Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The youth common breaking down the world's nonsense about how
American common sense will see us through with the common
sense of Houston. I'm just pro common sense for Houston.
From Houston.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett. Hey, welcome to
our Thursday show. Don't forget Mother's Day's coming up this weekend.
Call your mom. Call note, seriously, call your mom. Welcome
to the show. Glad you could join us. Thought we'd
start today talking about the Department of Education. Uh, there
(00:45):
may be a reason why you'll be more interested in
getting rid of the Department of Education if you're somebody
who has an outstanding student loan debt, because the Trump
administration is going to get back to enforcing collections on
outstanding student loans. If you have defaulted on a student loan.
If you go into collections over a student loan and
(01:06):
everything got stopped because of the previous four years, that
is about to come to an end. Now there's only
so much they can do to collect the debt when
you get right down to it. Once you default on
a student loan, but for the rest of your life,
you don't necessarily want to have the government garnishing your wages.
Here's a report on Fox on what they intend to
(01:29):
do to try to at least collect some of the
money outstanding on these defaulted student loans.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
What's top of mind for most people?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
People hear the garnishing wages angle to this, and they
might be wondering how that's going to work. Well, here's
what the Education Department says. They say that they will
begin involuntary collection through the Treasury Department's Offset program. Means
borrowers who have student loans in default will receive communication
from federal student aid officials in the upcoming weeks with
(01:56):
information about their options involuntary collection. Put us in plan English,
it means the government can garnish wages, intercept tax refunds,
and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit
payments to go toward paying back the loans. So, Sean,
is this the first you've heard of such an idea,
garnishing wages to pay back student loans?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Is this a new one? You know, It's been in.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Practice for a long time by the Department of Education.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It was put out a pause for quite a while,
since twenty twenty, since the pandemic, really since the first
Trump administration, you know, and I don't think it's abnormal,
especially for something like student loans.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Unlike car payment, car loads, or.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Households, where they can repossess your house or car, you
can't repossess a college degree, as Lida McMahon put out
in her auditorial to The Wall Street Journal, and so
they have to go through more drastic measures such as
wage garnishment, such as irs refund, tax refund seizures, as
well as potentially other financial penalties in order to had
(03:00):
student loan bars eighties student loans back.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
So if you ever had your wages garnished, I mean
for any reason, not not necessarily because of debt. If
you've been through a divorce in your guy, for example,
I guess maybe occasionally a woman. But if your guide
that that that's not unusual. I I've been divorced once,
Thank goodness, I learned my lesson. I'm very happily married
(03:26):
to Elizabeth here for oh, we've been married now twenty
six years. Yeah, long time. Married to the first wife
for quite a while, twenty twenty four years. But at
the end of all that, when that whole thing broke up.
I remember how angry I got over wage garnishment because
her atturning, and of course she listened to everything her
(03:48):
attorney had to tell her, said that we can have
his wages garnish for his child support, so that we
know that you know, you're gonna get you're gonna get paid.
You are, you're going to have to worry about it.
You won't have to and on him to write you
a check. It'll just all come out of his paycheck.
And of course she's thinking, oh, that's great, that's fine,
that's a wonderful thing, right, And and of course I
(04:09):
got angry about what you don't think I'm going to
pay you? What what is this all about? And and
I said, okay, if that's what you want to do,
because the thing my attorney told me is she's going
to find out that you know that she your stand
up guy. She's going to find out that she would
have been better off getting a check directly from you,
because now it's got to go through the government. Now. Now,
(04:33):
now she's not going to be getting her check right away.
It's going to take a while, you know, between the
time they take out of your paycheck and the time
she sees it it could be four or five days.
And she's not gonna like that very much. And you
know what, he was absolutely right about that, you know,
And she had this is the funny part, at least
to me now looking back on it. She had the
nerve to call me up and say, hey, where's my money?
(04:54):
And I going, what do you mean, where's your money? Now?
Where's my money? Haven't got my haven't got my check yet.
I said, why are you asking me? You know that
money's taken out of my check automatically, it goes to
the government to disperse to you. You've added a middleman
to the process, so now you have to wait for
a check from the government instead of just getting a
(05:14):
check from me. So don't don't complain to me about
waiting for it. This is what you chose to do.
But as far as the garnishment thing goes, you know,
we've gotten away from the idea, especially as relates to
student loans. We've kind of gotten away from the idea
that this is money that you took out in good
(05:36):
faith for a college education. Now, granted, a lot of
thought might have gone into it, especially the repayment part.
But at the end of the day, when you borrow money,
you have to repay the money. We don't ever question
our monthly mortgage. Do we have a house that the
bank owns the house we're paying back the bank for
the house. If you don't just all of a sudden
wake up one day and go, you know, I don't
(05:57):
like this house anymore, I'm not going to pay my mortgage.
