December 12, 2024 • 25 mins
Americans are paying more than ever for health insurance. Frustration over denials and medical costs are at an all-time high. Mysterious New Jersey drone sightings prompt call for ‘State of Emergency.’ Can California reconnect public education and the modern workforce. Living paycheck-to-paycheck isn’t always bad… here’s why.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Thursday morning, December twelfth. Bill Handle here
and the Morning crew. As we continue on, we've got
a lot of stories that we're covering.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
As usual.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
FBI Director Chris Ferray is resigning. Time magazine has named
not unusually and it makes sense. Donald Trump is their
person of the Year for a second time, and people
sometimes misunderstand the person of the year. It is the
most influential person. So in the thirties, Hitler was one
of the Times magazine People of the Year because of
(00:42):
what he did affecting the world. Iatola Humani was another one.
So it is, by the way, I'm not comparing them
at all. It's just the influence of.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
These world leaders. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now, the killing of Brian Thompson United Healthcare CEO by
allegedly Luigi MAGGIONI. By the way, you know, if you
have to say allegedly in case they sue you, right,
And my guess is, even if I accused Maggione of
doing this, as opposed to saying allegedly, I'm probably not
gonna get sued in any case.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That killing brought up a lot of feelings.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
First of all, a lot of people think Maggioni is
a hero for killing someone who is that high up
in the healthcare industry, the insurance industry that covers health
care in the United States. And as a story, what
really brings up is the hatred that Americans have for
(01:42):
the health the healthcare insurance industry. Years ago, when I
started broadcasting, I said, the only answer is a national
health program where it's all paid by taxes.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Period.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You don't pay insurance, you don't pay the premiums the
government does. By the way, every single industrialized nation on
the planet, first world country has national health We don't
because it's communists, because socialists, because we don't want the
government involved in health care. By the way, for those
of you that say that make sure you don't get
Medicare okay when you turn sixty five, turn it down,
(02:19):
because that's the government involved in paying for your health
care and negotiating with the medical providers and not the
big pharmat.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Because they were able to exclude. Now that's just.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Starting a little bit, and that's what's so fundamentally wrong
with our health care system. The vast majority of bankruptcies
in this country are because people have gone broke with
health care. Even if you have decent healthcare, you're paying
twenty percent. So let's say you have a major surgery.
For example, I had open heart surgery at Kaiser because
(02:55):
I needed a valve replaced. I just happened to look
at the bill because I wanted to see it. Even
though it was paid for by insurance. It was one
hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. If I had to
pay twenty percent of that, that's thirty thousand dollars, thirty
five thousand dollars whatever that is out of pocket.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And that's with insurance.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now, my health care plans is tremendous, But you know
what I pay for my family thirty thousand dollars a
year for health care insurance.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And that's what's happening in this country.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The average family carrying insurance pays twenty five grand a year.
Single workers pay an average of nine thousand dollars per year.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
How can you afford that? You can't.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The other countries in the world negotiate, The government negotiates
with big farmer. There's no such thing as big farmer
ripping off people. In the US, we pay in many
cases ten times for medicine as the rest of the world.
Why because the government there negotiates directly. Now, when you're
(04:04):
negotiating with a company like lily On behalf of thirty
five million people, you get a pretty good deal because
they can also say you're not selling here too. That's
what the government can do. So they don't pay a
whole lot more they do, they don't pay all, they
don't charge anywhere near what they charge here is where
(04:25):
I wanted to go with that. And so people are
really upset with our healthcare system. We know it's broken.
How do we fix it? Well, we can play we're
playing around with various things. The only way to go
is a national health plan. I mean, think about it logically.
What I just read that we have by far the
most expensive health care in the world. We're number forty
(04:51):
one in life expectancy, baby mortality. We're way down the list,
and we pay more than anybody else for that. So
that has come up. That's what's going on. People can't
afford it now, Well, our taxes go up. Yeah, but
let me ask you with someone who pays let's say,
(05:13):
makes one hundred thousand dollars and pays thirty five thousand
dollars in taxes. How about paying thirty six thousand dollars
in taxes and having health insurance and having your medical
paid for. Today, it's the only two people that get
health care without worrying about it are the very very
wealthy who can afford it, or if the destitute where
(05:36):
the government does pay, everybody in the middle gets raped.
