The Prepper Broadcasting Network - Mother of Mayhem - The Affordability Tax

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

We discuss the tax bills proposed in VA's massive proposed tax increases under the leadership of The Mother of Mayhem, Abigail Spanberger.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/prepper-broadcasting-network--3295097/support.BECOME A SUPPORTER FOR AD FREE PODCASTS, EARLY ACCESS & TONS OF MEMBERS ONLY CONTENT!Get Prepared with Our Incredible Sponsors! Survival Bags, kits, gear www.limatangosurvival.comThe Prepper's Medical Handbook Build Your Medical Cache – Welcome PBN FamilyThe All In One Disaster Relief Device! www.hydronamis.comJoin the Prepper Broadcasting Network for expert insights on #Survival, #Prepping, #SelfReliance, #OffGridLiving, #Homesteading, #Homestead building, #SelfSufficiency, #Permaculture, #OffGrid solutions, and #SHTF preparedness. With diverse hosts and shows, get practical tips to thrive independently – subscribe now!

Welcome in, folks. No intro. Oops. It is the mother of mayhem. And we are on episode three of the mother of mayhem where we are essentially, I don't know. Well, I was just telling the guest, Keith from Common Sense Practable Prepper, that I'm using this time personally to really stay on the coattails of the new administration here in Virginia and understand how unlivable they're going to try to make it in the state. And, you know, I guess everybody has their own way of learning things. For me, maybe the high stakes live podcast learning is something that's, you know, kind of fun. I don't know. We got a great guest for the night. Again, Keith of the Common Sense Practical Prepper, a fellow Virginia here to discuss these things. My goal in the Mother of Mayhem series is to talk to Virginians about Virginia and what's happening, you know, and really get a feel for what's changing because people, a lot of things are changing. Okay. We started, we ended fiscal year 2025 with a massive surplus of money. And Keith, right before we hopped on the air, said that. He brought that to my attention because I'm sitting here looking at bills, bills, we're looking at 10 different tax hikes from the Democrats proposed proposed by the Democrats. And he said, I think we ended the fiscal year with like billions of dollars. And he's 100% right. He's 100%.

percent right. In fact, Virginia ended fiscal year 2025 with a general fund surplus of approximately 2.7 billion with the B. This figure includes $572 million in revenues that exceeded the official forecast. Can you imagine? 572 million over in revenues on top of $2.1 billion in surplus that was already incorporated into the state's biennial budget, general fund revenues, This marked the fourth consecutive year of surpluses under Governor Glenn Yonkin. I have a... I don't even want to do it. I do think we can all agree that the age of the surplus is probably coming to an end, right?

The age of the high tax is upon us and the age of the surplus is probably coming to an. You could call it a prediction if you want, but it's kind of, you know, it is what it is. So real quick, before we get rolling, folks, we got to talk about today's sponsor. Today's show is brought to you by the hydronomus. Okay. For the duration of the show, you will see the hydronomous information, contact information down below. We're going to bring up the website and talk to you about this all-in-one disaster relief device. Look, there are things that do things in the world of prepping and survival.

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Now, let's get into the show. Let's get the guest on here. Let's get the faces on here. here. Keith, thanks so much for joining us tonight, man. We are live from Virginia, folks. Ground zero. Yeah, exactly. Man, that hydronomist thing, that's the first I've ever heard. I'm going to have to check that out. Yeah, check it out. Give them a ring, man. They're great people. That's really cool. The team behind the hydronomists were not like disaster relief guys. They were like metal and manufacturing superheroes.

And the way the creator explained it to me is people come to his company when no one else can do a certain thing. You know, with metal or with, you know, manufacturing like that. And he just employed his superpower to the, you know, to the all in one disaster device there. And that it's, yeah, it's a thing. It's amazing, really. Looks really cool. A lot of that tech out. there, you know? I think he's out of, I think they're out of Florida. I have a feeling that if the

hydronomist was, uh, was going to be created in Virginia, it never work. You know what I mean? I don't know, rules and restrictions, but I'm sure it's not, not good. But I wanted to thank you, man, for, you really set the stage with the surplus. I mean, the surplus really kind of puts a bow in this whole entire show because it adds a layer that is like, why all the taxes were dealing with 10 proposed tax bills here in the state of Virginia since 2026. And it's not pretty, man. It's not pretty. And they're just getting started.

She was what sworn in, what, two and a half weeks ago? But I'm sure that as soon as she won, I'm sure the Democrats, I'm sure they had these in their back pockets. I'm sure these were things they wanted to try to get past under Yonkin. They're like, oh, there's no way in hell. We're getting this through. That's a great point. So going to resurrect this stuff for her.

Yeah, that is a great point. They've just been sitting on them waiting until the time. was right. Yep. To line the pockets, you know, more, more, and there's always the, more taxes for schools. That's, that's, it's like a weakness that I've noticed since I've moved to Virginia. It's like whenever they need money, they go, oh, we got this tax, but don't worry. It's all going to the schools.

It's going to be good. Well, it pulls at the heartstrings, you know, who wants to say, you know, we don't want money to know it. Right. Yeah, yeah. No, we want kids to be smart when we go to school, get good grades. you know, go to college. Who doesn't want that, right?