Or you don't wake up and I don't like this
car anymore. I'm not gonna pay my car loan. Now
you may stop making the payment because you can't afford
to pay it, in which case, as we was already
discussed there. You know, the house can get repossessed, your
car can get repossessed. They have nothing to repossess from
you for your for your college education, They can't They
(06:19):
can't take your diploma back if you got one.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, they can only take so much of your
wages and so much of you know, any refunds or
whatever that you're potentially entitled to. There's it's it's limited
as far as what they can do. So hey, you know,
I I got to say, you know, I don't blame
the government for doing it that that's who your student
loan is with. If your student loans with the government,
(06:43):
then they're gonna come after that, and they have every
right to do so. But I've seen video of people,
you know, burning their their notifications on their student loans,
like I'm not going to pay it, Okay, Well if
you're not gonna pay it, this is going to be
the consequences, all right. And as long as we're talking
about the education part, remember John Stossel. John Stossel used
(07:05):
to be on ABC. He left ABC because well, he's
conservative and ABC decidedly is not and he just couldn't
handle it anymore. But he did a piece on eliminating
the Education Department. I thought you might like this.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's good that the education Department's finally starting to reform,
But wait, why is there a federal education department? Anywhere
education's funded locally? The federal department is largely useless.
Speaker 7 (07:32):
The decline in the quality of public education.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Some Republicans have tried to close the department for years.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I would like to dissolve the ten billion dollar National
Department of Education.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Reagan failed, and during Trump's first term, when he made
Betsy DeVos education Secretary. I asked her, you would abolish
the department.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, I think there are important roles to play to
ensure students are not discriminated against.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But now the mood in America has shifted. Recently, she wrote,
shut down the department. It need not exist. We're going
to end education. Coming out of Washington, DC, teachers' unions
are furious it will destroy families, communities, and students. After all,
the media say the department.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Helps twenty six million children who live in poverty, seven
point five million students with disabilities.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It's not doing any of those things. Coridangelis studies education policy.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
The department was created with the express purpose to close
achievement gaps and to improve student outcomes, and the outcomes
aren't getting any better.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
They're getting worse.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Students across the country are struggling to read, falling behind
in math.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
If you have lost the Department of Education, we can
have more student improvement over time because you'll give more control,
more power to the individual states to figure out what
works best.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But unions say kids need the department.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
They're not your kids, Becky, they are the parents' children.
Becky's just worried about her gravy train coming to an end.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's Corriy Dangelis. You may recall we had Cory Dangelis
here on our afternoon show sometime in the last couple
of weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah. For those in favor of the National Education Department,
it's about the unions and it's about the gravy train
from Washington, d C. The reality is is that the
states that have taken over more control of their local
schools are doing better. Mississippi is a great example of that.
Mississippi has traditionally been like forty eighth, forty ninth, fiftieth
(09:37):
when it comes to things like fourth grade reading, and
now they're at the top of the heap because of
changes they've made within the state, not anything the federal
government's been able to do for them. All Right, quick
little break, we'll running late. Jimmy Fair show here on
name of nine fifty KPRC. If you don't live in
(10:12):
the city of Houston, you might say, why is Jimmy
talking about this? This has no impact on me, But
I'm here to tell you it does. It has an
impact on all of us. Our quality of life does
depend at least a certain extent about what's going on
in Harris County and what's going on in the City
of Houston. As as much as we hate to admit that,
(10:33):
sometimes that is the case, and the city has been
a frustrating thing to watch over the last seven eight years.
It has been an extremely frustrating thing to see, you know,
the problems with the police department, the lack of a
contract with the firefighters, all of the infrastructure issues. You know,
(10:56):
the federal money that the city has depended on. It
wasn't intended for balancing a budget or paying for, you know,
some departments in the city. He was supposedly for COVID.
To see money used like that to prop up the
budget and to see the outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner basically
leave with you somewhere between five one hundred and seven
(11:18):
hundred million dollars in debt for the City of Houston.
You know, a mess, a real big mess that Mayor
John Whitmyer walked into. He knew what he was walking into,
and he was willing to do the job now is
willing to Well know, John Whipmeyer is a Democrat, but
he is not He is not a progressive Democrat. He's
(11:40):
an old school Democrat. He's an old school Southern Democrat,
and he does understand fiscal responsibility, and he does understand
that the only way you have a world class city
in the City of Houston is if you have a
world class fire department and police department, and you have
a handle on crime, and you you have infrastructure you
(12:01):
can rely upon. These are very important things. Art not
so much art. It's a nice thing to have. I
don't mind art, but this is not where we need
to be spending taxpayer dollars right now. And what really
needed to happen in the city. And we had Mayor
Whitmyer on our morning show here not that long ago,
and I basically asked him, you know, he supposedly, we
(12:23):
have a five hundred million dollar deficit for the City
of Houston. Do you think you can go through and
find waste and fraud and come up with that money
without really cutting any services. And he felt he could,
and evidently he has. He's proposed a seven billion dollar budget.
