Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Michael, I completely agree with you. We need to go
over what was in that see our bill and how
much our congress people were trying to get away with
in addition to the beyond frivolous study on completely stupid stuff.
Please go over all the highlights of that bill, thinks.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I don't know that I can go over all the highlights.
I just know what bits and pieces I've read. I
look fifteen hundred pages. I'm not going to read it,
and instead I'm going to rely on others to tell
(00:46):
me what's in it. But let me just before I
give you any details, I want to put it in
perspective and why it's important and why it proves my
points that they don't care about you. Now, I don't
know what. Let's see median income for United States twenty
(01:11):
twenty four. Let's see what generates here. The median income
in the United States and twenty twenty four is estimated
to be. This is from Google's AI. Median salary for
a two person family eighty two thousand, six hundred eighty five,
median income for a four person family one hundred four thousand.
(01:32):
Median weekly earnings for full time workers one thousand, one
hundred and sixty five. Keep that one one hundred and
sixty five in mind while I pull up my little
handy Danny iPhone calculator, because now I'm curious about it's
(01:57):
even worse than I thought. The AI overview is the
median weekly earnings for full time workers in the United States.
The median income is the level at which half of
households earn more and half earn less. Is kind of
a broader indicator of household financial well being than say,
(02:21):
average salary, which is why I wanted to look up
median income. So the median weekly earnings for full time
workers is one and sixty five more, half make less.
Members of Congress, on average one hundred eighty four thousand
(02:42):
dollars a year, divided by fifty two weeks in a
year gives them. Now, there's no median here because they
all are in this. I can't say they all are
in the same, because if you're a member of leadership
you make more. But the weekly salary, based on an
(03:04):
average of one hundred and eighty four thousand plus a
year is three thousand, five hundred and thirty three dollars
and forty six cents a week. Now, Remember that's compared
to the median weekly earnings for full time workers in
this country is half that one hundred and sixty five dollars,
(03:25):
So they already make double the median average weekly earnings
for full time workers. Now, let's think about a full
time worker. A full time worker in this country is,
or generally speaking, would be, forty hours a week, eight
hours a day, five days a week. Obviously, some work more,
some work less. How many hours do you think members
(03:50):
of Congress work? Now? I know that. Look, I know
what I do, what Dragon does. We don't get our
fingers dirty, well except in the studio and just touching things.
It's things dirty and dragons spot back. There's even worse
(04:10):
than mine. But my point is we don't necessarily have
calloused hands because we don't do manual labor. Now, I
do argue that what we do is work, because you
can ask Tamar. I spend an inordinate amount of time.
As I like to tell people, you know, well, you know,
(04:33):
how do you do? Show prep? Show prep for me
is twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Everything I do is a potential story. Everything I see
read here's a potential story. And I'm constantly thinking about
is this interesting to me? Well, if it's interesting to me,
I'm gonna make it interesting to you.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And don't get us why there's tons of stress behind
the scenes, like, well, we were worried about copy points
from stuff yesterday.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh totally. I mean Dragon and I were so. And
it cares on to after the program, yep, after I
left the building, after Dragon left the building, we're both
still stressed out.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
About providing a good product.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Providing good product with really lousy directions. How about that?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Is that Is that a nice way to get say,
confusing instruction.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Confusing instruction? Yeah, lousy and confusing instructions. So I went
downstairs and just did the best I can and we
sent it off and we'll see what happens. So members
of Congress, now, don't get me wrong, they work and
it can be very stressful, but they make double the
(05:49):
median weekly earning for a worker in this country. And
I haven't even got to that that's just their salary.
I haven't even got to the fact that every Congressman
has district offices, and every district and senator's two same thing.
(06:10):
And in their district they've got two or three offices.
In the state of For a senator, they might have
five or six, you know, a half dozen offices, and
each of those offices are staffed with dozens and dozens
of people. They serve on committee, and every committee they
serve on has a staff, and then they have their
own staff for that committee. So suddenly you have thousands
(06:33):
of foulu. You have tens of thousands of people working
for these five hundred and thirty five members of Congress.
Generally speaking, now, when they go home, they will do
something because they're always campaigning, they're always trying to raise money,
and they're always being asked to go on television that
not all of them, thank god, not all of them are.
(06:55):
In fact, I wish none of them would. I really
don't care. What If I want to hear what they
have to say, I'll go read what they have to say.
But they're always appearing on the cable channels. They're always,
you know, being quoted on the network news and so,
and they're always jocking for position. I've always described Chuck
Schumer as like a bug to a bug light. He
sees that red light come on the camera that says
(07:17):
it's life, he goes running to it. As if it's
it's the end of his life if he doesn't get there.
They crave the attention they have. You think I've got
an ego, My ego looks like a knack compared to theirs,
and they are treated like royalty. You've got to call
(07:42):
them by their you know, Congressman so and so, Senator
so and so, even if you know them well, out
of respect, you should still call them that because yeah,
they after all, they're they're lawmakers and they got elected.
People chose them. So you should show respect to the
office by calling them congressman or senator. Then when you
(08:04):
understand what they have. You know, some congressmen very I
don't know if any of them still do, but there
are congressmen that have been known to literally live in
their offices in d C. How can they do that?
How can they sleep in their office? Well, even the
House side offices, they're not nearly as glorious and huge.
(08:27):
If you want to see the ostentatiousness of the United
States Senate, go to the heart Senate office building. This
is this is an instruction the next time if you
ever get to go to d C. I know you,
I know you want to see all of the wonderful
tourist attractions and the memorials in the monuments, and I
really would like for you to do that. And I
(08:47):
know you want to see the US Capitol, but while
you're on Capitol Hill, walk to the north and go
to the Heart Senate Office Building and go to your well,
not your sims because your simator may not be in
the Heart Senate Office building. But I want you to
go to the Heart Senate Office Building. It's the newest building.
