Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good morning, John. Good to hear your voice on for
Michael this morning. Hey, you're asking about the Department of Defense.
New name. I think we pretty much already have it
at the Department or actually I guess it's the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, of Firearms Explosive Usage as opposed to regulation.
(00:22):
If you know the military, you know how that works.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I like that. I like that, So is the Department
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, because that's technically what
it is now. They used to be under the Department
of This of Secret Service and I don't know, or
(00:50):
the Bureau of Secret Service, and I don't know what
department that's under. I think it's under Justice, either that
or the ETF was moved to Justice. By the way,
Independent Institute, the little organization I run for twenty something
years now, has been doing our famed Alcohol, Tobacco and
(01:11):
Firearms party where we smoke, drink and shoot. It's a kick.
It's a fundraiser for us. We love it. I don't
know if we have any seats open. Go to thinkfreedom
dot org, Thinkfreedom dot o RG and and sign up
if you like. It's a great fundraiser for us. John Fund,
(01:31):
National Calumnists reporter, Wall Street Journal. Guy, it will be,
will be, we'll be speaking. Remember one year we had
Steve Moore, who was still with the Wall Street Journal
at that point, the economist and how how how to
say it? He couldn't hit anything, you know, he's he's
(01:53):
a city boy. He couldn't hit anything with his shotgun.
And so when we introduced him, I said, he he
he says he works for Wall Street Journal, but after
seeing him shoot, I'm pretty sure he works for the
New York Times. Yeah, they're they're better insults three or
(02:15):
three seven, one, three eight two five five seven to
one three talk? Hey, did you see this bit? I
did not watch the first NFL game of the season
last night as the Eagles and Cowboys played, but apparently
there was some poor sportsmanship. There you go. The NFL
(02:41):
world exploded in anger on Thursday night after Philadelphia Eagles
star Jalen Carter was ejected from the game against the
Dallas Cowboys before evening playing, before even playing a snap.
After kickoff, the Cowboys and Eagles players began to talk. Yeah.
(03:01):
The Eagles have always been known as a low down,
dirty team with a low down dirtier set of fans.
Carter was seen spitting towards now i'd say, spitting on
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, and in front of an NFL official.
(03:23):
The official flag was thrown, penalized Carter and ejected him
from the game. Yes easily. I mean, this is just insulting.
What a disrespectful, awful, unsportsmanlike thing to do. The game
(03:49):
hasn't even started, so these annoying multi multi millionaires who
get played to get paid to play a game, don't
act like like sportsmanship counts. This is just one. It's
(04:10):
disgusting and I don't care what it is. Spitting on
somebody is is so disgusting, is unsanitary. And so this
this star player hawks alugi on on the opposing team
(04:31):
at home. What what is this? I mean it is
that an eagle. So it's kind of makes a little
bit of sense, but still not the kind of help
help me understand that one.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They're just I don't know, Yeah, that's there's massive hatred
between the two teams, or at least the fan base.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
The fan base Broncos and Raiders just have no home anymore,
you know. It's it's yeah, it's hard to hate the
LA Raiders and the Oakland Raiders, and the LA Raiders,
the Oakland Raiders and now the Vegas Raiders. But still
you're the world champions, you won the Super Bowl, and
(05:20):
this is how you start your season. This is trailer trash.
I mean, it's perfect Philadelphia, but it's trailer trash. What
a what a shame? What a shame? I hope he
gets more than just being ejected from one game. This
is an opportunity to to really what's the appropriate punishment here?
(05:49):
How many games should he miss? I just find it's
so awful he should miss the whole season in my opinion,
But that's not gonna happen. What do you think anyway?
Give me a call three h three seven one three
eight two five five seven to one three talk. So
you've heard by now, and this is not a surprise
(06:12):
to anybody that the left hates our flat income tax here.
And while most states are moving towards no income tax,
we have more and more states that are announcing how
they're converting to no income tax. There are progressives in
(06:35):
Colorado that want to bring back the progressive income tax
in Colorado, which we haven't had since nineteen eighty seven.
Independence Institute was crucial in passing the flat tax, and
then a few years later in nineteen ninety two getting
Tabor passed, which put our flat tax into the constitution.