Oh, yeah. If you say, no, I don't want to raise tax. Oh, you're, you're for keeping our kids dumb and not having our kids, you know, be successful with adults. And that's kind of a catch-22. Well, yeah, I mean, I'd feel really good about all of that if it wasn't handled by the government. That's my number one problem with schools. Doesn't that, the lottery money? Does it, has it like the Virginia lottery, like given umpteen billion dollars?

over the year, doesn't it? That goes directly to education, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure Virginia schools, yeah. And then, well, when I got down here, the big thing was the meal tax. The meal tax was new in 2009, or it was relatively, I don't know if it was that was the year, but it was new. And people were mad. I mean, you know, and it was the same framework, right? All the money we give from the meal tax is going to go to help the schools. And I'll tell you what, my kids been out of school for almost seven school days. Right. And he ain't going back tomorrow either.

No, I just saw that. I just saw that. He'll be asynchronous learning, which is my favorite. I don't know. I experienced a lot of asynchronous learning with my older son. Yeah. I don't think it's the fault of the teachers. I think it's a bad,

a bad design to begin with to take particularly like second through fourth graders and sit them in front of a laptop and try to get on the focus. on the laptop, you know, bad enough in a classroom. But you're right. To your point, though, I'm sure a lot of these will be, and the only thing I didn't get the research on was proposed use, I guess. That would have been good to see an overview of where all this stuff's going, right? Well, it wasn't a lot of it.

A lot of supposed to go up to, like, public transit and light rail and stuff up in Nova. I think a lot of that is proposed. That's where it's going to go. I'm sure the folks in Southwest Virginia, the folks down in Hampton Roads are really keen on their taxes getting raised so they can have light rail and buses and, you know. Yeah, it looks like that. It definitely looks like that.

It looks like Democrats argue the taxes are mainly to target high earners. and currently untaxed services, because heaven forbid, we have any service untaxed to fund priorities without broad tax hikes. But I don't know. I got to do some research and see what the priorities are because I don't understand what priorities we can't handle with 2.7 billion windfall in the state of Virginia. That's a lot of money, but then again, I mean, they could spend that in one afternoon. one crappy project and they'll swallow that up in some. Absolutely. Like the rail like you're talking about, right?

Yeah. I mean, California lost ungodly amounts of money on their high-speed rail that I don't think is traveled anywhere. No, they didn't even lay one rail. It was so, you know, of course, any government project, you know, it's going to be, you know, over budget by, you know, 10,000 percent. Definitely. Yeah, oh, yeah. 20 years and 20 years. you know, past due and yeah, now that that high speed rail thing just did not get off the ground

at all in California. What a surprise, right? Shocker. Yeah, I, that's a lot. I hear that a lot that we're pushing to be the new California. And I heard that years ago, you know, and that's a nerve-wracking. I love this place, man. I really don't want to have to leave.

I'm going to be very upset if I have to leave, you know, but there are limits. No, there are. There are. Yeah, my plan initially was to, when I retire the second time, maybe in, you know, 2028 or 29, you know, to move somewhere else, East Tennessee, Florida, something like that. But gracious, some of these taxes kick in and stuff. That may speed up my, my exodus from the Commonwealth of Virginia. We'll see. It's a great segue. Let's talk about some of these taxes. Now, some of them do sound like they are. I don't know. I guess it depends on how you look at it, right? So they say high earners, and I'm not downplaying earning a million dollars. I'd love to be earning income over a million dollars. But at the same time, people earning over $1 million are a really important part of your economy.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. The business owners? Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah. And, of course, you know, the average, you know, the average, you know, Joe Schmo, oh, they're going to tax people, making more than a million. And I, you know, personally, I'd be like, well, okay. On the surface, I'm like, it doesn't affect me. And I think that's what a lot of folks in Virginia, well, it doesn't affect me. Well, you know, you hear, you know, pay their fair share and all, and little catchphrases and stuff like that. Eat the rich. That's my favorite one. I see on cars in Richmond. But the devil is in the details. It's, it's not just this simple. And for the folks that make a million

plus, you know, they have the accountants and the CPAs and everybody else to take advantage of the tax code. And if I had a nickel to bet, you know, they said, go ahead and tax me. And there's going to be all sorts of loopholes and the fine print. And I'm sure it's going to be the people making a lot less than one million are also going to see a tax increase. That's how it goes. My dad's been telling me that my whole life, you can't take the rich people money and you can't take the poor people's money. There's only one group you can take from. So this HB. 188, we're going to go through these bills high level and just talk about them a little bit. Establishes a new 10% income tax bracket on income over $1 million, starting in 2026.

Dedicates revenue, and here you go. 50% to public schools, 30% to child care subsidy program and 20% to Virginia Housing Trust Fund. And this was proposed on the seventh in in-house finance committee is where it's sitting. So that's where that 10% is no nothing to bat an eye at, by the way. That's a lot of money. What I see child care subsidy, guess where my head goes immediately goes to Minneapolis. Yeah. I see that.