That's a lot of money for one year, right, that's
(12:45):
just for twenty twenty six, a seven billion dollar budget,
but it is a budget that is balanced. Here's Mayor
Whitmyer the press conference yesterday talking about the budget, talking
about the needs of the city and why he's doing
what he's doing, and at the end he'll get asked
a question about whether or not we have a deficit anymore.
Here's Mayor John Whitbyer. But let's talk about today.
Speaker 7 (13:09):
One of the concerns on the campaign trail was what
are you going to do about city finances? Much had
been written about it. You know, we've had a structural
deficit as long as anyone can remember. Bottleneer, who goes
down is a great mayor, got five hundred million dollars
(13:29):
from Metro to help operate city government. Most of it
he put in police overtime. Coming forward, mayors, most of
my friends I watched learn from them. I've worked with
seven mayors. They dealt with structural deficit. First of all,
(13:50):
without being candid and transparent, which we're doing today. They
sold properties to pay for operations. They laid off over
one thousand employees just a two week notice. They use
federal funding for operations, one time federal funding. So this
(14:18):
is a special day for me as a public servant.
Here's our challenge that this budget speaks to moves us
in the right direction. If we can get city government functioning,
functioning at the level that Houstonians expect and deserve, nothing
will hold Houston. Fact, you know what is lens.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Here with the city finances has done a budget deficit.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Can you help what that looks like?
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Right now? There is no deficit as I've talked to
you today. The twenty six is balanced and no deficit.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
And how did you guys accomplish that?
Speaker 7 (14:56):
Efficiencies eliminating waste, duplication, reorganization of city departments, cost saving measures.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How about the retirees.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
We very compassionately offered our retires, the employees twenty eight
hundred that are eligible, a very compassionate incentive program. Certainly
when it comes to their healthcare costs thousand and fifty,
that'll save us one hundred million dollars going forward in
(15:31):
twenty six.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Think about that, one fifty people who are going to
get this retirement package and as a result, it saves
the city one hundred million dollars. How many thousands of
employees work for the City Houston. I don't know if
there's a hiring freeze on right now. There probably ought
to be everywhere, but I think there is everywhere but
(15:54):
police and fire. And by the way, the governor did
say in his comments, sorry, the mayor did say in
his comments that you know that that that after having
a very difficult time recruiting for hp D, now they
have they have a contract, a pretty generous contract going
(16:15):
on and now all of a sudden they and probably
with just the change of the top and the change
in attitude about the police department, now all of a
sudden they have all kinds of recruits. They're they're they're
finally getting people who are signing up to be police
officers for the City of Houston. So that's making this
is this is the right guy at the right time.
(16:38):
You know, would it be even better if we have
something with an OUR next to their name. I don't know.
I don't know that anybody with an R next to
their name would be doing any better a job. Because
at least Mayor John Whitbyer is a fiscal conservative. He
may not be a social conservative, but he is a
fiscal conservative. I'm commissed with that he at least understands
the very basics of income versus inflow versus outflow. Let's say,
(17:05):
the amount of revenue of the city brings in versus
the amount of revenue it has to spend. Now, what
I don't know about that seven billion dollar budget is
what it does, if anything, for our crumbling infrastructure. I'm
hoping there's things in there to address that. But but
I can understand that job number one is to balance
the budget and eliminate the deficit. You have to do.
That's that's the number one, first and foremost thing you
(17:28):
have to do. But after that, the next important thing,
you know, public safety obviously his number one concern. That's
the thing he campaigned on, and I think he feels
like he's dealt with that in this budget, and it
sounds to me like he has. So maybe the next thing,
and may be twenty twenty seven, but maybe the next
thing will be to look at ways that we can
start addressing different structure needs of the city, the water department,
(17:52):
you know, the water meins underneath the city, electrical grid,
all the different things that make a city go. Can't
have a world class city without having appropriate infrastructure. So
that I think will be the next thing that probably
the mayor will be working on. But give him full
credit here for taking steps in the right direction and
(18:15):
like I said, I may not live in the city Houston.
I live in North Harris County, but I come into
the city. I work in the city. I want to
be proud of the city. I think we all did.
All Right, quick a little break back with more in
a moment Jimmy bart Show. Hey, I'm nine fifty kPr City.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
All right, this is a silly story.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
But before I get to the very serious topic the
Governor Abbot spoke out about yesterday. I want to throw
this in because if you heard the morning show today,
I'm katrh I have to admit that I allowed my
inner sixteen year old to escape my brain. It doesn't
happen all that often anymore, but when it does, it's
(19:09):
just so painfully obvious that there's just that little part
of me that is still a very immature teenage boy
who loves fart jokes. I saw this story and it
was the first thing I thought of. Did you see this?