(06:58):
And now now they want to raise taxes. Now it's
a great little gimmick. It's great politics. What you do
is you give most people a little tiny tax cut,
and then you wildly tax the wealthy. In other words,
you do what California is doing, which is driving the
(07:22):
wealthy and the productive and the employers out of the state.
More and more businesses leave places like California to go
to places like Texas. Chevron just left California, Tesla left California.
(07:43):
People are leaving California, and tax policy has everything to
do with it. People are leaving New York. Imagine what's
gonna happen if Mondadi Mandabi, Mendavi, Mendanni, Mendanni. There we
go become mayor. We're going to have more and more
(08:03):
productive people leaving. Why would you stay in a place
that doesn't want you. I know, people hate the rich.
It's easy to hate the rich. It's also easy to
tax the rich. Why because you're not rich, And the
same reason it's easy to tax people who are from
(08:25):
out of town. That's why we have outlandish hotel taxes
and car rental taxes. I'm sorry, fees. We have fees.
So we have all these ridiculous tax the rich. Make
them pay their fair share. They do pay the fair share,
They pay the same share you to. In fact, they
(08:48):
even pay more. What people don't get here is, in
a way, we already have a progressive income tax, even
though our flat tax, which I'm very proud that Independence
Institute was able to lower twice in the last few
years by putting it on the ballot. Our tax is
(09:08):
now four point four percent. The current rate is actually
four point twenty five, but that's going to pop back
up when our taper refunds end. But they say this
flat tax favors the rich. That's what a flat income
(09:30):
tax system, they say does. But it's not true. And
in fact, all you need to do and then you
can go to complete Colorado this morning. Christopher Song has
a great little piece here and it shows very clearly.
According to the last Colorado Tax Profile and Expenditure Report,
(09:51):
the highest income groups already shoulder a disproportionately large share
of Colorado income taxes. In fact, Coloraden's earning two hundred
thousand dollars or more. That's over eight percent of Colorado households. Really,
(10:11):
that's pretty impressive. Eight percent of Coloradden's make over two
hundred grand. Nice. So those people who make over two
hundred grand already pay forty eight percent of all the
income taxes. Yeah, let me say that again. People who
(10:33):
are wealthy pay the most, and they even pay a
larger effective income tax rate. Why because on the lower
end of the scale, you have your deductions, you have
the salt deduction, you have all the other deductions, and
(10:53):
you have the standard deduction. So if you're making you know,
grand a year, you're really taxed on nothing. When you
make one hundred grand a year, you might be able
to take twenty five thousand dollars off in deductions, and
you're still taxed on seventy five percent. So in total,
(11:17):
the guy who's making twenty five pays zero percent income tax.
So the trends in effective income tax rates across Colorado
indicate a system that is far more regressive. Indeed, it
shows it's far from regressive. It shows a progressive tendency.
(11:44):
Let me give you some of the effective tax rates.
You understand the idea of an effective tax rate. The
effective tax rate is after you take out all your deductions,
after you take out all your credits. Really, how much
are you paying? According to twenty twenty numbers, people who
(12:06):
make between fifteen and thirty grand a year, and this
is from Colorado's government's statistics, you're paying less than two
percent Colorado income tax one point eight percent one point
eight percent. The effective tax rate for people making between
(12:28):
one hundred and fifty and two hundred is three point
four percent, nearly double. So the effective tax rate is
already very progressive. Effectively, people with money are paying twice
(12:48):
as much as people who are lower income. But still,
the left has always wanted to bring Colorado a progressive
income tax. What a crime? What a crime that was
going to be? What is it going to do to
(13:11):
Colorado if we have a progressive income tax, if we
want to soak the rich, as so many people want
to soak the rich, what does that really do? Do
you think it's going to help you? If you take
a look at how much poor people are going to
save by the little tiny tax cut they're going to
(13:34):
give them in order to have a huge tax increase
on their wealthy. Yeah, they'll save one hundred bucks a
year and millionaires will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You know what millionaires can do. They can relocate. You
(13:55):
know what millionaires can do. They can take their businesses
and plant them someplace else. They can they can go
somewhere else and do it. How does how is it
(14:16):
that the left cannot learn from California and New York?