Now a lot of people have companies that pay a
good chunk of your health care, and it ranges all
the way from horrible to very good.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But still the cost of health care is insane.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So the murder of Brian Thompson, if you're notited healthcare,
just brought all this up again. Just it's you know,
don't get sick, don't get into an accident, don't break
your leg, don't need surgery. There's the answer in the
United States right now. There's certain things that we just
(06:19):
do wrong, and one of them is the coverage of
health care. And I brought that. That's my entire adult life.
I've believed in that in national health though it's called
me an ast oh, it's socialist. We don't want the
government involved in anything. Well, you know what, there's certain
times when you want the government involved. You know, at
(06:40):
some point the government is there to represent the people,
and this is certainly the case when it comes to
health insurance. Okay, we're done with that, Off my high horse.
The New Jersey drone sightings that has a few people upset,
clusters and the night skies over New Jersey and other
(07:02):
parts of the northeast, and Congress members are calling for
a limited state of emergency to be declared. The military
doesn't know what the hell to do. This has been
going on for weeks and there are dozens of drone
sightings up there, some the size of a car. Where
(07:23):
do you get a drone the size of a car?
By the way, I have no idea. And so local
residents started posting this stuff on social media and it's
gone up the political food chain like crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And so the.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, had a call with
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Majorcas as well as members of
Congress state police and at this point, they don't.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Know what the hell to do. So here's the question.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You've got these drones and it's covered by the news
every night, and the question is, since they don't know
where and who and who's putting them up? Is it
an individual, is it a company? Is it a country that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Is somehow enemy of the United States? Shoot them down?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Just shoot them down, you know, take one of those
eighty nine dollars drones that you get at Walmart, that's
what they have, and take a fighter jet up in
the sky and spend you know, just shoot down this.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Thing with a one point three million dollar missile and
you're done. They can't they can't shoot them down.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It is against the law to shoot down unidentified flying
objects over the United States unless it is deemed a
national security emergency. And at this point, no one knows
what it is. No one has any idea. So there
are steps that have to be taken, and a lot
(09:02):
of them. First of all, you know who handles all this,
by the way, with these unidentified although they've been identified
as drugs, they just don't know where they come from
and who is putting them up in the sky. That
goes through Norrad. Norrad, which, as you may know a
lot of you do. This is the system that looks
(09:23):
at determines. It was built for oncoming incoming missiles from
Russia and early warning system and most are in Alaska
because that's where the missiles are going.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
To be launched from or launched through.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And also Norrad is known for following Santa Claus every
year around the world, and they report Santa Claus is
now over outer Mongolia and Santa Claus is now over
eastern Europe. And that's one of the dumbest things I've
ever heard in my life.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
But hey, and it's reported every year.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Amy, you report on where Santa is every year, of
course you do.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
That's nor AD who gives us that information.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So nor AD determines if there is a risk, then
it goes to the Pentagon to determine is it worth
shooting down? And over the United States it is not
easy to do now over restricted area. It's much easier
flying over the White House, for example, over the Pentagon
(10:30):
or Vandenberg.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Air Force Base easier to shoot them down.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Do you remember the Chinese balloon, that weather slash intelligence balloon,
and it was flying across the United States. Why didn't
they shoot it down because it wasn't determined to be
a risk. They eventually did out of US airspace. If
you remember, there went the fighter jet and we followed it.
(10:57):
It was on the news and the weather balloon, if.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You want to call it that. We don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It was a Spice satellite. Satellite cost of course, using
Chinese labor maybe, yeah, one hundred and twenty bucks to
put together, and the missile that shot it down was
over a million dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
That made a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And you know, we're shot down outside of the US
airspace and just a couple maybe thirty forty miles on
outside of North Carolina in the ocean.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
So someone should deem these drones a.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Risk to our national security and just shoot the Bassards down. Now,
the cost of shooting those Bassards down will be astronomical,
So I don't know. I wish we had the death ray.
It'd be terrific, wouldn't it, And then you just aim
the thing.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But we don't. We don't.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Unfortunately, every time we shoot something down, it's a fortune.
We're going to try to figure out. Eventually, we're going
to figure out. There is one New Jersey congressman who
had the answer, and he has said that he has
evidence that there is a mother Iranian mothership out in
the ocean that is launching these drones. Pentagon said, what
(12:14):
are you talking about? What Iranian mothership. We see nothing, Well,
he says, I have evidence fake news that there's nothing
out there. We know there is the Iranian mother Ship.