(09:08):
It's probably a couple of decades, probably older than that now.
But you walk in and just walk into the reception
area and just say hi, I just wanted to see
the office. But you're Ethan paying for it, so you
have a right to go in and see the office.
And I want you to recognize that what you see
(09:28):
in the reception area is probably less than one tenth
of their offices. And it's the artwork, the furniture, the furnishings,
everything makes one of these white shoe law firms down
on seventeenth Street in Denver look like a ghetto. And
(09:54):
you're paying for all of it, now, you know, Dragon
and I I park out, well, I'm not gonna say,
right park, but I park one place, Dragon parks another,
and then we park out in the open air. And
so if it's rainy, snowy, windy or whatever, you know,
we got to traps through all of that. Well they don't.
(10:15):
They park in garages under their building, paid for by
the taxpayers, guarded secure. And if they need to go
from their offices to the Capitol Building, well they can
take an underground tram that will just they can just
sit and the little it's like writing, Well, it's not
like riding the train at DA in this response. In
this regard, you ride the train at DA, you're crammed
(10:36):
in with a bunch of other people, and you got
strap hangers, and you got you know, kids and noise
and people coughing and blah blah blah. Noh no they no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Don't fe at a certain level too, these people don't
drive anymore. Oh yeah, they don't have drivers and people
that will open the car door for them.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Right, they don't. Yeah, they don't drive. Now, some members
of the House do drive, but generally speaking, a lot
of the don't. But if they got to go from
their office to the Senate chambers, they'll take a little tram,
and the tram is very nice. You can see you
(11:14):
can walk if you wanted to. They didn't design it
poorty like da. If the tram's not working, you can walk,
or if you just want to get your steps in,
you can walk. But you can also just sit down
and your staff can brief you about whatever you're going
to be voting on. And you know, there's little bells
to tell you you have so many minutes to go
over and vote, and then you go over and you know, oh,
(11:36):
it's really nasty out. Well just go to the cafeteria.
Or if you don't want to eat with the staffers
and the tourists and everybody else in the Capitol cafeteria,
well you can go to the Senate lounge. You can
go to the Senate dining room. And no, you don't pay,
(11:57):
you don't leave a tip. You're paying for that. And
then when you get done, if you need a haircut,
you go down to the basement and you get a haircut.
You need your shoe shine, you know how, you check
into a really nice hotel and you can leave your
shoes out in the bag and they'll be there the
next morning, all shining ready for you. Well you could
do that, or you could just you know, sit there
(12:21):
and have them shine your shoes for you. Now you'll
tip the shoe shine, but they won't charge you for it.
But you can tip them and they will. And oh,
by the way, no need to send the staff to
pick up the dry cleaning because the dry cleaning shop
is right there in the basement too. Oh and the
guy that's sleeping in his office, well he just goes
into the basement because in the basement he has his
(12:43):
own locker room, and he's got a shower, and he's
got a gem. He's got everything you could possibly need.
He can literally live in his office and not spend
a nickel on doing anything. Like when I went to
d C. Oh, No, people have a misconception. Sure, I
(13:04):
had a security detail, I had a driver, I had
all of that. I had lots of perks. You know.
I got to fly on Air Force one, Marine one
if I needed to make a trip somewhere. Sometimes sometimes
I would fly commercial. Sometimes I fly on a Gulf Stream.
Obviously I prefer the latter. But when I flew when
(13:25):
I flew commercial, I didn't go through security. They have
all these perks that separate them from us, and that
turned them into elitis because they after You know, when
you've been there, like Joe Biden for fifty years, that
becomes your universe, that becomes your lifestyle, and that becomes
(13:45):
what you expect. That becomes the new normal. And bingo, dragon, bingo.
And I'm painting this picture for you about salary and
perks and everything else because they live an entirely differ
than you and I do. Now, I know, I look
(14:06):
back on my days as the undersecretary, and I got
to tell you it's a wonderful life. I'm not gonna
sit here and lie to you and tell you that
I didn't enjoy those perks. Absolutely I did. And if
anybody that used to work in DC tells you that
they didn't like those perks, they are lying to you. Now,
there were times when I was actually embarrassed by it.
I was truly embarrassed by it. Like checking into a hotel.
(14:30):
I didn't check into the hotel. My staff checked me
into the hotel. Before I went into my room. My
security detail checked the room. Now, if we were in
a foreign country, they checked it for bugs, and then
they checked it let make sure there were no honeypots
sitting there waiting to entrap me so that they could
extort me or bribe me. I didn't do anything. I
(14:52):
didn't do anything. Oh, I'm busy. I'm traveling for two weeks.
I need to get a haircut. Oh, my staff will
find me a barber, shape up someplace. They'll find me
a style of someplace, and they will call and and
and they'll they'll they'll pull the title out. Hey, I'm
traveling with the under Secretary of homemand Security. He really
needs to get in to get a haircut. Can you
(15:13):
can you arrange to see them today? Uh? Yeah, we'll
make room for him or a restaurant. No problem getting
into a restaurant, none at all. It's an entirely different way.
It is an elitist world. And I'm confessing that, Yeah,
it was fantastic, but it wasn't real. It wasn't real.
(15:38):
And they're making double and that's not even count I
haven't eve gotten to the benefits yet. Tam and are
going to fly down to Phoenix for part of the
holidays to see our granddaughter. Yeah, we'll see our great
we'll see our daughter and our husband too, But we're
really going to see the granddaughter. So I'm I'm you.