It is It is so ridiculous that they cannot see
that California is hemorrhaging money, hemorrhaging jobs, hemorrhaging employers. And
the biggest reason is that their top their top earners
(14:39):
are paying thirteen percent thirteen percent. Why would you spend
thirteen percent of everything you make for the privilege of
living in California when you can just move to Texas
and get a thirteen percent raise instantly because they have
(15:00):
no tax there at all, no income tax there at all.
Or go to Florida and pay no income tax, or
go to Wyoming and pay no income tax, or the
other dozen states around the country that has no income tax. Yep,
Colorado's influx has already petered out. We had this huge
(15:26):
decade of population growth, and that's not continuing. They're going
someplace else. Why. Kids can't afford to buy a home here,
they can't get on the first rung of the economic ladder.
The regulatory burdens are too high for many businesses to locate,
(15:47):
so they're going to go someplace else. When Chevron left California,
even though Colorado is the fourth largest oil producing state,
where did they go? Not to Colorado? They went to Texas.
(16:07):
Why because one Texas is an ashamed of oil and
gas and two because they made an instant five percent
return or excuse me, thirteen percent return and compared to
Colorado a four percent return. So this is likely going
to be on the ballot next year. If if Liberals
(16:31):
put it on the ballot through the initiative process, it's
it's going to be a test because it's very hard
for people to vote against a progressive income tax. Why
it's easy to vote for people who aren't you to
(16:52):
be hurt. Think about cigarette taxes. Cigarette taxes almost always passed.
Why because twelve percent of Colorado's smoke, so the other
eighty eight percent go. I don't care. It brings in
money for things I like, and I don't have to
pay it, just like hotel taxes and car rental taxes.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Go.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I don't go to too many hotels in Colorado. As
for people who come here, they're not voting on it. Well,
that's the idea of a of a progressive income tax.
People at the lower ends will give you, we'll give
you a little bit of tax cut, and then we're
gonna soak the rich. The problem is it doesn't bring
(17:38):
in the money they think, so they end up soaking
the rich more, and then more of them leave and
it doesn't bring in as much money, so they continue
this death cycle. And that death cycle is called California.
Why do we hate the wealthy? Why do we want
(18:00):
to chase them out of the state. Let's not let
it happen.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Prior to World War Two, we had two military departments,
the Department of the Davy, which included the air the Marines,
and the Department of War, which included the Army.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And the Air Corps.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
When the Air Corps was elevated to a full military
department is set, it created a third military department that
combined them all.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
That's fascinating, all right, that's really helpful to me.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I do like the history lesson. But you only got
thirty seconds in those talkbacks.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I have three seconds in those talkbacks, all right, So
if our caller was explaining it correctly. The reason the
reason we have the Department of Defense is because we
had a department of a Navy and a Department of Army.
When you think about the formation of our nation, it
wasn't like there was an air force before we could fly.
(19:06):
There wasn't a space force before we could go to
the moon. These all combined, so it made sense to
combine them. So you had the Department in Navy, the
Department of War. The It is interesting that these different departments,
(19:27):
these different army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, it's a great
way to anyway. All of these are in different different services,
but they're all wrapped up into the Department of Defense.
The President wants to rename it the Department of War.
Actually kind of go back to the Department of War.
(19:48):
But if our caller there gave us the right information,
the Navy wasn't part of the Department of War, even
though the Navy was a big part of of World
War Two and a big part of American defenses since
our founding. I like the idea of the Department of War.
(20:11):
I just like the name of it. Mind you, I'm
the kind of guy who prefers Mount Evans to Mount
Blue Sky. So I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled that the governor
or the President wants to bring it back to the
Department of War. It likely won't happen. It likely won't happen, huh,
(20:43):
because the Congress has to approve it. But it's a
great way to mix things up. He loves to do this.
What would you what would you call our Defense Department
if you had to rename it, John says one text,
if it was Biden, it would be the Department of
(21:04):
Don't oh, I like that one. So we're talking about
this proposed proposal. How's that it's not on the ballot.