You know, my eye starts twitching because I'm like, oh, Lord. Fraud. talking about Minneapolis. That's a weird one. That is a weird one. That's a really good point. I didn't think about that. Child care subsidy is certainly,

and it really stinks to be in this position, and this is where corruption puts good people. Like us, Keith, is like, you see what happens in Minnesota. Nobody in their right mind would sit here and be like, we don't want money to go to child care subsidy. Right. But then you see what happens in Minnesota,

and you can't help but think that way and say, I really don't want to dump all my money. into some other fraudulent subsidy program because you know it ain't just Minnesota. Oh my gosh, no. Oh, my gosh. Nick Shirley, he's out in California? I think he's in California. So he's like, yeah, God, Lord.

Yeah. I mean, imagine New York, imagine Chicago. Imagine Baltimore. Like, you know there's money going in all kind of crazy places. Yeah. So I'm sure it's the same right here. I'm sure it is. So House Bill 378

imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates starting in 2027. So this gives some real rich people time to get out of here, I guess, for tax and trusts and estates. Raising effective top rate on passive portfolio income to 9.55%. So they're playing with that 10%. which is that's a lot of coin. It doesn't tell you where that one's going.

No, it doesn't. But we'll just have to see, man. HB 900 expands. This is the one that really bothers me, I think. This is the new services that are untaxed. Expand sales tax to services, professional services exempt, but others like accounting potentially affected

indirectly includes digital products, also authorizes sales, tax increases in transportation, districts, and new retail delivery tax in Northern Virginia, eG, Amazon Uber Eats. I'm pretty sure that's the same one that, oh, no, I'm wrong. That's another one. Okay. There's another one coming on tax on services that even taxes gym memberships,

which I just can't wrap my head around the value of that. Yeah, I read about that one too. That's just, it doesn't make any sense. So we want you to be healthy, but we want you to pay. more to be healthy. So the more people that go to the gym, the higher year monthly, because it, you know, yeah, that's, that's a weird one. I think that's a. There's a lot there. We'll go, we'll jump to it because it is a really weird one, man. HB 978. Every one of these is Democrat sponsored. So the only, the best I can tell you is when it's, who it's sponsored by when it's a

certain person, but this one is Democrat sponsored. They all are. This, this one, one expands retail sales and use tax to services like recreation and fitness facilities, non-medical counseling, dry cleaning laundry, companion animal care, i.g., like dog walking and grooming, home repair. I don't know what Abigail has. Abigail must have had many a morning in Virginia where she was woken up by lawnmowers. And in the back of her plans is just, I'm going to I don't want to hear another lawn more for the rest of my life. And that's the one thing while I'm in power that I'm going to make happen because she's again taxing the landscaping, cleaning, vehicle repair, storage, delivery, shipping, travel, event planning, and digital services and products.

That's a big one. I mean, that's a lot. That covers a lot of things. So the guy that cut your grass. So if you have a guy that comes to cut your grass or does your mulch, there's going to be a tax. on. Is it on his bill to you or is it on the bill? That's what I don't know.

Is it something that he has to pay? It's got to be something that we have to pay because it's sales tax. So you're going to pay like a service tax, I guess, something like that. But he would take that they tacked that onto the bill. So it's that a 50 bucks, he has to charge you 55 because he has to cover the tax. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Dog walkers?

Dog walkers. Oh, my gosh. they're going to be coming after my kids well they are my both of my kids actually walk dogs in the neighborhood for money and i remember the irony of that they've been doing it for years they started really young and the irony of that was they were getting paid through PayPal you know from neighbors and yeah i remember the year that i had to start paying taxes on it because i i do some invoicing through PayPal too so we you know blew through the old six hundred dollar taxable limit and uh i I remember sitting there going like, man, I got to pay taxes on my kids walking.

I can't, I couldn't imagine telling my father or great grandfather or grandfather rather like, yeah, I was out shoveling or raking leaves and now I got to, you know, hand my tax money in to the government at eight years old. I don't want to give anybody any ideas that might be listening, but landscaping. So your kids are walking dogs. Now they want to go, you know, with this snow, they want to go like shovel the neighbor's driveway and the neighbor Venmo's them 10 bucks. Yeah. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

Where's that landscaping tax? Could you imagine? I kind of would like it, actually. I really wouldn't mind having a phone call with a state individual over my kids dog walking, not being paid, paid their taxes up. You know what I mean? Oh, my gosh. What really is, what really doesn't make sense from the Democrat side, though, is the recreation, fitness facilities and non-medical counseling. Like, these are health.

This is health and wellness. This is mental health. This is the cornerstone of like the Democrat wellness program. So I just makes no sense. How could they be so hungry for a tax dollar that they're going to, you know what I mean? It almost seems like these are things they'd want to subsidize. Like the Democrats should be the party that says we want to make, we want every Virginia to have a gym membership and access to a counselor.

They're the ones that put them on the road with the cops, right? They were like, oh, we don't need more cops. We need counselors out there. Dodger bullets. So, yeah, it's a crazy one. It affects so many things. Yeah. Storage.