Did you know that there's Yellowstone Baked beans? I mean,
after the TV show. Yeah, there's baked beans inspired by
(19:32):
the Yellowstone television show. Now I know that the thing
that that show has just been a license to steal
money from people, just put in the Yellowstone y on
sweaters and shirts and shoes and anything you can imagine
now you having food products. But I saw the story
about four thousand cases of Yellowstone baked beans having been
(19:55):
recalled for undeclared allergies. There's nothing wrong with the bean
as long as shed allergic to soy. I guess there's
some soy in there, So that's why they're being recalled
in twenty three states. I'm assuming including Texas in those
twenty three states. But I thought, wait a minute, there's
Yellowstone baked beans in the end. Just there is. So
(20:18):
you know, when you think of Yellowstone, you think of
a Western, right, kind of like that. And when you
think of a Western and you think of baked beans,
if you're of a certain age and you've seen the movie,
you've got to think about blazing saddles right in the
in the in the campground scene where they're sitting around
the campfire eating baked beans and farting. And again I
(20:40):
realized that this is very juvenile that I would laugh
so hard at grown men farting while eating baked beans.
But it's still hilarious. I still find it funny, all right. Now,
the more serious topic of Governor Abbott. He has now
that he's gotten his school choice. And as it turns out,
you know, as we've tried to analyze for the school
(21:00):
choice is probably a little bit lame when you get
right down to it's not really it's not really school choice,
it's what what What the state accomplished is not really
that big of a deal when you get right down
to it. But rather go through that again, here's here's
something he's moved on to. And if we could fix
this problem, this would be a huge help to everybody.
(21:21):
Now do I do I trust that there's some sort
of a state solution to this coming? Not really. But
Governor Abbitt spoke out about bail bonds, about letting people
out on personal recognizant, about low bonds for murderers and
heinous criminals. Uh, they had a little thing of the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, and here he is speaking about
(21:44):
the problem.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
We're here today to tackle a bi partisan issue.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
It's a common sense issue, fixing the deadly and broken
bail system that less dangerous criminals right back.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Out onto our streets.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Were joined, as I mentioned, by families who lost a
loved one or had a loved one assaulted by a
criminal release on easy bail.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Or no bail. Activist judges are.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Protecting dangerous criminals instead of the innocent Texans that those
criminals harm. Their many horror stories across the state, many
horror stories right here in Travis County. One of them
involves the death of Xavier Jones SR. Jones was robbed
(22:40):
and killed by a group of career criminals.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Three of the six felons charged with.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
His murder were out on sixteen active bonds, one as
low as.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Just one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Despite their lengthy rap sheets and known gang affiliations, Travis
County judges kept giving these repeatd felons extra chances. With
that extra chance, they shot and killed Xavior Jones Senior
in front of his girlfriend and her child. Jones was
(23:20):
slaughtered in the state Representative taller Rico's district. To prevent
similar murders, Representative Tallerrico needs to step up and join
with represent A Smithy in the Texas House of Representatives
to support a constitutional amendment that fixes the broken bell.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
System that we have.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Okay, so this is how Governor Abbott wants to handle
the problem. He wants to do it with a constitutional amendment,
which is not an easy thing to do anywhere, including Texas.
You'd have to get it on the ballot, and the
people would have to vote for. Getting it on the
ballot is always the most difficult part. I mean, we
(24:05):
haven't been able. We haven't been able to get that
constitutional amendment on the ballot for you know, daylight saving time,
either having it year round or not having it at all.
So how are we going to get this on the ballot.
There's not a single Democrat that's going to support this.
I would like to think that there are plenty of
citizens that would But then again, a simpler solution, also
(24:32):
something you vote on, is to vote out these judges
who are doing this. It's a matter of public record,
you know what they're doing with these bonds. But George
Sorows in this organization has proven that if you throw
enough money behind a candidate, you can get them elected
(24:54):
without the people ever bothering to figure out what they're
really all about. Or they're in a district where the
people just don't care that much. Will I have a
hard time believing that, though I would like to believe
that the people most impacted by this, these super high
crime areas. I mean, after all, they're the ones that
are the victims of these criminals over and over and
(25:16):
over again. I would like to think that they would
be the first one to who would stand up and say,
we got to get this judge out of here. This judge,
let this person out. That's why my loved one is dead.
But somehow they keep getting elected and re elected. In
some cases it's because there's nobody else to vote for.
They're running out a post. That has to stop too.
(25:38):
It'd be a lot easier if we would just pay
enough attention to who these judges are, what they stand for,
and to vote them out on election day. Then it
would be to get a constitutional amendment. But we got
to do something, so I guess at this point let's
try anything, anything and everything. All right, y'all, have a
great day. Thank you for listening. I do appreciate it.
(26:00):
See you tomorrow morning, bright and early, starting at five
am over on news Radio seven forty k t r H.
We are back here at four on AM nine fifty
k p r C
Well, what we need is more common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
The youth common breaking down the world's nonsense about how
American common sense will see us through with the common
sense of Houston. I'm just pro common sense for Houston.
From Houston.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett. Hey, welcome to
our Thursday show. Don't forget Mother's Day's coming up this weekend.