(16:00):
We talked about fees. Well, so I book flights and
I'll have to go through Now I've got clear and
I've got global entry and I've got all of that,
so you know, I'll be able to go through security.
But nonetheless I still have to go through security. They don't.
Now oftentimes they will because they get recognized and so
(16:23):
they don't want to be seen bypassing security. Now the leadership,
will you know do you think Mike? Well, first of all,
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, has access to a
government plane, as does as do the Senate majority minority leaders.
So they don't even see security, let alone bypass security.
(16:50):
Health benefits you like your doctor, You can keep your doctor. Oh,
and we're going to bring the average premium down to
fifteen hundred dollars a month. Twenty five was a month,
whatever it was. What are you paying right now? So
you got the picture about the world that they live in.
Now you want the proof that they don't care about you?
(17:14):
Kick around. I'll give you some example, Mike.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I know math isn't your strong suit, but the average
weekly pay of a congressman is triple the average weekly
salary of the American worker not double.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Let's see thirty what was it that? Still? That up?
Only three thousand and five US who sixteen hundred times
two would be no if the medium is sixteen hundred
per week.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
It was eleven hundred per week I think, or ten,
ten twenty five or eleven twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh yeah, it's eleven sixty five.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay, it's eleven Okay, yeah, you're right, it's eleven sixty five.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I hate to give him kudos when he actually deserves them,
I know, when he actually deserves.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Them, right, I know, Yeah, yeah, it's eleven sixty five.
I was thinking it was like eighteen hundreds. Yeah, and
I'm like, what so a couple of text messages that
are great for jumping off points for what they pay
(18:40):
and don't pay? Mike, how about meals and travel? Who
pays for that? Do congress people get housing and food
allowance as well? In DC? Those two they get a
per diem and they get their travel reimbursed when they
(19:03):
are traveling on official business. So if you are a
congressman from Colorado and you want to go home for
the weekend, you arrange your staff arranges for you to
participate in some official events because now you're traveling for business.
You're traveling for your work, and so now you're entitled
(19:26):
to a per diem. So the cost of that flight
will be covered for you to travel from dulles O,
Reagan or Bwi to get to Denver and back, and
you can collect a per diem. You don't have to,
but you can't collect a per diem now if you
just come home for the holidays and you have nothing scheduled, no,
(19:49):
you probably cannot do that. But then your campaign can
do it because you'll make an arrangement to meet with
a couple of donors, You'll have a luncheon or something,
and so now you're doing a campaign event and boom,
now your campaign can pay for it. So in essence,
you fly for free. If you're doing business, you get
a per diem. Now, let's let's talk about eating on
(20:12):
while you're at work. If you want to go to
the Senate dining room, which by the way, is open
to the public, but the Rules Committee sets the rules
for you know, how many members of the public can
get in under what conditions there have to be you know,
there has to be space available. So you know, it's
difficult at best to eat in the Senate dining room
(20:35):
because most of the time senators are there. They like
to take lobbyists and constituents there, particularly if it's a
high donor constituent, or it's a group of you know,
something where you're trying to impress a group of like
girl scouts or something, so you take them in. So
now they take up two tables, So that's two less
tables that somebody else can use. They pay for that food,
(20:59):
but that food, it is subsidized by you and me.
So what you and I might pay, let's say twenty
five dollars for lunch, they pay twelve dollars for lunch.
Then you and I as taxpayers, subsidize the reduced price
versus the actual cost. Now I did another quick search,
(21:24):
and this is from this year. Taxpayers spent two million
stories from February, but they cite two thousand and eight.
Taxpayers spent two million dollars to feed their senator's lunch
in two thousand and eight. As Capitol restaurants posted their
worst ever net loss that year and dipped into emergency funds,
(21:47):
the cafeteria still low. I see now, they get to
twenty twenty four. While senators pay for their own meals
after accounting for payroll other expenses, the subsidized lower cost us.
The cafeteria still lost two point nine million dollars in
twenty twenty four, so you're still sub They they're able
(22:11):
to claim, oh, well, I pay for my meal. Well,
that's like me saying I pay for my diet cokes
at McDonald's, but I Heart subsidizes those, so they reimburse
McDonald's and I pay fifty cents, but I Heart reimburses
McDonald's Corporation fifty cents to get to the dollar whatever
for diet coke. So I can say, oh, yeah, I
(22:33):
pay for my own dit coke. And that's factually true,
but it's not the whole story. So that's how they
get by with claiming that, oh, they're just like you
and me. No, because nobody subsidizes my lunch, nobody subsidizes
my dinners even when I'm working. You know. In fact,
(22:57):
at iHeart, even Dragon, just because I have a business
lunch tomorrow. Dragon just brought me the gift certificates that
we get in trade with restaurants around town, and so
I'll get a free meal courtesy of iHeart, but not
(23:21):
really because well, we're still providing a service to the
people that at that restaurant because probably on the f
because I think these are from an FM station. Look, yes,
this is from one of the rock stations where a
lot of restaurants advertise, and so they're advertising and as
(23:42):
part of the advertisement costs, they give us gift cards
and they get a little bit of a reduced rate
that's part of their package. That's the only time I HEART.
If I take a client to lunch, which I did
this week, I pay for that. Do I get reimbursed?
Not a chance? And now am I going to get
reimbursed about now? The salespeople love it that I'm willing
(24:06):
to do that because I love my sponsors and I
want to be a part of their business. I want
to help their business. So it said for Congress critters,
it's anentirely different set of circumstances. It's an entirely different lifestyle.
(24:30):
The Vike Rama Rama swamming, part of the DOGE effort, says,
the government's trying to waste your money without telling you.
You and I, for the past four years have suffered
at a cumulative effect of twenty two percent inflation, and
(24:51):
we're still paying for that. I could go. In fact,
I saw one of my bosses yesterday as I was leaving.