Vehicle repair and storage. Yeah. So is that like your local garage? Like you get an oil change or get your, you know, so you got to, you know, you pay obviously tax to get tires, get an oil change, 50 bucks. It's 53, you know, tax and everything, sales tax and all that. And they want to throw like an extra couple dollars on for a. vehicle repair tax or storage or yeah you know what we probably need we probably need to get a

CPA on get a virginia CPA on one of these shows and have them sit here and go like okay tell us how you're managing all you know because they're the ones that really got to understand it yeah because that's yeah these get past if these get past oh yeah oh you know they'll be you know turbo tax and all hr block whoever does these taxes they'll be coming out with you know save this receipt or this how you know potentially could affect you and like travel and event planning event planning so like digital services i think event planning is probably like uh like concerts and all that stuff don't you think travel and event or maybe it's maybe it's events coming to virginia something like that you know they want a piece of that traveling

events oh like concerts like uh yeah maybe I think this is just a reason. I read something earlier about this is all these different proposals are are ways to generate revenue without increasing the personal property tax. And I'm curious to know, and I haven't read all of these, I'm curious to know if the car tax is going to come back or what was that? That was Gilmore, right? That was Governor Gilmore back in the day.

I don't know. We already pay a car tax, don't we? I do. Yeah, the personal property tax and stuff like that, but it's, I forget. I think it was Governor Gilmore. Gosh, four administrations ago. Was he after like Wilder? I can't remember.

I wasn't here. Yeah, the personal property tax for vehicles was incredibly high. And he ran on, put me in office and I'll get rid of the personal property tax when it comes to the vehicles. And he got rid of a huge. chunk of it because I remember I would get my bill for in the county and it would show what it would normally be and then under it was like you know minus you know personal property reduction and then it would show the amount that I was like I was saving and of course you know it was it was a good chunk

of change and that was a ton of money and to this day when I try to explain to people that don't live in Virginia what personal property taxes they just look at me you know like a dog and cocked their head to the side and I'm like I know I know. It's like you're being punished. The amount and the manipulation. The personal property tax is not only up and up because I bought a car in 22 and they tried to tell me that in 23, from 22 to 23, my car went up in value by nearly $5,000 that I was paying taxes on. That's weird.

And I was like, this doesn't happen. there's no car in existence that is like, oh, that appreciate it. Now that you've ran it around Richmond a while, it's really worth something. Yeah. So, yeah, that would be great. But these are the things that smart states are doing. And I think we're a lot of people who weren't so invested in living in Virginia are going like, yeah, I'll go there. Because I think they just got rid of it in Florida or something, didn't they?

One of those states. Yeah, Desantis is talking about it. I think, I'm not sure if it's past, but. There's been a lot on the news in the last several weeks. So he's really pushing hard for that. So they don't have what is they don't have sales tax or they don't have income tax at Florida, right? No income tax.

Yeah. No income tax. Right. Yeah. I mean, my play, my power play. If, if we could get a governor with any balls at all would be to go to the data center people in Northern Virginia and tell them all the money that you're going to rake in with AI, supposedly.

you're going to pay the taxes. We don't need taxes anymore. You know what I mean? You could cut the cost of electricity and pay the tax. I mean, if it's as successful as everybody says, it could be or should be or it's going to be. I'm not really too sold on it, to be honest with it. I think people are,

I think the disgust reflex is kicking in big time with AI. So I don't know if it's going to be, you know, all that it is. I mean, it's a lot like the drone. it's a less radical version of a drone strike to me. It's like how many martyrs are you going to make by laying off 10,000 people who are going to go out into the world and say, dude, I had a great job and AI took it and now I don't have any money. And to have people, you know, rah, rah about it. No, it's happened. And AI, I mean, I can talk about that for days.

But yeah, that's a, that's, I mean, it's going to make things a lot simpler, a lot more efficient. but you know, but with, you know, more efficiency, you know, comes people getting laid off. I mean, you know, the AI and every, you know, it doesn't stop. It works 24-7, works as fast as it wants to work, doesn't call in sick, you know, doesn't bitch and moan, doesn't get paid. Doesn't bitch about not getting married. No health care. Exactly.

The real problem, though, is the same problem with solar and sustainable energy is that, it never gets cheaper. How's it not, you know what I mean? Like energy isn't getting, we put all the solar panels up, wind, everything all across the country. Energy is more expensive than ever. Same thing with these companies. I didn't hop on Amazon and go like, wow, look how cheap everything is now that they laid off 10,000 people. You know what I mean?

So the cost savings go direct to the bottom line, I guess. And we just sit there and go, okay. I'll just spend the same amount of money or more for the same crappy Chinese products I've always bought. Yeah, our power bills are never going to go down because of, you know, solar, wind or whatever. Yeah. It's never going to go down. It's amazing, isn't it? It's like we can get limitless power from the sun if we put these panels up.

It's all we got to do. And then they went up and you went, well, I thought you said it was free when you get it from the sun. How come I'm still paying for it? True. Nothing changed. No. No. Yeah.

So the same concept though with that, I think, the whole AI thing. Now, it looks like there are some bills in here that are about deduction, tax deductions, which I didn't know about. HB 979, sponsored by a delegate Vivian Watts. This might just be Fairfax County, though. I don't know. Increases standard deductions. to 10K single household, 15K, head of household, 20K, married starting 2027, exempts food hygiene products from local sales tax.