Call your mom. Call note, seriously, call your mom. Welcome
to the show. Glad you could join us. Thought we'd
start today talking about the Department of Education. Uh, there
(00:45):
may be a reason why you'll be more interested in
getting rid of the Department of Education if you're somebody
who has an outstanding student loan debt, because the Trump
administration is going to get back to enforcing collections on
outstanding student loans. If you have defaulted on a student loan.
If you go into collections over a student loan and
(01:06):
everything got stopped because of the previous four years, that
is about to come to an end. Now there's only
so much they can do to collect the debt when
you get right down to it. Once you default on
a student loan, but for the rest of your life,
you don't necessarily want to have the government garnishing your wages.
Here's a report on Fox on what they intend to
(01:29):
do to try to at least collect some of the
money outstanding on these defaulted student loans.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
What's top of mind for most people?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
People hear the garnishing wages angle to this, and they
might be wondering how that's going to work. Well, here's
what the Education Department says. They say that they will
begin involuntary collection through the Treasury Department's Offset program. Means
borrowers who have student loans in default will receive communication
from federal student aid officials in the upcoming weeks with
(01:56):
information about their options involuntary collection. Put us in plan English,
it means the government can garnish wages, intercept tax refunds,
and seize portions of Social Security checks and other benefit
payments to go toward paying back the loans. So, Sean,
is this the first you've heard of such an idea,
garnishing wages to pay back student loans?
Speaker 4 (02:17):
Is this a new one? You know, It's been in.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Practice for a long time by the Department of Education.
Speaker 6 (02:22):
It was put out a pause for quite a while,
since twenty twenty, since the pandemic, really since the first
Trump administration, you know, and I don't think it's abnormal,
especially for something like student loans.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Unlike car payment, car loads, or.
Speaker 6 (02:38):
Households, where they can repossess your house or car, you
can't repossess a college degree, as Lida McMahon put out
in her auditorial to The Wall Street Journal, and so
they have to go through more drastic measures such as
wage garnishment, such as irs refund, tax refund seizures, as
well as potentially other financial penalties in order to had
(03:00):
student loan bars eighties student loans back.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
So if you ever had your wages garnished, I mean
for any reason, not not necessarily because of debt. If
you've been through a divorce in your guy, for example,
I guess maybe occasionally a woman. But if your guide
that that that's not unusual. I I've been divorced once,
Thank goodness, I learned my lesson. I'm very happily married
(03:26):
to Elizabeth here for oh, we've been married now twenty
six years. Yeah, long time. Married to the first wife
for quite a while, twenty twenty four years. But at
the end of all that, when that whole thing broke up.
I remember how angry I got over wage garnishment because
her atturning, and of course she listened to everything her
(03:48):
attorney had to tell her, said that we can have
his wages garnish for his child support, so that we
know that you know, you're gonna get you're gonna get paid.
You are, you're going to have to worry about it.
You won't have to and on him to write you
a check. It'll just all come out of his paycheck.
And of course she's thinking, oh, that's great, that's fine,
that's a wonderful thing, right, And and of course I
(04:09):
got angry about what you don't think I'm going to
pay you? What what is this all about? And and
I said, okay, if that's what you want to do,
because the thing my attorney told me is she's going
to find out that you know that she your stand
up guy. She's going to find out that she would
have been better off getting a check directly from you,
because now it's got to go through the government. Now. Now,
(04:33):
now she's not going to be getting her check right away.
It's going to take a while, you know, between the
time they take out of your paycheck and the time
she sees it it could be four or five days.
And she's not gonna like that very much. And you
know what, he was absolutely right about that, you know,
And she had this is the funny part, at least
to me now looking back on it. She had the
nerve to call me up and say, hey, where's my money?
(04:54):
And I going, what do you mean, where's your money? Now?
Where's my money? Haven't got my haven't got my check yet.
I said, why are you asking me? You know that
money's taken out of my check automatically, it goes to
the government to disperse to you. You've added a middleman
to the process, so now you have to wait for
a check from the government instead of just getting a
(05:14):
check from me. So don't don't complain to me about
waiting for it. This is what you chose to do.
But as far as the garnishment thing goes, you know,
we've gotten away from the idea, especially as relates to
student loans. We've kind of gotten away from the idea
that this is money that you took out in good
(05:36):
faith for a college education. Now, granted, a lot of
thought might have gone into it, especially the repayment part.
But at the end of the day, when you borrow money,
you have to repay the money. We don't ever question
our monthly mortgage. Do we have a house that the
bank owns the house we're paying back the bank for
the house. If you don't just all of a sudden
wake up one day and go, you know, I don't
(05:57):
like this house anymore, I'm not going to pay my mortgage.