This has been going on since mid November, so we're
(12:36):
talking about a month. It's going to end up being
some bizarre story where you got some clown or a
group of clowns that are putting these up and they're
not particularly interested in intelligence. They're just doing this because
they're hackers and want to show the world they can
do this. I want to do a story, and I've
talked about this before, and it has to do with
(12:58):
our educational system and getting people prepared to go out
in the work world.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And traditionally it was you go to college.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And you get a good job, the two connected, and
if you went into the trades, eh, Well, it turns
out the trades today are doing a lot better than
college grats and the schools.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Aren't doing much.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
President elect Donald Trump won fifty six percent of voters
without college degrees, which is a reversal of what Democrats
usually have a clear choice of the working class. So
it's time for democrats, we're talking about politically, Matt now,
to win back working class downers that's the political side.
Let's talk about the rest of the story, and that
(13:47):
is there has to be an education model that prepares
young people for high wage jobs to join the middle class,
even if they have not attended college. What someone who
is skilled in, for example, the solar work installing solar
system These are high paying jobs. The guys who fix
(14:12):
our elevators for example, you know the repair guys that
come out, they're at sixty five dollars an hour. That
ain't bad, high paying jobs or out there. And it's
not about college. It's about getting the system to get
students prepared for these jobs if they go in that direction.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It was automatic, you went to college for a good job.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I come obviously from a Jewish family, and this also
is true of Asian families. Going to college was literally
as real as you get out of bed and gravity
hits you, that your feet hit the floor instead of
the ceiling. It's kind of automatic. That's what going to
college was. Today, it's a very different story. Most of all,
(15:00):
college is two hundred thousand dollars. Trade school is a
year or two years and far less than that, and
where you mainly learn as apprenticeships and the schools are
not connected to industries with apprenticeships, even the trade schools
junior college. I know someone who is starting a welding
(15:20):
course in junior college and it's I think a six
months or a year certificate and ow they go. You
know what, welders make very good money. What college grads
make when you're starting a job not very good money.
And we are not thinking in terms of trades. We're
way behind other advanced countries in preparing young people for
(15:42):
the workforce if they don't attend college. In Switzerland, more
than half of sixteen year olds have year round paid
work experiences in banking and construction.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
The schools set that up.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The schools work with industry, work with private companies were
well obviously private companies or public companies that hire people.
And we're talking about highly skilled folks in the trades.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
And somehow the trades were always looked at.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
They were, you know, the step sisters, the step children
of going to school. I mean you could take wood shop,
for example, which I did for one semester. It wasn't
preparing me to work in wood. I mean it was
preparing me to lose a finger if I kept in
would work Neil, you do a lot of woodworking at
(16:36):
home and you still have all ten fingers fingers I do,
I do.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
That's very very beat up. But yes, do you know
I went to a trade school.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I didn't know that in what Yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Studied offset printing. I studied you know, formal printing typeset.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, that's another job and that you don't that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You don't see in schools, not anymore.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
No, that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Took metal fabrication, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Think that is something and these these trades make good
money and the schools are not connected at all. I
mean today when I took woodshop, I remember, of course
my teacher lost a couple of fingers. Uh. You know
you have to if you apply, you cannot be a
wood shop teacher and have all ten figures.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You know that that's the law.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Do you know?
Speaker 5 (17:23):
In my woodshop class, they had like pieces of wood
maybe they were two by eight pieces of woods that
were stuck in the walls and the ceilings that they
left there to remind kids to wear protection and to
use the machinery because those were kickbacks that would and
they're like bullets, these projectile Remember the wall, you.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Know, I remember woodshop it was one semester and at
the end of the semester what we had made are
salt and pepper shakers.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh, I remember they had to remember those. You can make.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
The point is we've got to jump on this because
we have First of all, college in many many cases
is impossible for people.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Also college jobs.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You know what, it takes a long time for money
to be had. You walk out with a certificate, you
walk out with a skill, you're already making a decent living,
and your five years or three or four years ahead
of people that are going to college, and you have
a good job. Why don't the schools, Why don't we
as a country. California is starting to go that way.
