cam footage to these people. So let me of information and body cam footage to these people. Let me tell you about body cam footage. It is the bane of my existence, okay? Because video evidence is the best evidence in my world, right? I represent officers, I represent civilians, and whenever the video is bad for the

civilian, it's incriminating, They're really quick to produce it. But if the video's exculpatory to the civilian, or if it's bad for the police department and the city, they will not give it up. And this is what's happening in Uvalde, and it takes this kind of tragedy of this magnitude to enact some change. We don't just need gun reform, of course we do.

We don't just need a better school safety protocol, but we also need some changes to a state's ability to prevent the release of body cam and information related to fatality like this by using these really vast, expansive, and subjective loopholes in the law. And it's a case by case basis. It's a state by state determination. There's a set of laws in each state that dictate when to block the release. And it's often it's more often than not blocked. OK, and that's a problem. And we need that to change. Let me let me just talk to you about this. Right now, the Texas attorney general's office is reviewing the information to see whether any part of the footage can be released.

Now, Uvalde is saying, Uvalde's hired an outside law firm to argue that it's embarrassing. No Sherlock, it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing and it's going to show the weaknesses of police response so that future criminals know how to get around it. Well, that ship has kind of sailed, okay? These officers were standing outside for over a hour doing nothing. What they were doing was they were zip tying and arresting parents who wanted to go

and save their children's lives. So not only they didn't do their job in protecting public safety, they were cowardly and they were protecting their own ass because they were too scared to go in, but they weren't letting parents to go in and save their kids. That is what is so criminal about all of this. Okay. And they are absolutely the minimum due to them is to be able to see the truth because what has happened ever since this tragedy a few weeks ago is that there's been nothing but obfuscation.

You know, the story has changed over and over and over again. There's been a lot of this going on, right? We don't know the truth. We deserve to know the truth. The families deserve to know the truth and the nation deserves to know what happened in Uvalde outside of Robb Elementary School a couple weeks ago. Okay. So the more you lie, the more you try to cover up, the more it should give rise to the interest of these families and the nation in seeing this footage. You should not be able to then also block the release of body cam footage. And so the idea that this is embarrassing, that it could potentially show other criminals how to go around police response, that ship has sailed, bro. Okay. That is not a valid argument because we already know you did nothing. It just looks horrible and it is embarrassing.

Now, the argument that there are ongoing open investigations by the state and the feds is a more viable argument. I hate to say it in this context because you want to protect the integrity of the evidence until that investigation or those investigations are over, right? But then again, there should be a balancing test. There's been such grave misconduct here. There's been such grave failures and omissions that they should supersede and outweigh any interest that Texas has

in withholding this information. And so it is absolutely infuriating. And, you know, to the taxpayers in Texas, you know, you pay for this. Right. You've paid for this technology of body camps. You pay for the police. You pay for the lawyers who who defend the police when they go wrong. You pay for lawyers to prevent the release of this information.

So just like we see it's happening. You pay for the investigation and litigation that has ens's happening you pay for the investigation and litigation that is ensued and you pay for the settlements and damages so you deserve to see the goods you deserve to see the goods especially because Uvalde has been lying Uvalde has been engaged in a major cover-up we don't know what happened we don't know who was supposed to be we're doing what that failed to do so everyone's going like Okay. And the more you have this, the more you need the body cam. What is the purpose of having body cam if it's only released when it's good for the police?

What is the purpose of having body cam if it's not released when there's a blatant cover up like in this case? What is the purpose of having body cam if even in the case of the most disturbing massacre, it won't be released so we can have answers and get to the goddamn truth? What is the purpose of having body cam? It came about as a technology that came about to allow us to see in the moment how police responded, how criminals committed a crime, right? It is for us to be able to be there and see it and not have to rely on accounts by different parties, right? So what is the purpose of having this if now every state gets to create its own subjective extensive loopholes and get around

releasing it? Not to mention that in my world, half the time the officers keep the shit off so they can say, oh, it didn't record anything. Sorry. Oops. I had it on, but it wasn't on. What is the purpose of having body cam if you're not going to turn the goddamn thing on and then release it when it's necessary, when so many people have died because of what the police did not do? I am pissed off. OK, there needs to be justice for these families. And we know there's immunity and there's limited slim to none justice. So let them at least get to the truth. Let them get to the truth. Right.

You got to wonder if anyone has been able to get body cam given these these vast loopholes that, you know, a video of abuse of deadly force by an officer, the investigation officer cannot be released to the public until all criminal and administrative processes have been completed. Well, that could be the end of time. And that comes from Texas law. That comes from Texas law around body cams. I mean, look at how broad that is. That means almost in no instance you can get body cam. So it is it is terrible what's happening. And there's a laundry list of subjective reasons that the state uses to withhold the release of these, the body cam footage.

And too many departments are so quick to release it when it proves an officer's use of force was justified. When it proves that your client, my client has committed a crime, but they are not willing to produce it. When families need justice, they're not willing to produce it. When officers had failed their duties in the most grave way. Okay. Release these goddamn body cam footage to these families and to the nation.

We need answers. Thanks Sarah. And thanks to all the Midas mighty for tuning into this episode of the mighty. Make sure to subscribe to the Midas Touch podcast channel now and leave a five-star review. This is Jordy from The Mighty. As always, shout out to the Midas Mighty!