Or you don't wake up and I don't like this
car anymore. I'm not gonna pay my car loan. Now
you may stop making the payment because you can't afford
to pay it, in which case, as we was already
discussed there. You know, the house can get repossessed, your
car can get repossessed. They have nothing to repossess from
you for your for your college education, They can't They
(06:19):
can't take your diploma back if you got one.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
You know, they can only take so much of your
wages and so much of you know, any refunds or
whatever that you're potentially entitled to. There's it's it's limited
as far as what they can do. So hey, you know,
I I got to say, you know, I don't blame
the government for doing it that that's who your student
loan is with. If your student loans with the government,
(06:43):
then they're gonna come after that, and they have every
right to do so. But I've seen video of people,
you know, burning their their notifications on their student loans,
like I'm not going to pay it, Okay, Well if
you're not gonna pay it, this is going to be
the consequences, all right. And as long as we're talking
about the education part, remember John Stossel. John Stossel used
(07:05):
to be on ABC. He left ABC because well, he's
conservative and ABC decidedly is not and he just couldn't
handle it anymore. But he did a piece on eliminating
the Education Department. I thought you might like this.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It's good that the education Department's finally starting to reform,
But wait, why is there a federal education department? Anywhere
education's funded locally? The federal department is largely useless.
Speaker 7 (07:32):
The decline in the quality of public education.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Some Republicans have tried to close the department for years.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
I would like to dissolve the ten billion dollar National
Department of Education.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Reagan failed, and during Trump's first term, when he made
Betsy DeVos education Secretary. I asked her, you would abolish
the department.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
No, I think there are important roles to play to
ensure students are not discriminated against.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But now the mood in America has shifted. Recently, she wrote,
shut down the department. It need not exist. We're going
to end education. Coming out of Washington, DC, teachers' unions
are furious it will destroy families, communities, and students. After all,
the media say the department.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
Helps twenty six million children who live in poverty, seven
point five million students with disabilities.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
It's not doing any of those things. Coridangelis studies education policy.
Speaker 8 (08:26):
The department was created with the express purpose to close
achievement gaps and to improve student outcomes, and the outcomes
aren't getting any better.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
They're getting worse.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Students across the country are struggling to read, falling behind
in math.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
If you have lost the Department of Education, we can
have more student improvement over time because you'll give more control,
more power to the individual states to figure out what
works best.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
But unions say kids need the department.
Speaker 8 (08:58):
They're not your kids, Becky, they are the parents' children.
Becky's just worried about her gravy train coming to an end.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
Amen.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's Corriy Dangelis. You may recall we had Cory Dangelis
here on our afternoon show sometime in the last couple
of weeks.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah. For those in favor of the National Education Department,
it's about the unions and it's about the gravy train
from Washington, d C. The reality is is that the
states that have taken over more control of their local
schools are doing better. Mississippi is a great example of that.
Mississippi has traditionally been like forty eighth, forty ninth, fiftieth
(09:37):
when it comes to things like fourth grade reading, and
now they're at the top of the heap because of
changes they've made within the state, not anything the federal
government's been able to do for them. All Right, quick
little break, we'll running late. Jimmy Fair show here on
name of nine fifty KPRC. If you don't live in
(10:12):
the city of Houston, you might say, why is Jimmy
talking about this? This has no impact on me, But
I'm here to tell you it does. It has an
impact on all of us. Our quality of life does
depend at least a certain extent about what's going on
in Harris County and what's going on in the City
of Houston. As as much as we hate to admit that,
(10:33):
sometimes that is the case, and the city has been
a frustrating thing to watch over the last seven eight years.
It has been an extremely frustrating thing to see, you know,
the problems with the police department, the lack of a
contract with the firefighters, all of the infrastructure issues. You know,
(10:56):
the federal money that the city has depended on. It
wasn't intended for balancing a budget or paying for, you know,
some departments in the city. He was supposedly for COVID.
To see money used like that to prop up the
budget and to see the outgoing Mayor Sylvester Turner basically
leave with you somewhere between five one hundred and seven
(11:18):
hundred million dollars in debt for the City of Houston.
You know, a mess, a real big mess that Mayor
John Whitmyer walked into. He knew what he was walking into,
and he was willing to do the job now is
willing to Well know, John Whipmeyer is a Democrat, but
he is not He is not a progressive Democrat. He's
(11:40):
an old school Democrat. He's an old school Southern Democrat,
and he does understand fiscal responsibility, and he does understand
that the only way you have a world class city
in the City of Houston is if you have a
world class fire department and police department, and you have
a handle on crime, and you you have infrastructure you
(12:01):
can rely upon. These are very important things. Art not
so much art. It's a nice thing to have. I
don't mind art, but this is not where we need
to be spending taxpayer dollars right now. And what really
needed to happen in the city. And we had Mayor
Whitmyer on our morning show here not that long ago,
and I basically asked him, you know, he supposedly, we
(12:23):
have a five hundred million dollar deficit for the City
of Houston. Do you think you can go through and
find waste and fraud and come up with that money
without really cutting any services. And he felt he could,
and evidently he has. He's proposed a seven billion dollar budget.