That's kind of cool. Food from local sales tax is really cool. Creates new brackets, 8% on 600K to 1 million, 10%. A same sort of similar thing there. Dedicates 50% of new bracket revenue to public schools. There you go. Barum Chi. Yeah, anytime there's a, yeah, that's on the surface that sounds kind of cool, but then, you know, you add in the dog walking and the event.

Yeah, what are you saving? It's just, it's just a wash if you're going to end up. Yeah, I mean, on the surface, that's great, but, oh, you know, it comes on the other taxes that just totally just negate that. That's a good point. HB.334 authorizes all county cities to impose up to 1% additional local sales slash, use tax via referendum for school capital projects maintenance. Yeah, this is that weird one where counties and cities just via referendum can raise tax and just say sort of same thing, schools. School capital projects slash maintenance.

And I don't understand how the 1% fits in with the $2.7 billion surplus. Why can't a county slash city just ask for that money? Can we get a little bit of that money? Instead of taking more from people who don't have it. Yeah, the one thing to consider, I didn't know this. And it's so weird how things just pop into your life on, like, YouTube. But before I was watching, and I should find this for you guys, who are watching, Keith, you'd probably really like it too.

I just threw a video on before I got on, and it was called How Virginia is, And this is very bad news. How Virginia is turning into America's next mega region. And the video is, who's this guy? Archive. This video is all about how like the Northern Virginia and the Appalachian cities are running together. Like they're connecting. You know what I mean?

Into this big mega region. And what the video goes into is like all the infrastructure, transportation roads that need to be. really upgraded really fast. Oh, yeah. And, yeah. That's going to take billions upon billions. Well, it's bad enough that Northern Virginia, it's been, you know, it's been creeping down south for the longest time.

And, you know, very, very soon, gosh, that's probably in the next five years, Fredericksburg is going to be the new Fairfax. You know, that's a really good point. Well, that's part of it. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. You should go north on 95.

You know, it used to be you got Richmond, Ashland, then a long stretch of nothing. And then Fredericksburg, then you had the, then maybe, you know, nothing. Then the outlets, Quantico, but pretty much, once you get north of Fredericksburg now, it's just you look off to the left, to the right, it's just mall and all these condos and houses. And it just, you know, Carmacks and all these different businesses. And it's just going to be one big metroplex like Dallas, Fort Worth or something. something like that. You're not going to be able to, not going to be able to tell the difference where you're at. I think that that's kind of it. And that that's the big concern, which is like, what is, is this a lot?

Well, I guess my big concern is, are they even planning for this at the political level? Because I don't trust that they are. And if not, then is this like round one of state tax increase that's going to turn into round two, which is, oh, we have to now. like before we were just helping the schools out but now we have to increase the roads we have to increase you know we have to redo all the bridges through all those areas i mean there's a lot of that's like mountainous terrain and if it's going to see i think they said something like well let's watch it real quick not the whole thing but i'll just show you guys the intro of the video so you can go watch it yourself if you're interested oops because i think it's pretty cool And if you're here because you're in Virginia, then you definitely should know that this is on the table.

Let me turn this on. It's well done. The video's really well done on top of it also. All right, that looks good. Yeah, let's have a look. This is Virginia. With a population of nearly 9 million, it rarely gets attention as a single place. That's because Virginia doesn't have one dominant city.

Instead, its population is spread across several regions that have historically developed on their own. While northern Virginia developed around Washington, D.C., Richmond grew as a standalone capital and logistics center, and Hampton Roads formed around ports and military installations. We don't need to history. For decades, these regions were clearly separate, but that separation has recently been shrinking. Over the past several years, population growth, housing development, and infrastructure have been expanding outward from each region at the same time. growth hasn't stayed contained within metro boundaries. It has followed the same corridors, gradually filling in the space between cities. But looks like independent growth up close begins to look more connected when viewed at a larger scale.

Virginia's major regions are no longer expanding away from each other. They're expanding toward one another. And that shift is quietly changing how the state functions. For most of the 20th century, Virginia's regions grew slowly and independently. The state industrialized later than the northeast and never developed a single economic core. Agriculture, military spending, and government work were spread out rather than centralized. That pattern produced several mid-sized regions instead of one dominant city. Development stayed compact and large...

I thought there was an image of a... Counties began typically typically in north along the same corridor. Smaller cities and counties began observing... Okay, well, I think you guys get the idea. you probably got the idea before we started watching but the the YouTuber's name is archive A-R-K-I-V-E just type in archive and mega region Virginia mega region into YouTube and you can watch the whole thing it is kind of

state history heavy but it's uh it kind of tells the tale of like what we're gonna what either this round of tax money is going to be needed for or what I think probably is more like it what the coming tax greater tax increase is going to look like because, you know, that just seems like the thing that's going to have to happen. And when you think about that, Keith, in perspective, all of a sudden that $2.7 billion don't look so big anymore. Oh, my gosh, no. It does kind of look scary if you got to connect massive metropolitan areas together with new roads and new services and new this and new that. So, you know, this round of sort of whatever, it's going to build on to some kind of tax fatigue. And I wonder what happens if enough people leave that now all this growth can't be funded the right way.

You know what I mean? Well, like Northern Virginia, I mean, that's how she got elected. I mean, you know, the folks up in Nova and to some extent, Richmond, what was she a delegate? She was in the Senate, right? Yeah. She took, what, Ed Bratt? She beat Ed Brat, I think. I think so.