I should have said to him, you know, inflation has
been up twenty two percent, and I don't know one
of my contracts up for renewal, but I want a
twenty two pay increase. He probably would have spilled his
(25:12):
coffee all over me as he was spewing and laughing,
I'm not gonna get it twenty two. Well, I take
that back. I'll ask for it, but I won't get it. Uh.
How much of a pay raise did you get? Oh
you didn't. Uh? How about your health insurance? Did you
(25:32):
renew your health insurance? And did they expand the benefits?
Did you know I'd liked.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Oh, Michael's about to die over there?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh man, allergies.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That came out of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
There was a sneeze coming that I could not get
out and could not get started. Sorry about that. Listen,
let me ask you. I'm trying to how to phrase
this point. You know, how we've talked about the censorship.
(26:14):
In fact, that's on my list of things to talk
about today, the censorship, Industrial Complex, the holy alliance between
the big tech giants and the federal government so that
they can try to dispel so called mis or disinformation.
Well what if I told you, Well, I won't tell
you that the fake.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Tell Congress is about to pass a bill that blows
away your taxpayer money. But they made it over fifteen
hundred pages.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Long so you wouldn't read it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I did your favor.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I read it for you.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I supposed to be about keeping government operations open and
providing disaster relief aid to hurricane victims, which I'm sympathetic too.
If you read the bill carefully, it contains pay raises
for members of Congress.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Pay raises so they make three times what the average
worker makes weekly. All those benefits I just described to you,
and they have the audacity to try to sneak in
a bill, in a fifteen hundred page bill of pay raise.
Now I understand, I think it's the twenty seventh Amendment.
I have to confirm that the twenty seventh Amendment prohibits
(27:20):
Congress from getting a pay raise during their term of office. Okay, Well,
if ninety eight percent of members of Congress, a House,
and the Senate get re elected, the incumbency rate is
like ninety eight percent. So you vote for a pay
raise today, you won't get that today, but you'll get
(27:44):
it when you get re elected. So they're voting themselves
a pay raise.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And I'm not making this up. An expansion of their
federal health benefits.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Dragon, When you did your health benefit thing, remember when
we had we go we maybe we had that little assistant.
This year they would ask us questions and we go
through and we check this and that, and did you
did you see that huge expansion of the benefits we got?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It was so great. I was so happy to not get.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Any of that. Yeah. I couldn't find it.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Yeah, same here.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I couldn't find it.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
It contains all kinds of special interests and pork funding
puting opening up a new stadium in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
How many of you been to a ballgame? Uh, I
assume this is for the Redskins. I assume this is
you know I heard that names coming back? Really? Yeah,
I heard that there. There's that some of the tribal
tribal groups are really trying to get the name and
the emblem back.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Oh, they were pissed when they got taken away.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, I guess they're pissed now that it actually got
taken away. How many have you been to a Redskins game?
And I know they're called the Capitals or something, I
don't care. Cavenders, what can Camanders, managers, cammandersh traddle whatever.
How many of you? How many of you will ever
use that? Well? They want it? Why do they want it?
(29:09):
Because that's something they can take their constituents to.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
News the Global Engagement Center, which is a keynote of
the censorship industrial complex. And the worst part is they
didn't want you to know about any of it, and
that's why they made this a last minute jam job.
The reason I'm co heading DOGE is I think we
need outsiders to bring actual accountability to Washington, DC. So
feel free to call your congressman and let him know
how you feel about it.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Now. I do believe that the port in this bill
would have eventually come out, but the fact that you
had Ramaswami actually reading the bill, probably Elon's not going
to read it and telling Elon Musk what's in it?
Probably telling the president what is what's in it, or
(29:53):
his staff is telling him what's in it. This is
where I think the kabbal, at least as far as
ex is concerned. I can't speak for Facebook or tech
talk or any of the others. This is where transparency
is so important, because if you like me, and apparently
(30:15):
one of you is, somebody on the text line is
either being sarcastic, smart elic, or tongue in cheek. But
if other than that individual, if you're like me and
believe that they're already paid enough for what they do,
and if and it's a job they chose to seek,
nobody forced them to take it. They chose to take
(30:36):
this job. I think they're paid more than enough. Michael,
sounds like the Senate dining room is no different than
going out with your mom to lunch at the hospital.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You know, somebody's got.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
To pay for it.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, that's right. My mom's being subsidized by whatever the
hospital gets reimbursed for or however they get those or
maybe not. Maybe they were really buying really crappy, cheap
stuff and that's what my mom's eating. But my mom
doesn't earn a salary from the taxpayers either. So you
(31:14):
got that going. And yes, here's the text message. I
was so concerned about Buber number seventy four to thirty one,
wrote this, those congress people deserve that money. They work
hard for us and sacrifice higher salaries in the private
sector and time from their families. We should be very
(31:35):
thankful they work for so little. And then when I
wrote back and said, are you serious or not Michael
reference congressional salaries, Yes, I was being sarcastic completely, Thank goodness, man.
I thought I was going to have to I thought
we were going to have to excommunicate a goober for
(31:57):
a moment the holidays, and I don't want to excommunicated goober.
And you're like, right before Christmas, that's just sacrilegious. And yes,
you're right about if you live this lifestyle, and you
think about Joe Biden, Joe Biden's a perfect example. For
(32:17):
fifty years, for more than half of his lifetime, he
has lived this lifestyle, entitled, holier than now and has
a full expectation that you should be treated as if
he were. And he thinks he is an elitist,
Michael, I completely agree with you. We need to go
over what was in that see our bill and how
much our congress people were trying to get away with
in addition to the beyond frivolous study on completely stupid stuff.