That's a lot of money for one year, right, that's
(12:45):
just for twenty twenty six, a seven billion dollar budget,
but it is a budget that is balanced. Here's Mayor
Whitmyer the press conference yesterday talking about the budget, talking
about the needs of the city and why he's doing
what he's doing, and at the end he'll get asked
a question about whether or not we have a deficit anymore.
Here's Mayor John Whitbyer. But let's talk about today.
Speaker 7 (13:09):
One of the concerns on the campaign trail was what
are you going to do about city finances? Much had
been written about it. You know, we've had a structural
deficit as long as anyone can remember. Bottleneer, who goes
down is a great mayor, got five hundred million dollars
(13:29):
from Metro to help operate city government. Most of it
he put in police overtime. Coming forward, mayors, most of
my friends I watched learn from them. I've worked with
seven mayors. They dealt with structural deficit. First of all,
(13:50):
without being candid and transparent, which we're doing today. They
sold properties to pay for operations. They laid off over
one thousand employees just a two week notice. They use
federal funding for operations, one time federal funding. So this
(14:18):
is a special day for me as a public servant.
Here's our challenge that this budget speaks to moves us
in the right direction. If we can get city government functioning,
functioning at the level that Houstonians expect and deserve, nothing
will hold Houston. Fact, you know what is lens.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Here with the city finances has done a budget deficit.
Speaker 6 (14:44):
Can you help what that looks like?
Speaker 7 (14:45):
Right now? There is no deficit as I've talked to
you today. The twenty six is balanced and no deficit.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
And how did you guys accomplish that?
Speaker 7 (14:56):
Efficiencies eliminating waste, duplication, reorganization of city departments, cost saving measures.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
How about the retirees.
Speaker 7 (15:11):
We very compassionately offered our retires, the employees twenty eight
hundred that are eligible, a very compassionate incentive program. Certainly
when it comes to their healthcare costs thousand and fifty,
that'll save us one hundred million dollars going forward in
(15:31):
twenty six.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Think about that, one fifty people who are going to
get this retirement package and as a result, it saves
the city one hundred million dollars. How many thousands of
employees work for the City Houston. I don't know if
there's a hiring freeze on right now. There probably ought
to be everywhere, but I think there is everywhere but
(15:54):
police and fire. And by the way, the governor did
say in his comments, sorry, the mayor did say in
his comments that you know that that that after having
a very difficult time recruiting for hp D, now they
have they have a contract, a pretty generous contract going
(16:15):
on and now all of a sudden they and probably
with just the change of the top and the change
in attitude about the police department, now all of a
sudden they have all kinds of recruits. They're they're they're
finally getting people who are signing up to be police
officers for the City of Houston. So that's making this
is this is the right guy at the right time.
(16:38):
You know, would it be even better if we have
something with an OUR next to their name. I don't know.
I don't know that anybody with an R next to
their name would be doing any better a job. Because
at least Mayor John Whitbyer is a fiscal conservative. He
may not be a social conservative, but he is a
fiscal conservative. I'm commissed with that he at least understands
the very basics of income versus inflow versus outflow. Let's say,
(17:05):
the amount of revenue of the city brings in versus
the amount of revenue it has to spend. Now, what
I don't know about that seven billion dollar budget is
what it does, if anything, for our crumbling infrastructure. I'm
hoping there's things in there to address that. But but
I can understand that job number one is to balance
the budget and eliminate the deficit. You have to do.
That's that's the number one, first and foremost thing you
(17:28):
have to do. But after that, the next important thing,
you know, public safety obviously his number one concern. That's
the thing he campaigned on, and I think he feels
like he's dealt with that in this budget, and it
sounds to me like he has. So maybe the next thing,
and may be twenty twenty seven, but maybe the next
thing will be to look at ways that we can
start addressing different structure needs of the city, the water department,
(17:52):
you know, the water meins underneath the city, electrical grid,
all the different things that make a city go. Can't
have a world class city without having appropriate infrastructure. So
that I think will be the next thing that probably
the mayor will be working on. But give him full
credit here for taking steps in the right direction and
(18:15):
like I said, I may not live in the city Houston.
I live in North Harris County, but I come into
the city. I work in the city. I want to
be proud of the city. I think we all did.
All Right, quick a little break back with more in
a moment Jimmy bart Show. Hey, I'm nine fifty kPr City.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
All right, this is a silly story.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
But before I get to the very serious topic the
Governor Abbot spoke out about yesterday. I want to throw
this in because if you heard the morning show today,
I'm katrh I have to admit that I allowed my
inner sixteen year old to escape my brain. It doesn't
happen all that often anymore, but when it does, it's
(19:09):
just so painfully obvious that there's just that little part
of me that is still a very immature teenage boy
who loves fart jokes. I saw this story and it
was the first thing I thought of. Did you see this?