I remember the, I remember the race down here. It was pretty big deal. Yeah. And then, yes, she's from Henriott, West End to Henriko, I think. And then you got the folks in Hampton Roads. But, you know, that's basically, you know, up in Northern Virginia, those are the folks, you know, those are the folks that elected her. And all the big donors, all the big donors up there and stuff. And I think, you know, these taxes.

And if it, you know, if it calls. causes an expansion out, you know, Appalachia and the Shenandoah Valley. I mean, those people are going to be not happy at all. You don't, you don't make, you don't piss those people off. You know, those. Yeah. Generation of Virginians who've been there forever. They like their independence. They just want to be left alone. Yeah, they want their guns. They want to go hunting. They want to do their things. Getting their big bubba trucks and right around. Those, yeah, those people, those, you just, yeah, they just want to be left alone. She, Abigail is from what I can tell, like, she really is an elite level, like, politician at the game of politics. And I don't think that's a good thing. But I think that has that has a lot to do with her success. And I think she's going to continue to exist in that way, which is what it looks like to me anyway is, you know, behind closed doors, I'm going to do this, this and this for you. And you get me into a better position. 100%.

It would not surprise me if she's being groomed as, you know, Hillary 2.0, you know, whether it's, you know, in 28 or 32 or whenever it happens to be, it would not surprise me in the slightest. Be wild to see Junkin and Spanberger go at it for the presidency, wouldn't it? Well, I mean, if she's got Nova locked in, I mean, that's tough. That's a tough nut to crack up there. I mean, that's, it's DC light. I mean, that's, you know, basically what is DC ought to this annex. you know, Fairfax and Alexandria and everything else and just take it. I wish they would. I wish they would and become a state. And then we could have a separate tax, you know, bracket for those guys as a state.

Oh, but then they get, oh, but then how many senators would they get? And then. Oh, God. Well, that's a good point. Yeah, that would be a big problem. That's the, you never getting that voter base back. Well, you know, she was in the CIA and whatever, whatever she did not, whatever she did. I don't know if she worked in the field or an analyst or whatever, but I can't remember who we had on, but they were remarking about her.

It may have been Dave Jones, and it wasn't anything super impressive. It was in office. I don't want to say it was data entry, because I don't think it was that, but we talked about it on one of the shows. And it wasn't, you know, she wasn't like. No, she wasn't like Jason Bourne or anything. You know what I mean? Like, yeah. But, I mean, it is what it is.

Sure. I really think if you're going to be elite level politician, CIA's perfect for you to come from. You know what I mean? Who do I have to be today? What do I have to say? Who do I have to lie to convince? I mean, it's perfect training. Yep.

Give me my talking points. That's it. Yeah. Going behind enemy lines, you know, the whole thing. So. So we do. Oh, go ahead. No.

So are there any, what about any firearm laws? Are they trying to take our guns and all that stuff? stuff from us. We did a whole, our last episode was all firearm loss. And it was a bunch. Last Monday, we released that one. This one is the tax one. But there, I don't see, now that you mention it, is I thought there was a, was it like ignition and gun tax. And I don't see that one. Oh, 11. I blew past it. Yeah, there you go. You got it. Which one was that? HB 919. 11% tax on gross receipts from retail sales of firearms and ammunition by dealers, manufacturers, or vendors. Yeah, so that's going to hit the both ends, right?

And do you know where that money is? That money is earmarked for a reduction in gun violence. Oh, yeah, that'll do it. That's how gun violence is reduced by taxes. We're going to charge you more for the gun and for your ammo. Yeah. And of course, as some, you know, I'm not a big gun nut, but yeah, it's it's the old, you know, criminals don't care. They're going to get their guns anyway. It's really weird how they're going to raise the price of a firearm, tax a firearm or ammunition. And then that money is going to go to like defeat gun violence. And it's, it's just just another buzzword, political buzzword that makes absolutely no sense. They don't understand violence. You know what I mean? Like they think. guns are violence. That's like the big disconnect from what I can tell.

You know what I mean? Oh, it's guns equal violence. So if we just get rid of guns, there's no more violent. People equal violence. Yep. You know what I mean? Like, and it's not, it's hardly even demographic. It's like people are violent.

Yeah. That's the deal. It sounds good. Are we going to raise taxes and we're going to take the money? You know, go towards victims. Nobody's going to shoot anybody anymore because of bullets. cost more. Yeah.

I'm not going to shoot that guy because, man, ammunition's way too expensive. What's really funny to me is that it's an old punchline to an even older Chris Rock stand-up comedy routine. I mean, he had an old stand-up comedy routine where he talked about making bullets cost $1,000 a piece.

And the Democrats literally turned that into policy for like most of my life. Like, it was a laugh line. You know what I mean? It was like, maybe we could just make bullets $1,000 each. There's still plenty of criminals who are rich enough to afford a $1,000 bullet and put it into somebody they want out of here anyway. When you said Chris Rock, in the skit, the one I immediately thought it was how not to get your butt kicked by the police.

Do you remember that one? Yeah, hell yeah. Oh, my gosh. I could watch that thing all. That is so funny. That's a video of my head. Yeah, he was good in his heyday, man. Oh, yeah.