Please go over all the highlights of that bill, thinks.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I don't know that I can go over all the highlights.
I just know what bits and pieces I've read. I
look fifteen hundred pages. I'm not going to read it,
and instead I'm going to rely on others to tell
(00:46):
me what's in it. But let me just before I
give you any details, I want to put it in
perspective and why it's important and why it proves my
points that they don't care about you. Now, I don't
know what. Let's see median income for United States twenty
(01:11):
twenty four. Let's see what generates here. The median income
in the United States and twenty twenty four is estimated
to be. This is from Google's AI. Median salary for
a two person family eighty two thousand, six hundred eighty five,
median income for a four person family one hundred four thousand.
(01:32):
Median weekly earnings for full time workers one thousand, one
hundred and sixty five. Keep that one one hundred and
sixty five in mind while I pull up my little
handy Danny iPhone calculator, because now I'm curious about it's
(01:57):
even worse than I thought. The AI overview is the
median weekly earnings for full time workers in the United States.
The median income is the level at which half of
households earn more and half earn less. Is kind of
a broader indicator of household financial well being than say,
(02:21):
average salary, which is why I wanted to look up
median income. So the median weekly earnings for full time
workers is one and sixty five more, half make less.
Members of Congress, on average one hundred eighty four thousand
(02:42):
dollars a year, divided by fifty two weeks in a
year gives them. Now, there's no median here because they
all are in this. I can't say they all are
in the same, because if you're a member of leadership
you make more. But the weekly salary, based on an
(03:04):
average of one hundred and eighty four thousand plus a
year is three thousand, five hundred and thirty three dollars
and forty six cents a week. Now, Remember that's compared
to the median weekly earnings for full time workers in
this country is half that one hundred and sixty five dollars,
(03:25):
So they already make double the median average weekly earnings
for full time workers. Now, let's think about a full
time worker. A full time worker in this country is,
or generally speaking, would be, forty hours a week, eight
hours a day, five days a week. Obviously, some work more,
some work less. How many hours do you think members
(03:50):
of Congress work? Now? I know that. Look, I know
what I do, what Dragon does. We don't get our
fingers dirty, well except in the studio and just touching things.
It's things dirty and dragons spot back. There's even worse
(04:10):
than mine. But my point is we don't necessarily have
calloused hands because we don't do manual labor. Now, I
do argue that what we do is work, because you
can ask Tamar. I spend an inordinate amount of time.
As I like to tell people, you know, well, you know,
(04:33):
how do you do? Show prep? Show prep for me
is twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Everything I do is a potential story. Everything I see
read here's a potential story. And I'm constantly thinking about
is this interesting to me? Well, if it's interesting to me,
I'm gonna make it interesting to you.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And don't get us why there's tons of stress behind
the scenes, like, well, we were worried about copy points
from stuff yesterday.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh totally. I mean Dragon and I were so. And
it cares on to after the program, yep, after I
left the building, after Dragon left the building, we're both
still stressed out.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
About providing a good product.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Providing good product with really lousy directions. How about that?
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Is that Is that a nice way to get say,
confusing instruction.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Confusing instruction? Yeah, lousy and confusing instructions. So I went
downstairs and just did the best I can and we
sent it off and we'll see what happens. So members
of Congress, now, don't get me wrong, they work and
it can be very stressful, but they make double the
(05:49):
median weekly earning for a worker in this country. And
I haven't even got to that that's just their salary.
I haven't even got to the fact that every Congressman
has district offices, and every district and senator's two same thing.
(06:10):
And in their district they've got two or three offices.
In the state of For a senator, they might have
five or six, you know, a half dozen offices, and
each of those offices are staffed with dozens and dozens
of people. They serve on committee, and every committee they
serve on has a staff, and then they have their
own staff for that committee. So suddenly you have thousands
(06:33):
of foulu. You have tens of thousands of people working
for these five hundred and thirty five members of Congress.
Generally speaking, now, when they go home, they will do
something because they're always campaigning, they're always trying to raise money,
and they're always being asked to go on television that
not all of them, thank god, not all of them are.
(06:55):
In fact, I wish none of them would. I really
don't care. What If I want to hear what they
have to say, I'll go read what they have to say.
But they're always appearing on the cable channels. They're always,
you know, being quoted on the network news and so,
and they're always jocking for position. I've always described Chuck
Schumer as like a bug to a bug light. He
sees that red light come on the camera that says
(07:17):
it's life, he goes running to it. As if it's
it's the end of his life if he doesn't get there.
They crave the attention they have. You think I've got
an ego, My ego looks like a knack compared to theirs,
and they are treated like royalty. You've got to call
(07:42):
them by their you know, Congressman so and so, Senator
so and so, even if you know them well, out
of respect, you should still call them that because yeah,
they after all, they're they're lawmakers and they got elected.
People chose them. So you should show respect to the
office by calling them congressman or senator. Then when you
(08:04):
understand what they have. You know, some congressmen very I
don't know if any of them still do, but there
are congressmen that have been known to literally live in
their offices in d C. How can they do that?
How can they sleep in their office? Well, even the
House side offices, they're not nearly as glorious and huge.
(08:27):
If you want to see the ostentatiousness of the United
States Senate, go to the heart Senate office building. This
is this is an instruction the next time if you
ever get to go to d C. I know you,
I know you want to see all of the wonderful
tourist attractions and the memorials in the monuments, and I
really would like for you to do that. And I
(08:47):
know you want to see the US Capitol, but while
you're on Capitol Hill, walk to the north and go
to the Heart Senate Office Building and go to your well,
not your sims because your simator may not be in
the Heart Senate Office building. But I want you to
go to the Heart Senate Office Building. It's the newest building.