Did you know that there's Yellowstone Baked beans? I mean,
after the TV show. Yeah, there's baked beans inspired by
(19:32):
the Yellowstone television show. Now I know that the thing
that that show has just been a license to steal
money from people, just put in the Yellowstone y on
sweaters and shirts and shoes and anything you can imagine
now you having food products. But I saw the story
about four thousand cases of Yellowstone baked beans having been
(19:55):
recalled for undeclared allergies. There's nothing wrong with the bean
as long as shed allergic to soy. I guess there's
some soy in there, So that's why they're being recalled
in twenty three states. I'm assuming including Texas in those
twenty three states. But I thought, wait a minute, there's
Yellowstone baked beans in the end. Just there is. So
(20:18):
you know, when you think of Yellowstone, you think of
a Western, right, kind of like that. And when you
think of a Western and you think of baked beans,
if you're of a certain age and you've seen the movie,
you've got to think about blazing saddles right in the
in the in the campground scene where they're sitting around
the campfire eating baked beans and farting. And again I
(20:40):
realized that this is very juvenile that I would laugh
so hard at grown men farting while eating baked beans.
But it's still hilarious. I still find it funny, all right. Now,
the more serious topic of Governor Abbott. He has now
that he's gotten his school choice. And as it turns out,
you know, as we've tried to analyze for the school
(21:00):
choice is probably a little bit lame when you get
right down to it's not really it's not really school choice,
it's what what What the state accomplished is not really
that big of a deal when you get right down
to it. But rather go through that again, here's here's
something he's moved on to. And if we could fix
this problem, this would be a huge help to everybody.
(21:21):
Now do I do I trust that there's some sort
of a state solution to this coming? Not really. But
Governor Abbitt spoke out about bail bonds, about letting people
out on personal recognizant, about low bonds for murderers and
heinous criminals. Uh, they had a little thing of the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, and here he is speaking about
(21:44):
the problem.
Speaker 4 (21:45):
We're here today to tackle a bi partisan issue.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
It's a common sense issue, fixing the deadly and broken
bail system that less dangerous criminals right back.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Out onto our streets.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Were joined, as I mentioned, by families who lost a
loved one or had a loved one assaulted by a
criminal release on easy bail.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Or no bail. Activist judges are.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Protecting dangerous criminals instead of the innocent Texans that those
criminals harm. Their many horror stories across the state, many
horror stories right here in Travis County. One of them
involves the death of Xavier Jones SR. Jones was robbed
(22:40):
and killed by a group of career criminals.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
Three of the six felons charged with.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
His murder were out on sixteen active bonds, one as
low as.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Just one thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Despite their lengthy rap sheets and known gang affiliations, Travis
County judges kept giving these repeatd felons extra chances. With
that extra chance, they shot and killed Xavior Jones Senior
in front of his girlfriend and her child. Jones was
(23:20):
slaughtered in the state Representative taller Rico's district. To prevent
similar murders, Representative Tallerrico needs to step up and join
with represent A Smithy in the Texas House of Representatives
to support a constitutional amendment that fixes the broken bell.
Speaker 4 (23:42):
System that we have.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
Okay, so this is how Governor Abbott wants to handle
the problem. He wants to do it with a constitutional amendment,
which is not an easy thing to do anywhere, including Texas.
You'd have to get it on the ballot, and the
people would have to vote for. Getting it on the
ballot is always the most difficult part. I mean, we
(24:05):
haven't been able. We haven't been able to get that
constitutional amendment on the ballot for you know, daylight saving time,
either having it year round or not having it at all.
So how are we going to get this on the ballot.
There's not a single Democrat that's going to support this.
I would like to think that there are plenty of
citizens that would But then again, a simpler solution, also
(24:32):
something you vote on, is to vote out these judges
who are doing this. It's a matter of public record,
you know what they're doing with these bonds. But George
Sorows in this organization has proven that if you throw
enough money behind a candidate, you can get them elected
(24:54):
without the people ever bothering to figure out what they're
really all about. Or they're in a district where the
people just don't care that much. Will I have a
hard time believing that, though I would like to believe
that the people most impacted by this, these super high
crime areas. I mean, after all, they're the ones that
are the victims of these criminals over and over and
(25:16):
over again. I would like to think that they would
be the first one to who would stand up and say,
we got to get this judge out of here. This judge,
let this person out. That's why my loved one is dead.
But somehow they keep getting elected and re elected. In
some cases it's because there's nobody else to vote for.
They're running out a post. That has to stop too.
(25:38):
It'd be a lot easier if we would just pay
enough attention to who these judges are, what they stand for,
and to vote them out on election day. Then it
would be to get a constitutional amendment. But we got
to do something, so I guess at this point let's
try anything, anything and everything. All right, y'all, have a
great day. Thank you for listening. I do appreciate it.
(26:00):
See you tomorrow morning, bright and early, starting at five
am over on news Radio seven forty k t r H.
We are back here at four on AM nine fifty
k p r C
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