(18:33):
There's a three billion dollar program that they've spent over
the last ten years doing exactly this.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
California ahead of the game. But nothing close to what's
that's needed. Nothing close. And well, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
The AI bill.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
They're saying that the AI could replace doctors and lawyers
before it would replace any of the trades.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, yeah, how does AI replace a welder? How does
AI replace someone who's installing an air conditioning system. It's
pretty hard for a computer to install a solar system.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Okay, now you've heard the term living paycheck to paycheck,
paycheck to paycheck. That means that you're basically well, you're
poor or you're approaching poorness. But living paycheck to paycheck
isn't necessarily bad. It actually can be good for you.
What does that mean, Well, the phrase paycheck to paycheck
(19:30):
means different things to different people. Now there as there
was a report from the Bank of America Institute. Nearly
half of Americans believe they are living paycheck to paycheck,
and when the bank applied a strict definition of paycheck
to paycheck to actual bank accounts, the researchers found that
(19:52):
only about a quarter of those households were actually subsisting
from one payday to the next.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
In other words, are saying their paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Half of those are actually living paycheck to paycheck check
per Bank of America. Now, generally, living paycheck to paycheck
means spending nearly all of your income on necessities, rent, childcare, food,
But for a lot of consumers, living that way just
might mean you run out of money and your checking
(20:25):
accounts by the time your next paycheck comes. And the
good news, according to b of A is that many
Americans who live from one payday to the next actually
are doing pretty well, and you wonder, wait a minute,
how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
A nerd Wallet survey said that fifty seven percent of
Americans say they're living paycheck to paycheck. So that's even
more than the b of A survey, And the question
is are they really Because if you are living paycheck
to paycheck and you run out of money at the
end of the month, which usually is the definition, thirty
(21:09):
one percent say they contributed regularly to a savings account,
more than twenty percent they had an emergency saving account.
So to the experts who look at this financial people,
that phrase living paycheck to paycheck generally means that necessities
swallow up all your income, that just basic living is
(21:33):
taking up all the money you make. Well, if you're
spending gym membership and you're paying for housekeepers and you're
buying snacks at the seven to eleven, you're not living
paycheck to paycheck, not at all. So Americans use different
definitions for millions. Living paycheck to paycheck means most of
(21:56):
your check is gone before the next one drops, and
that is not necessarily a bad thing, because if you
are putting emergency money away, your debt is not out
of control, then you're probably doing pretty well.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Even if you run out of money at the end
of the month, and that how does that happen? Well,
nerd Wallet did that survey.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And found that for many consumers, those that run out
of money at the end of the month really means
that you're not broke. You're just very tightly budgeted. And
if it turns out by the end of the month
you have no money left and you're looking at your
(22:39):
next paycheck coming in next week, and you're quickly running
out of money, and you're putting money away, and you
do savings, and you on top of that have an
emergency fund.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You know what, you're just a good budgeter.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
And in fact, you should run out of money at
the end of the month, that just means that you
are in a great financial position. You have done your
budget perfectly. The point is, you pay yourself first. You
set aside twenty percent in savings on the day you
get paid, and over the course of your pay period
(23:16):
the other eighty percent on your needs. Your checking account
balance drops towards zero at the end of the month,
but your savings account grows or remains flush.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
That is the secret. So living paycheck to paycheck may
actually be the best thing going.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Because if you really concentrate on getting those savings going,
getting the retirement going. For example, let's say you have
matching funds from your employer, and so three percent typically
three or five percent of your income is matched. You
put it in a retirement fund, the company matches it.
(24:00):
That's one hundred percent return. Every time you put in
ten cents. I don't know what investment you could make
that returns one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
This one does.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
This.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
If you put the money into a retirement account and
you're living paycheck to paycheck, look at the job you're doing.
You're doing a great job. So look at it not negatively.
If you're not pissing away money on memberships and crazy stuff,
(24:35):
it's you're doing a great job. Interesting when I looked
at that paycheck to paycheck. Now, if you live, if
you work for iHeart, you are out of money at
the end of the week after your paycheck comes in.
And that's another topic that I'm going to do. How
do you live if you work for iHeart? I don't know,
(25:01):
but you know how often do I attack this corporation?