(09:08):
It's probably a couple of decades, probably older than that now.
But you walk in and just walk into the reception
area and just say hi, I just wanted to see
the office. But you're Ethan paying for it, so you
have a right to go in and see the office.
And I want you to recognize that what you see
(09:28):
in the reception area is probably less than one tenth
of their offices. And it's the artwork, the furniture, the furnishings,
everything makes one of these white shoe law firms down
on seventeenth Street in Denver look like a ghetto. And
(09:54):
you're paying for all of it, now, you know, Dragon
and I I park out, well, I'm not gonna say,
right park, but I park one place, Dragon parks another,
and then we park out in the open air. And
so if it's rainy, snowy, windy or whatever, you know,
we got to traps through all of that. Well they don't.
(10:15):
They park in garages under their building, paid for by
the taxpayers, guarded secure. And if they need to go
from their offices to the Capitol Building, well they can
take an underground tram that will just they can just
sit and the little it's like writing, Well, it's not
like riding the train at DA in this response. In
this regard, you ride the train at DA, you're crammed
(10:36):
in with a bunch of other people, and you got
strap hangers, and you got you know, kids and noise
and people coughing and blah blah blah. Noh no they no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Don't fe at a certain level too, these people don't
drive anymore. Oh yeah, they don't have drivers and people
that will open the car door for them.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Right, they don't. Yeah, they don't drive. Now, some members
of the House do drive, but generally speaking, a lot
of the don't. But if they got to go from
their office to the Senate chambers, they'll take a little tram,
and the tram is very nice. You can see you
(11:14):
can walk if you wanted to. They didn't design it
poorty like da. If the tram's not working, you can walk,
or if you just want to get your steps in,
you can walk. But you can also just sit down
and your staff can brief you about whatever you're going
to be voting on. And you know, there's little bells
to tell you you have so many minutes to go
over and vote, and then you go over and you know, oh,
(11:36):
it's really nasty out. Well just go to the cafeteria.
Or if you don't want to eat with the staffers
and the tourists and everybody else in the Capitol cafeteria,
well you can go to the Senate lounge. You can
go to the Senate dining room. And no, you don't pay,
(11:57):
you don't leave a tip. You're paying for that. And
then when you get done, if you need a haircut,
you go down to the basement and you get a haircut.
You need your shoe shine, you know how, you check
into a really nice hotel and you can leave your
shoes out in the bag and they'll be there the
next morning, all shining ready for you. Well you could
do that, or you could just you know, sit there
(12:21):
and have them shine your shoes for you. Now you'll
tip the shoe shine, but they won't charge you for it.
But you can tip them and they will. And oh,
by the way, no need to send the staff to
pick up the dry cleaning because the dry cleaning shop
is right there in the basement too. Oh and the
guy that's sleeping in his office, well he just goes
into the basement because in the basement he has his
(12:43):
own locker room, and he's got a shower, and he's
got a gem. He's got everything you could possibly need.
He can literally live in his office and not spend
a nickel on doing anything. Like when I went to
d C. Oh, No, people have a misconception. Sure, I
(13:04):
had a security detail, I had a driver, I had
all of that. I had lots of perks. You know.
I got to fly on Air Force one, Marine one
if I needed to make a trip somewhere. Sometimes sometimes
I would fly commercial. Sometimes I fly on a Gulf Stream.
Obviously I prefer the latter. But when I flew when
(13:25):
I flew commercial, I didn't go through security. They have
all these perks that separate them from us, and that
turned them into elitis because they after You know, when
you've been there, like Joe Biden for fifty years, that
becomes your universe, that becomes your lifestyle, and that becomes
(13:45):
what you expect. That becomes the new normal. And bingo, dragon, bingo.
And I'm painting this picture for you about salary and
perks and everything else because they live an entirely differ
than you and I do. Now, I know, I look
(14:06):
back on my days as the undersecretary, and I got
to tell you it's a wonderful life. I'm not gonna
sit here and lie to you and tell you that
I didn't enjoy those perks. Absolutely I did. And if
anybody that used to work in DC tells you that
they didn't like those perks, they are lying to you. Now,
there were times when I was actually embarrassed by it.
I was truly embarrassed by it. Like checking into a hotel.
(14:30):
I didn't check into the hotel. My staff checked me
into the hotel. Before I went into my room. My
security detail checked the room. Now, if we were in
a foreign country, they checked it for bugs, and then
they checked it let make sure there were no honeypots
sitting there waiting to entrap me so that they could
extort me or bribe me. I didn't do anything. I
(14:52):
didn't do anything. Oh, I'm busy. I'm traveling for two weeks.
I need to get a haircut. Oh, my staff will
find me a barber, shape up someplace. They'll find me
a style of someplace, and they will call and and
and they'll they'll they'll pull the title out. Hey, I'm
traveling with the under Secretary of homemand Security. He really
needs to get in to get a haircut. Can you
(15:13):
can you arrange to see them today? Uh? Yeah, we'll
make room for him or a restaurant. No problem getting
into a restaurant, none at all. It's an entirely different way.
It is an elitist world. And I'm confessing that, Yeah,
it was fantastic, but it wasn't real. It wasn't real.
(15:38):
And they're making double and that's not even count I
haven't eve gotten to the benefits yet. Tam and are
going to fly down to Phoenix for part of the
holidays to see our granddaughter. Yeah, we'll see our great
we'll see our daughter and our husband too, But we're
really going to see the granddaughter. So I'm I'm you.
(16:00):
We talked about fees. Well, so I book flights and
I'll have to go through Now I've got clear and
I've got global entry and I've got all of that,
so you know, I'll be able to go through security.