That stand up with him in the leather jacket. is the black leather jacket. I don't remember what it was called, but that, yeah, he was good. He was good in that one. But yeah, you know, a stand-up comedian's job is different than a politician's job who's trying to actually improve a state and, you know, decrease crime. And who cares about decreasing crime if, you know, your first order of business is make sure that ICE can't get in this state and work with our state police.

Oh, that was her first executive order, wasn't it? It was actually their last on the list of 10. It was the 10th executive order that show. That was the grand finale. The grand finale was get ice out of here. Or it was really more like, don't allow the state police and ice to work together. That's going to be very interesting because Jeff Katz was, well, he was a police chief down in Florida. And he retired and he came and he was the police officer.

It was the police chief in Chesterfield. So when I was a cop. when I was a cop in Chesterfield. So he was one of the chiefs when I was there. Oh, cool. Yeah, left about four years ago and then went to Quantico to the FBI Academy. And I believe it was an instructor there for the last two or three years. And he just became the superintendent of Virginia State Police, I believe, just within the last few weeks.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, and I thought he was all in radio and stuff. No, that's the other Jeff Katz. You're thinking of the WRVA guy. Yeah, they're two cats. Yeah. Yeah. I thought he was a cop too.

He was way back of the day. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a kid. Yeah, the other Jeff Katz is, yeah, he was the police chief and then Chesterfield and Quantico and then now. I was a little confused when you were saying all that. I said, I didn't know that the radio dude was in the FBI and all that. He never talks about that.

Definitely cats. Was it Jeff? Oops. Now I've got to look it up. See, I never, when I was a police officer, I was the police officer that I didn't want the chief to know my name. It's kind of like in high school, you don't want the principal to know who you are. Yeah, yeah. Just walking down, you know, the principal looks at you and nods.

That's the kind of cop that I was. Yeah. You know, just, oh, hi-smart. Oh, yeah. Stay off my back. Don't want the principal or the chief of police to know my name. I think it's Jeffrey Katz, I think. Yeah, that sounds right.

Yeah, I think they both have the spelling of the same name. Yeah. Yeah. But he's with the Virginia State Police is superintendent now. Yeah, that'll be interesting. That'll be an interesting thing. And then to see how that affects Virginia's ability to get federal funding and, you know, with all this that we're talking about with the region's growing and such a rapid rate.

And it's, yeah. Because you know how Trump is, man. You know what I mean? He's liable to get all upset and say, you ain't get nothing. We got to come in there and do what we do or whatever. And then we got that problem to deal with. but yeah i mean that's that's 10 new tax bills proposed tax hikes tax bills whatever you want to call it built into the very near future i think every one of these is

that nothing's proposed beyond the 27 fiscal year so it's you know it's right around the corner the majority of them 2026 so i don't know what that takes it does look like they're in varying state status right like summer in-house finance committee hearing scheduled for February January some are just in committee summer in in-house finance committee so we'll see the house the house did pass this one percent tax it looks like already 70 to 28 on January 27 2026 referred to Senate finance and appropriations on the 28th of January so yeah it's it's good to be interesting. I mean, you know, they have, you know, the Dems have, you know, both what is? Yeah, there's

nothing stopping. Yeah, it's the House of Delegates and the Senate, right? Yeah. So they've got it both. So they could, they could ram anything through that they want. I just, you know, some of these things, you know, a new governor comes in, a new elected official, a lot of these folks will sponsor something just to kind of get their name out there because half these people I've never heard of. So I think they, they want to put their name on it. Oh, I sponsored it. And, you know, and you know, and Mike over there, He's the co-sponsor. And I think it's just to get their name out there. And I don't think the governor,

I don't think she's really come out in support of too many of these. I think she's kind of playing it, playing it kind of cool. You know, and then, you know, there's talk about vetoes. And I think that, so she ran as a moderate, which I didn't believe for a second. But he ran on affordability too. Yeah, the folks that believe that, okay, I get it. But I think that a lot of these things, in my opinion,

are very extreme. And I think you would probably go somebody. You're going to raise the taxes, you know, 10, 12, 13 percent, whatever if you combined all these things. I think that a lot of these, if they pass, I think even though she's not a moderate,

but she ran as a moderate, I think she's going to probably pump the brakes on a couple of them. It would make sense. It's kind of a sacrificial lamb. Look, Linda, I really like, I really like this, but I'm going to have to put the kibosh on this

because I got people breathing down my neck and we're not going to be, you know, so she'll be like, whoa, you know, that's just a little too much now. Then two years from now, she's like, look, I'm a moderate. The Dems came with all these crazy tax increases and what did I do as a moderate? Yeah. And everyone's like, hmm, maybe she is. It's just, look, I think, like I said, I think that this woman is a master politician. I really do. Because when she first hit the scene, I saw her, and I was like, she's not going to win at any level. You know what I mean? And now that I've seen her work in the state for a while, it's like she learned a lot in the CIA.

And she's employing it. And yeah, I could see her going all the way up to running for president for sure a few years. A few years in Virginia. She gets the right people looking at her talking about her, that kind of stuff. I agree. I mean, if you're willing to cart out Kamala Harris, Abigail Spanberger is a dream. That's right.