I don't know why how I still have I don't
know how I have a.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Job here a week, a day, an hour or what? Yeah? Yeah,
how do you want me to break it down?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't know, but I do this to everybody I've
ever worked for it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
By the way, and you can see why I've been
fired from job after job after job during my career.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Oh coming, we can pardon.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Oh indeed we can see, Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You can. All right.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
This is KFI AM sixty. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday, six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Thursday morning, December twelfth. Bill Handle here
and the Morning crew. As we continue on, we've got
a lot of stories that we're covering.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
As usual.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
FBI Director Chris Ferray is resigning. Time magazine has named
not unusually and it makes sense. Donald Trump is their
person of the Year for a second time, and people
sometimes misunderstand the person of the year. It is the
most influential person. So in the thirties, Hitler was one
of the Times magazine People of the Year because of
(00:42):
what he did affecting the world. Iatola Humani was another one.
So it is, by the way, I'm not comparing them
at all. It's just the influence of.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
These world leaders. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Now, the killing of Brian Thompson United Healthcare CEO by
allegedly Luigi MAGGIONI. By the way, you know, if you
have to say allegedly in case they sue you, right,
And my guess is, even if I accused Maggione of
doing this, as opposed to saying allegedly, I'm probably not
gonna get sued in any case.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
That killing brought up a lot of feelings.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
First of all, a lot of people think Maggioni is
a hero for killing someone who is that high up
in the healthcare industry, the insurance industry that covers health
care in the United States. And as a story, what
really brings up is the hatred that Americans have for
(01:42):
the health the healthcare insurance industry. Years ago, when I
started broadcasting, I said, the only answer is a national
health program where it's all paid by taxes.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Period.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You don't pay insurance, you don't pay the premiums the
government does. By the way, every single industrialized nation on
the planet, first world country has national health We don't
because it's communists, because socialists, because we don't want the
government involved in health care. By the way, for those
of you that say that make sure you don't get
Medicare okay when you turn sixty five, turn it down,
(02:19):
because that's the government involved in paying for your health
care and negotiating with the medical providers and not the
big pharmat.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
Because they were able to exclude. Now that's just.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Starting a little bit, and that's what's so fundamentally wrong
with our health care system. The vast majority of bankruptcies
in this country are because people have gone broke with
health care. Even if you have decent healthcare, you're paying
twenty percent. So let's say you have a major surgery.
For example, I had open heart surgery at Kaiser because
(02:55):
I needed a valve replaced. I just happened to look
at the bill because I wanted to see it. Even
though it was paid for by insurance. It was one
hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. If I had to
pay twenty percent of that, that's thirty thousand dollars, thirty
five thousand dollars whatever that is out of pocket.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
And that's with insurance.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now, my health care plans is tremendous, But you know
what I pay for my family thirty thousand dollars a
year for health care insurance.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
And that's what's happening in this country.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
The average family carrying insurance pays twenty five grand a year.
Single workers pay an average of nine thousand dollars per year.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
How can you afford that? You can't.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
The other countries in the world negotiate, The government negotiates
with big farmer. There's no such thing as big farmer
ripping off people. In the US, we pay in many
cases ten times for medicine as the rest of the world.
Why because the government there negotiates directly. Now, when you're
(04:04):
negotiating with a company like lily On behalf of thirty
five million people, you get a pretty good deal because
they can also say you're not selling here too. That's
what the government can do. So they don't pay a
whole lot more they do, they don't pay all, they
don't charge anywhere near what they charge here is where
(04:25):
I wanted to go with that. And so people are
really upset with our healthcare system. We know it's broken.
How do we fix it? Well, we can play we're
playing around with various things. The only way to go
is a national health plan. I mean, think about it logically.
What I just read that we have by far the
most expensive health care in the world. We're number forty
(04:51):
one in life expectancy, baby mortality. We're way down the list,
and we pay more than anybody else for that. So
that has come up. That's what's going on. People can't
afford it now, Well, our taxes go up. Yeah, but
let me ask you with someone who pays let's say,
(05:13):
makes one hundred thousand dollars and pays thirty five thousand
dollars in taxes. How about paying thirty six thousand dollars
in taxes and having health insurance and having your medical
paid for. Today, it's the only two people that get
health care without worrying about it are the very very
wealthy who can afford it, or if the destitute where
(05:36):
the government does pay, everybody in the middle gets raped.
Now a lot of people have companies that pay a
good chunk of your health care, and it ranges all
the way from horrible to very good.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
But still the cost of health care is insane.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
So the murder of Brian Thompson, if you're notited healthcare,
just brought all this up again. Just it's you know,
don't get sick, don't get into an accident, don't break
your leg, don't need surgery. There's the answer in the
United States right now. There's certain things that we just
(06:19):
do wrong, and one of them is the coverage of
health care. And I brought that. That's my entire adult life.