But nonetheless I still have to go through security. They don't.
Now oftentimes they will because they get recognized and so
(16:23):
they don't want to be seen bypassing security. Now the leadership,
will you know do you think Mike? Well, first of all,
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, has access to a
government plane, as does as do the Senate majority minority leaders.
So they don't even see security, let alone bypass security.
(16:50):
Health benefits you like your doctor, You can keep your doctor. Oh,
and we're going to bring the average premium down to
fifteen hundred dollars a month. Twenty five was a month,
whatever it was. What are you paying right now? So
you got the picture about the world that they live in.
Now you want the proof that they don't care about you?
(17:14):
Kick around. I'll give you some example, Mike.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I know math isn't your strong suit, but the average
weekly pay of a congressman is triple the average weekly
salary of the American worker not double.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Let's see thirty what was it that? Still? That up?
Only three thousand and five US who sixteen hundred times
two would be no if the medium is sixteen hundred
per week.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
It was eleven hundred per week I think, or ten,
ten twenty five or eleven twenty five.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Oh yeah, it's eleven sixty five.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay, it's eleven Okay, yeah, you're right, it's eleven sixty five.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
I hate to give him kudos when he actually deserves them,
I know, when he actually deserves.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Them, right, I know, Yeah, yeah, it's eleven sixty five.
I was thinking it was like eighteen hundreds. Yeah, and
I'm like, what so a couple of text messages that
are great for jumping off points for what they pay
(18:40):
and don't pay? Mike, how about meals and travel? Who
pays for that? Do congress people get housing and food
allowance as well? In DC? Those two they get a
per diem and they get their travel reimbursed when they
(19:03):
are traveling on official business. So if you are a
congressman from Colorado and you want to go home for
the weekend, you arrange your staff arranges for you to
participate in some official events because now you're traveling for business.
You're traveling for your work, and so now you're entitled
(19:26):
to a per diem. So the cost of that flight
will be covered for you to travel from dulles O,
Reagan or Bwi to get to Denver and back, and
you can collect a per diem. You don't have to,
but you can't collect a per diem now if you
just come home for the holidays and you have nothing scheduled, no,
(19:49):
you probably cannot do that. But then your campaign can
do it because you'll make an arrangement to meet with
a couple of donors, You'll have a luncheon or something,
and so now you're doing a campaign event and boom,
now your campaign can pay for it. So in essence,
you fly for free. If you're doing business, you get
a per diem. Now, let's let's talk about eating on
(20:12):
while you're at work. If you want to go to
the Senate dining room, which by the way, is open
to the public, but the Rules Committee sets the rules
for you know, how many members of the public can
get in under what conditions there have to be you know,
there has to be space available. So you know, it's
difficult at best to eat in the Senate dining room
(20:35):
because most of the time senators are there. They like
to take lobbyists and constituents there, particularly if it's a
high donor constituent, or it's a group of you know,
something where you're trying to impress a group of like
girl scouts or something, so you take them in. So
now they take up two tables, So that's two less
tables that somebody else can use. They pay for that food,
(20:59):
but that food, it is subsidized by you and me.
So what you and I might pay, let's say twenty
five dollars for lunch, they pay twelve dollars for lunch.
Then you and I as taxpayers, subsidize the reduced price
versus the actual cost. Now I did another quick search,
(21:24):
and this is from this year. Taxpayers spent two million
stories from February, but they cite two thousand and eight.
Taxpayers spent two million dollars to feed their senator's lunch
in two thousand and eight. As Capitol restaurants posted their
worst ever net loss that year and dipped into emergency funds,
(21:47):
the cafeteria still low. I see now, they get to
twenty twenty four. While senators pay for their own meals
after accounting for payroll other expenses, the subsidized lower cost us.
The cafeteria still lost two point nine million dollars in
twenty twenty four, so you're still sub They they're able
(22:11):
to claim, oh, well, I pay for my meal. Well,
that's like me saying I pay for my diet cokes
at McDonald's, but I Heart subsidizes those, so they reimburse
McDonald's and I pay fifty cents, but I Heart reimburses
McDonald's Corporation fifty cents to get to the dollar whatever
for diet coke. So I can say, oh, yeah, I
(22:33):
pay for my own dit coke. And that's factually true,
but it's not the whole story. So that's how they
get by with claiming that, oh, they're just like you
and me. No, because nobody subsidizes my lunch, nobody subsidizes
my dinners even when I'm working. You know. In fact,
(22:57):
at iHeart, even Dragon, just because I have a business
lunch tomorrow. Dragon just brought me the gift certificates that
we get in trade with restaurants around town, and so
I'll get a free meal courtesy of iHeart, but not
(23:21):
really because well, we're still providing a service to the
people that at that restaurant because probably on the f
because I think these are from an FM station. Look, yes,
this is from one of the rock stations where a
lot of restaurants advertise, and so they're advertising and as
(23:42):
part of the advertisement costs, they give us gift cards
and they get a little bit of a reduced rate
that's part of their package. That's the only time I HEART.
If I take a client to lunch, which I did
this week, I pay for that. Do I get reimbursed?
Not a chance? And now am I going to get
reimbursed about now? The salespeople love it that I'm willing
(24:06):
to do that because I love my sponsors and I
want to be a part of their business. I want
to help their business. So it said for Congress critters,
it's anentirely different set of circumstances. It's an entirely different lifestyle.
(24:30):
The Vike Rama Rama swamming, part of the DOGE effort, says,
the government's trying to waste your money without telling you.
You and I, for the past four years have suffered
at a cumulative effect of twenty two percent inflation, and
(24:51):
we're still paying for that. I could go. In fact,
I saw one of my bosses yesterday as I was leaving.