It's still got a long way to go to bring
Colorado back to a progressive income tax, which we shed
decades ago. And let's remember it was a Democratic governor
(21:28):
who signed into law our flat income tax rate back
in nineteen eighty seven. It was at proposal by Independence Institute,
carried by a Republican legislature, signed by a Democratic governor,
a truly bipartisan effort. A text do you remember when
(21:51):
Governor Jared Polus told us he wanted to have state
income tax at zero percent. Yes, he says that he
has supported my initiatives, my two initiatives to lower income
taxes in Colorado Independence Institute wrote those. We got him
on the ballot and overwhelmingly people voted for a lower
(22:16):
income tax. We'd like to do it again, but the
legislature passed a bill saying that if there's ever a
tax cut, you have to put this preamble on the
ballot that basically says this tax cut will hurt children,
throw little old ladies into the streets, and take away
(22:37):
people's wheelchairs. So they've been very good at making sure
we don't lower the income tax. The state legislature could
do it. Paulus says he wants to do it, but
he really hasn't made any effort to do it. The
Republicans have put in tax cut proposals through the legislature,
(23:00):
the governor has never gone to bat for them. Now
I know Jared. He does understand that a flat rate
income tax is the way to go, and lowering that
income tax often brings in more money. The idea is
illustrated what's known as the Laugher curve. Art Laugher explained
(23:23):
that when you lower taxes sometimes you get more tax revenue,
particularly when it comes to income tax. And this makes sense.
If your income tax rate was zero, how much would
government bring in in tax revenue from income tax? Zero?
(23:44):
All right, that makes sense. What if it was one
hundred percent, how much would government bring in? Art Laugher said, zero? Zero? Why?
Because no one would work all day to give one
hundred percent of their earnings to the government. There's no
(24:07):
incentive to work. Incentives matter, he said. If you make
it easier for people to be more productive, they're more
productive and they will make more money. And then you
will be able to get more in tax revenue by
lowering income tax rates and low and behold. When JFK
(24:31):
lowered income taxes, the government got more tax revenue. When
Reagan did it, we got more tax revenue. And Bush
did it, we got more tax revenue. And when Trump
version one point zero did it, the Feds brought in
more money. It's the same reason why stores lower prices
(24:54):
on items. They don't lower prices to get less money.
They lower price. This is to sell more of the product.
And even though marginally they might make less money on
each sale, the number of sales, the number of transactions
increase and they make a lot more money. We found
the same thing in Colorado. When we lower the income tax,
(25:19):
often we get more money. It brings more people into
the state. Rochelle writes in and says, I don't know
if you heard the guy from the Bell Policy Center
on the news the other night. No, I didn't. He
argued that businesses like Amazon are too big to leave
if taxes increase. He said, studies have shown that neither
businesses nor wealthy people actually leave the state. Are you high,
(25:46):
She writes, guess he hasn't heard of the large companies
that left California. He also stated that since federal government
blew a one point two billion dollar hole in our
state budget, these axes were needed. The federal government did
not blow a hole in the state budget during COVID governments.
(26:10):
State governments were showered with money that was just printed
out of thin air from the federal government, and instead
of realizing these were a short term thing, state governments,
like all governments, do what they do. They spend the
money on things that require even more spending. Not one time,
(26:35):
not one time, payments like building a road. No, they
put people on the dole. They increase unemployment, they increase
Medicaid enrollment, they increased things that require yet bigger spending
the next year. That's what Colorado did. Therefore, were in
(26:57):
a hole. That's not a surprise. Even the state government
a couple of years ago said we need to prepare
for when this money ends. They didn't do it. So
now they've got this budget hole they need to get
(27:19):
out of, and they're gonna say, oh no, it's the
one big beautiful Bill's fault. Hardly that deficit was structural
and they knew about it. Don't you get tired of
politicians lying the federal budget. The federal government didn't blow
a hole in the state budget. Federal government gave us
(27:41):
emergency money during COVID that our lawmakers got addicted to God.