I've believed in that in national health though it's called
me an ast oh, it's socialist. We don't want the
government involved in anything. Well, you know what, there's certain
times when you want the government involved. You know, at
(06:40):
some point the government is there to represent the people,
and this is certainly the case when it comes to
health insurance. Okay, we're done with that, Off my high horse.
The New Jersey drone sightings that has a few people upset,
clusters and the night skies over New Jersey and other
(07:02):
parts of the northeast, and Congress members are calling for
a limited state of emergency to be declared. The military
doesn't know what the hell to do. This has been
going on for weeks and there are dozens of drone
sightings up there, some the size of a car. Where
(07:23):
do you get a drone the size of a car?
By the way, I have no idea. And so local
residents started posting this stuff on social media and it's
gone up the political food chain like crazy.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
And so the.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, had a call with
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Majorcas as well as members of
Congress state police and at this point, they don't.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
Know what the hell to do. So here's the question.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
You've got these drones and it's covered by the news
every night, and the question is, since they don't know
where and who and who's putting them up? Is it
an individual, is it a company? Is it a country that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Is somehow enemy of the United States? Shoot them down?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Just shoot them down, you know, take one of those
eighty nine dollars drones that you get at Walmart, that's
what they have, and take a fighter jet up in
the sky and spend you know, just shoot down this.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Thing with a one point three million dollar missile and
you're done. They can't they can't shoot them down.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It is against the law to shoot down unidentified flying
objects over the United States unless it is deemed a
national security emergency. And at this point, no one knows
what it is. No one has any idea. So there
are steps that have to be taken, and a lot
(09:02):
of them. First of all, you know who handles all this,
by the way, with these unidentified although they've been identified
as drugs, they just don't know where they come from
and who is putting them up in the sky. That
goes through Norrad. Norrad, which, as you may know a
lot of you do. This is the system that looks
(09:23):
at determines. It was built for oncoming incoming missiles from
Russia and early warning system and most are in Alaska
because that's where the missiles are going.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
To be launched from or launched through.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
And also Norrad is known for following Santa Claus every
year around the world, and they report Santa Claus is
now over outer Mongolia and Santa Claus is now over
eastern Europe. And that's one of the dumbest things I've
ever heard in my life.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
But hey, and it's reported every year.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Amy, you report on where Santa is every year, of
course you do.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
That's nor AD who gives us that information.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
So nor AD determines if there is a risk, then
it goes to the Pentagon to determine is it worth
shooting down? And over the United States it is not
easy to do now over restricted area. It's much easier
flying over the White House, for example, over the Pentagon
(10:30):
or Vandenberg.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Air Force Base easier to shoot them down.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Do you remember the Chinese balloon, that weather slash intelligence balloon,
and it was flying across the United States. Why didn't
they shoot it down because it wasn't determined to be
a risk. They eventually did out of US airspace. If
you remember, there went the fighter jet and we followed it.
(10:57):
It was on the news and the weather balloon, if.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
You want to call it that. We don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
It was a Spice satellite. Satellite cost of course, using
Chinese labor maybe, yeah, one hundred and twenty bucks to
put together, and the missile that shot it down was
over a million dollars.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
That made a lot of sense.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And you know, we're shot down outside of the US
airspace and just a couple maybe thirty forty miles on
outside of North Carolina in the ocean.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
So someone should deem these drones a.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Risk to our national security and just shoot the Bassards down. Now,
the cost of shooting those Bassards down will be astronomical,
So I don't know. I wish we had the death ray.
It'd be terrific, wouldn't it, And then you just aim
the thing.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
But we don't. We don't.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Unfortunately, every time we shoot something down, it's a fortune.
We're going to try to figure out. Eventually, we're going
to figure out. There is one New Jersey congressman who
had the answer, and he has said that he has
evidence that there is a mother Iranian mothership out in
the ocean that is launching these drones. Pentagon said, what
(12:14):
are you talking about? What Iranian mothership. We see nothing, Well,
he says, I have evidence fake news that there's nothing
out there. We know there is the Iranian mother Ship.