I should have said to him, you know, inflation has
been up twenty two percent, and I don't know one
of my contracts up for renewal, but I want a
twenty two pay increase. He probably would have spilled his
(25:12):
coffee all over me as he was spewing and laughing,
I'm not gonna get it twenty two. Well, I take
that back. I'll ask for it, but I won't get it. Uh.
How much of a pay raise did you get? Oh
you didn't. Uh? How about your health insurance? Did you
(25:32):
renew your health insurance? And did they expand the benefits?
Did you know I'd liked.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
Oh, Michael's about to die over there?
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh man, allergies.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
That came out of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
There was a sneeze coming that I could not get
out and could not get started. Sorry about that. Listen,
let me ask you. I'm trying to how to phrase
this point. You know, how we've talked about the censorship.
(26:14):
In fact, that's on my list of things to talk
about today, the censorship, Industrial Complex, the holy alliance between
the big tech giants and the federal government so that
they can try to dispel so called mis or disinformation.
Well what if I told you, Well, I won't tell
you that the fake.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
Tell Congress is about to pass a bill that blows
away your taxpayer money. But they made it over fifteen
hundred pages.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Long so you wouldn't read it.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I did your favor.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
I read it for you.
Speaker 5 (26:42):
I supposed to be about keeping government operations open and
providing disaster relief aid to hurricane victims, which I'm sympathetic too.
If you read the bill carefully, it contains pay raises
for members of Congress.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Pay raises so they make three times what the average
worker makes weekly. All those benefits I just described to you,
and they have the audacity to try to sneak in
a bill, in a fifteen hundred page bill of pay raise.
Now I understand, I think it's the twenty seventh Amendment.
I have to confirm that the twenty seventh Amendment prohibits
(27:20):
Congress from getting a pay raise during their term of office. Okay, Well,
if ninety eight percent of members of Congress, a House,
and the Senate get re elected, the incumbency rate is
like ninety eight percent. So you vote for a pay
raise today, you won't get that today, but you'll get
(27:44):
it when you get re elected. So they're voting themselves
a pay raise.
Speaker 5 (27:48):
And I'm not making this up. An expansion of their
federal health benefits.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Dragon, When you did your health benefit thing, remember when
we had we go we maybe we had that little assistant.
This year they would ask us questions and we go
through and we check this and that, and did you
did you see that huge expansion of the benefits we got?
Speaker 4 (28:13):
It was so great. I was so happy to not get.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Any of that. Yeah. I couldn't find it.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Yeah, same here.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
I couldn't find it.
Speaker 5 (28:21):
It contains all kinds of special interests and pork funding
puting opening up a new stadium in Washington, d C.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
How many of you been to a ballgame? Uh, I
assume this is for the Redskins. I assume this is
you know I heard that names coming back? Really? Yeah,
I heard that there. There's that some of the tribal
tribal groups are really trying to get the name and
the emblem back.
Speaker 4 (28:47):
Oh, they were pissed when they got taken away.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, I guess they're pissed now that it actually got
taken away. How many have you been to a Redskins game?
And I know they're called the Capitals or something, I
don't care. Cavenders, what can Camanders, managers, cammandersh traddle whatever.
How many of you? How many of you will ever
use that? Well? They want it? Why do they want it?
(29:09):
Because that's something they can take their constituents to.
Speaker 5 (29:12):
News the Global Engagement Center, which is a keynote of
the censorship industrial complex. And the worst part is they
didn't want you to know about any of it, and
that's why they made this a last minute jam job.
The reason I'm co heading DOGE is I think we
need outsiders to bring actual accountability to Washington, DC. So
feel free to call your congressman and let him know
how you feel about it.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Now. I do believe that the port in this bill
would have eventually come out, but the fact that you
had Ramaswami actually reading the bill, probably Elon's not going
to read it and telling Elon Musk what's in it?
Probably telling the president what is what's in it, or
(29:53):
his staff is telling him what's in it. This is
where I think the kabbal, at least as far as
ex is concerned. I can't speak for Facebook or tech
talk or any of the others. This is where transparency
is so important, because if you like me, and apparently
(30:15):
one of you is, somebody on the text line is
either being sarcastic, smart elic, or tongue in cheek. But
if other than that individual, if you're like me and
believe that they're already paid enough for what they do,
and if and it's a job they chose to seek,
nobody forced them to take it. They chose to take
(30:36):
this job. I think they're paid more than enough. Michael,
sounds like the Senate dining room is no different than
going out with your mom to lunch at the hospital.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
You know, somebody's got.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
To pay for it.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah, that's right. My mom's being subsidized by whatever the
hospital gets reimbursed for or however they get those or
maybe not. Maybe they were really buying really crappy, cheap
stuff and that's what my mom's eating. But my mom
doesn't earn a salary from the taxpayers either. So you
(31:14):
got that going. And yes, here's the text message. I
was so concerned about Buber number seventy four to thirty one,
wrote this, those congress people deserve that money. They work
hard for us and sacrifice higher salaries in the private
sector and time from their families. We should be very
(31:35):
thankful they work for so little. And then when I
wrote back and said, are you serious or not Michael
reference congressional salaries, Yes, I was being sarcastic completely, Thank goodness, man.
I thought I was going to have to I thought
we were going to have to excommunicate a goober for
(31:57):
a moment the holidays, and I don't want to excommunicated goober.
And you're like, right before Christmas, that's just sacrilegious. And yes,
you're right about if you live this lifestyle, and you
think about Joe Biden, Joe Biden's a perfect example. For
(32:17):
fifty years, for more than half of his lifetime, he
has lived this lifestyle, entitled, holier than now and has
a full expectation that you should be treated as if
he were. And he thinks he is an elitist,
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