Yeah. She doesn't get much better than that. And we're still hungry for that first female president. So that's true. Yeah. I don't think she's going to, I don't think she's going to do anything to shoot herself in the foot, but so much as governor.

Yeah. I think, yeah, I think she's going to try to play it middle of the road, but it's not, you know, that's really not where she's actually coming from. But we'll see.

We'll see. Yonkin, you know, whether he decides, you know, Vance, it's going to be interesting come, come 28, I guess. Although, to your point, I mean, you talk about candidates, you look at Gavin Newsom, the guy blew up an entire state, one of the biggest states, one of probably the most beautiful state in the whole country. Yep.

And I don't see really anybody pumping the brakes on him for president. You know what I mean? He is so, he is so extreme. I know. He's just, again, a typical politician left, right, you know, independent. He's a master too. Yeah. Exactly.

I mean, you know, all the waste, the fraud, everything going on in California, they don't deny it. And it's just, you know, you call them out on it. They just, yep, they just ignore it and move on to the next downbite. That's all it is. It's amazing. No shame whatsoever. Like, this is a key element of being a politician, I think, at the highest level. You have to have zero shame in what you've done to the country or your state.

Is she like, is it Pelosi's nephew or something? Isn't he like married to her? It's just, it's all incestuous. I can't. She's related. They're related somehow. I think. Oh, I didn't know that.

Yeah, yeah, they're related somehow. It's just, it's just. Pelosi and Spanberger? No, no, no. Newsom. Oh, Pelosi and Newsome. Yeah, I think they're related cousins or son-in-law or so. I don't know.

There's, because she's out there in San Francisco, One of her 30 homes or wherever she's staying these days. But yeah, that's where I think her home of record. Is Gavin Newsom the nephew of Nancy Pelosi? But I don't know if it's. I could have swore the related some. I wouldn't be surprised. Look, you need a lot of help to take a giant state like that

and gut it, destroy it, burn it down halfway. You know what I mean? Get everyone to leave. You know, that's a big job. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow and they were like, all right, Keith, all you got to do is burn half of Virginia down, get the other half to leave the state, and then run for president. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he's right out of central casting.

He's got the hair, he's got the nice suit. You know, he's very articulate, you know, even though half the things he says are probably lies. You know, plenty of people just look at him and nod. And yeah, but anybody, you know, not to insult people with half a brain, but if you got a half a brain living in California, how you think he could ever. maybe they want to get him out of California That's a great call Just get that guy 3,000 miles away You should run Gavin

Anything to get the hell out of here Yeah that's a good way to look at it Who would have thought But I mean they're doomed anyway Who's going to come in behind him But somebody worse, you know Oh yeah That yeah that California's so far gone

I don't think there's really really any hope I have one hope And that's that enough people leave That the state just goes into total collapse and then, you know, in 20 years or something, 30 years, red people start rolling in and fixing things because, you know, that's the pattern. Yeah. The pattern is like blue for destruction, red for repair or whatever.

Blue for breakdown, red for repair. Or the old adage is just, you know, the San Andreas fault, it just breaks off and, you know, it floats out towards Hawaii or something. It can be its own island or something like that. I guess that would be something. That would be something. I love it, though. I think it's an amazing place. And it's just, it's turned into Europe on me.

It's like, I don't even want to go. You got Northern California, you know, the, oh, it's just incredible. You know, Southern California, San Diego, Lojolla. I mean, just it's a beautiful state. And it's just unfortunate that just these little pockets of just pure disaster. I was managing a pretzel bakery in Philly and soft pretzel bakery. And a lady used to come in all the time from San Diego. I don't know why she lived there.

She was in Chad's Ford, Pennsylvania. And she was like, yeah, I lived in San Diego for years. It would rain about once a year. And every other day was like 73 degrees and sunny. Yeah. The La Jolla is a small area outside of just beautiful. Yeah. Beautiful city, San Diego and La Jolla.

And like Catalina Island or is like an island off the coast of San Diego. Again, just picturesque, just beautiful. If you just, if you pretend you're not in California, it's. Yeah, right. It's nice or just close your eyes. I guess you would just like bum it and live on the beach as a homeless. And it'd probably be a pretty decent life because I'm sure there's a ton of great subsidized services and such. You could eat, you know, do drugs, whatever you need.

Get your broken down RV and just leave it parked on some residential street and they're not going to mess with you. There you go. There you go. Well, here's to hoping that this is not the beginning of our very own sort of California style collapse in Virginia. but, you know, it is what it is, right? It's going to be tough. I appreciate you coming on tonight, folks. Common Sense Practical Prepper Keith.

Check his podcast out. Look him up. He's everywhere. Podcasts can be had as well. And stay tuned for episode four of The Mother of Mayhem. I don't know what we're going to do next. I have some ideas. I mean, there's plenty to go over.

And I'm sure there's plenty more to come. So, yeah, I appreciate you, sir. Thanks again for coming on. for having me. I really do appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Don't forget, down below, hydronomist.com, the supporter and sponsor of today's show, check them out, hydronomist.com. I'll see you tomorrow, folks. This is only Tuesday. Talk to you soon, Keith. All right, see you.