This has been going on since mid November, so we're
(12:36):
talking about a month. It's going to end up being
some bizarre story where you got some clown or a
group of clowns that are putting these up and they're
not particularly interested in intelligence. They're just doing this because
they're hackers and want to show the world they can
do this. I want to do a story, and I've
talked about this before, and it has to do with
(12:58):
our educational system and getting people prepared to go out
in the work world.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
And traditionally it was you go to college.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And you get a good job, the two connected, and
if you went into the trades, eh, Well, it turns
out the trades today are doing a lot better than
college grats and the schools.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Aren't doing much.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
President elect Donald Trump won fifty six percent of voters
without college degrees, which is a reversal of what Democrats
usually have a clear choice of the working class. So
it's time for democrats, we're talking about politically, Matt now,
to win back working class downers that's the political side.
Let's talk about the rest of the story, and that
(13:47):
is there has to be an education model that prepares
young people for high wage jobs to join the middle class,
even if they have not attended college. What someone who
is skilled in, for example, the solar work installing solar
system These are high paying jobs. The guys who fix
(14:12):
our elevators for example, you know the repair guys that
come out, they're at sixty five dollars an hour. That
ain't bad, high paying jobs or out there. And it's
not about college. It's about getting the system to get
students prepared for these jobs if they go in that direction.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It was automatic, you went to college for a good job.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
I come obviously from a Jewish family, and this also
is true of Asian families. Going to college was literally
as real as you get out of bed and gravity
hits you, that your feet hit the floor instead of
the ceiling. It's kind of automatic. That's what going to
college was. Today, it's a very different story. Most of all,
(15:00):
college is two hundred thousand dollars. Trade school is a
year or two years and far less than that, and
where you mainly learn as apprenticeships and the schools are
not connected to industries with apprenticeships, even the trade schools
junior college. I know someone who is starting a welding
(15:20):
course in junior college and it's I think a six
months or a year certificate and ow they go. You
know what, welders make very good money. What college grads
make when you're starting a job not very good money.
And we are not thinking in terms of trades. We're
way behind other advanced countries in preparing young people for
(15:42):
the workforce if they don't attend college. In Switzerland, more
than half of sixteen year olds have year round paid
work experiences in banking and construction.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
The schools set that up.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
The schools work with industry, work with private companies were
well obviously private companies or public companies that hire people.
And we're talking about highly skilled folks in the trades.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
And somehow the trades were always looked at.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
They were, you know, the step sisters, the step children
of going to school. I mean you could take wood shop,
for example, which I did for one semester. It wasn't
preparing me to work in wood. I mean it was
preparing me to lose a finger if I kept in
would work Neil, you do a lot of woodworking at
(16:36):
home and you still have all ten fingers fingers I do,
I do.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
That's very very beat up. But yes, do you know
I went to a trade school.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
I didn't know that in what Yeah, I.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Studied offset printing. I studied you know, formal printing typeset.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah, that's another job and that you don't that.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You don't see in schools, not anymore.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
No, that's it.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Took metal fabrication, and I.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Think that is something and these these trades make good
money and the schools are not connected at all. I
mean today when I took woodshop, I remember, of course
my teacher lost a couple of fingers. Uh. You know
you have to if you apply, you cannot be a
wood shop teacher and have all ten figures.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
You know that that's the law.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Do you know?
Speaker 5 (17:23):
In my woodshop class, they had like pieces of wood
maybe they were two by eight pieces of woods that
were stuck in the walls and the ceilings that they
left there to remind kids to wear protection and to
use the machinery because those were kickbacks that would and
they're like bullets, these projectile Remember the wall, you.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Know, I remember woodshop it was one semester and at
the end of the semester what we had made are
salt and pepper shakers.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Oh, I remember they had to remember those. You can make.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
The point is we've got to jump on this because
we have First of all, college in many many cases
is impossible for people.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Also college jobs.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
You know what, it takes a long time for money
to be had. You walk out with a certificate, you
walk out with a skill, you're already making a decent living,
and your five years or three or four years ahead
of people that are going to college, and you have
a good job. Why don't the schools, Why don't we
as a country. California is starting to go that way.
(18:33):
There's a three billion dollar program that they've spent over
the last ten years doing exactly this.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
California ahead of the game. But nothing close to what's
that's needed. Nothing close. And well, you know.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
The AI bill.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
They're saying that the AI could replace doctors and lawyers
before it would replace any of the trades.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Well, yeah, how does AI replace a welder? How does
AI replace someone who's installing an air conditioning system. It's
pretty hard for a computer to install a solar system.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
That's absolutely correct.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Okay, now you've heard the term living paycheck to paycheck,
paycheck to paycheck. That means that you're basically well, you're
poor or you're approaching poorness. But living paycheck to paycheck
isn't necessarily bad. It actually can be good for you.
What does that mean, Well, the phrase paycheck to paycheck
(19:30):
means different things to different people. Now there as there
was a report from the Bank of America Institute. Nearly
half of Americans believe they are living paycheck to paycheck,
and when the bank applied a strict definition of paycheck
to paycheck to actual bank accounts, the researchers found that
(19:52):
only about a quarter of those households were actually subsisting
from one payday to the next.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
In other words, are saying their paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Half of those are actually living paycheck to paycheck check
per Bank of America. Now, generally, living paycheck to paycheck
means spending nearly all of your income on necessities, rent, childcare, food,
But for a lot of consumers, living that way just
might mean you run out of money and your checking
(20:25):
accounts by the time your next paycheck comes. And the
good news, according to b of A is that many
Americans who live from one payday to the next actually
are doing pretty well, and you wonder, wait a minute,
how does that happen?
Speaker 3 (20:46):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
A nerd Wallet survey said that fifty seven percent of
Americans say they're living paycheck to paycheck. So that's even
more than the b of A survey, And the question
is are they really Because if you are living paycheck
to paycheck and you run out of money at the
end of the month, which usually is the definition, thirty
(21:09):
one percent say they contributed regularly to a savings account,
more than twenty percent they had an emergency saving account.
So to the experts who look at this financial people,
that phrase living paycheck to paycheck generally means that necessities
swallow up all your income, that just basic living is
(21:33):
taking up all the money you make. Well, if you're
spending gym membership and you're paying for housekeepers and you're
buying snacks at the seven to eleven, you're not living
paycheck to paycheck, not at all. So Americans use different
definitions for millions. Living paycheck to paycheck means most of
(21:56):
your check is gone before the next one drops, and
that is not necessarily a bad thing, because if you
are putting emergency money away, your debt is not out
of control, then you're probably doing pretty well.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Even if you run out of money at the end
of the month, and that how does that happen? Well,
nerd Wallet did that survey.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
And found that for many consumers, those that run out
of money at the end of the month really means
that you're not broke. You're just very tightly budgeted. And
if it turns out by the end of the month
you have no money left and you're looking at your
(22:39):
next paycheck coming in next week, and you're quickly running
out of money, and you're putting money away, and you
do savings, and you on top of that have an
emergency fund.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
You know what, you're just a good budgeter.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
And in fact, you should run out of money at
the end of the month, that just means that you
are in a great financial position. You have done your
budget perfectly. The point is, you pay yourself first. You
set aside twenty percent in savings on the day you
get paid, and over the course of your pay period
(23:16):
the other eighty percent on your needs. Your checking account
balance drops towards zero at the end of the month,
but your savings account grows or remains flush.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
That is the secret. So living paycheck to paycheck may
actually be the best thing going.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Because if you really concentrate on getting those savings going,
getting the retirement going. For example, let's say you have
matching funds from your employer, and so three percent typically
three or five percent of your income is matched. You
put it in a retirement fund, the company matches it.
(24:00):
That's one hundred percent return. Every time you put in
ten cents. I don't know what investment you could make
that returns one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
This one does.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
This.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
If you put the money into a retirement account and
you're living paycheck to paycheck, look at the job you're doing.
You're doing a great job. So look at it not negatively.
If you're not pissing away money on memberships and crazy stuff,
(24:35):
it's you're doing a great job. Interesting when I looked
at that paycheck to paycheck. Now, if you live, if
you work for iHeart, you are out of money at
the end of the week after your paycheck comes in.
And that's another topic that I'm going to do. How
do you live if you work for iHeart? I don't know,
(25:01):
but you know how often do I attack this corporation?
I don't know why how I still have I don't
know how I have a.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Job here a week, a day, an hour or what? Yeah? Yeah,
how do you want me to break it down?
Speaker 3 (25:15):
I don't know, but I do this to everybody I've
ever worked for it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
By the way, and you can see why I've been
fired from job after job after job during my career.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Oh coming, we can pardon.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Oh indeed we can see, Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You can. All right.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
This is KFI AM sixty. You've been listening to the
Bill Handle Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday, six
am to nine am, and anytime on demand on the
iHeartRadio app
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