They love to spend other people's money. So think of
all the businesses that have left California, and often they
go to Texas, they go to Tennessee, they go to Florida,
(28:08):
and people from Colorado have had enough become refugees and
go to Wyoming. All these places have something in common,
no income tax. I would love to see Colorado become
the next income tax free state. Income tax is one
(28:32):
of the most evil taxes. Why, because people need income
When you tax something. I know this is going to
come as a surprise to many progressives. When you tax something,
you get less of it. You tax things that you
don't like, and they go away. That's why the left
(28:56):
loves sin taxes, because they don't want us to smoke,
or drink or have a time. Apparently they don't want
us to They don't want us to make a living either.
If you love people, don't take away their money. Well, yes,
we need taxes, absolutely, we need taxes. That's why consumption
(29:22):
taxes are the best taxes. Consumption taxes, sales taxes, bat
taxes tax you on the stuff you consume, the stuff
you buy. Yeah, I understand you need to buy some
things to live, but you don't need to buy everything
(29:45):
to live. I would love to switch Colorado's income tax
to some sort of consumption tax. I'm not a big
fan of property taxes either. Why because once you buy
some thing, I figure you ought to be able to
keep it. You shouldn't have to pay a ransom to
keep things you have like your home. I mean I
(30:09):
get it. We have roads, we have sewage, we have
all these things services, fire departments to protect those homes.
So maybe maybe we tax those properties. The income tax
is the most evil of taxes. Why do we hate
(30:30):
the wealthy? Why do we hate the wealthy that come
here to Colorado, build businesses, employ people, invest in our state,
and pay taxes? Why do we hate them?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Why is it we vilify success in America? Now? I've
never understood that. If you could help me out with it,
I love it. Three or three seven one, three eight
two five five or grab a text for me. I'm
John kelderre I keep it right here. You're on six
point thirty k How John, I.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Think it should be a Department of Weapons.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Now down that way you can just walk around, say
let's get down tonight and knock her down. Hoo. We're
talking about the Department of Defense having its name changed
back to the Department of War. Yeah, the Army was
controlled by the Department of War, and I guess there
was a Department of Navy. They put them together after
(31:27):
World War Two. They actually have. Then the Air Force
got the Marines, and the Marines came out of the Navy.
I believe the Marines came out of the Navy, Do
I have that right? That sounds accurate, but don't quote
me on that one, right. And then the Navy also
has seals, and army has special forces, I think. And
(31:53):
then you also have, of course, the coast Guard, and
the coast Guard is kind of this odd hybrid of
military and police. And I'm glad we have this very
clear cut division between police, law enforcement, and military. And
(32:15):
that's why I'm concerned about when we get these things blurred.
I think Trump is blurring those. The idea is that
the military kills people and breaks things. That's their job,
and you send them off to do the job. Police, however,
(32:35):
do a very different job of enforcing laws, of catching
people and giving them their due process. There is no
due process in war. There are no search warrants in war.
There's no reading your miranda rights in war. War is when,
(32:57):
at all costs, you do everything you have to do
to win, and you break things and you do terrible stuff.
That's why it's two different skill sets. And the skill
set it takes to respect people, to follow the rule
of law, to respect individual rights and civil liberties is
(33:20):
not the same skill set as blowing crap up and
asking questions later. Two different worlds that should not get
mixed together. That's why only in emergencies do you have
martial law. Only in emergencies do you call in the
national guard. And there should be a pretty high standard
(33:44):
for doing that. So what would you call what would
you call the Department of Defense, the Department of Offense,
the Department of back the hell off Apartment of Oh
you don't want to be on our bad side. You
(34:04):
want to get that image across. You want to make
sure that people understand that around the world that you,
whatever country you have, have the most effective, most deadly,
most mean, most brutal department of war there is. That's
that's the idea, so that you never have to use it. Hey,
(34:29):
check out Independence Institute. Will you go to Thinkfreedom dot org.
That's a little organization I run. Sign up for my newsletter.
At the very least, you and I can stay in contact.
I'll send you someone once a week and I won't spam.
They promise. Go to Complete Colorado dot com every day
for all news and views, and by all means keep
it right here. You're on khow
Good morning, John. Good to hear your voice on for
Michael this morning. Hey, you're asking about the Department of Defense.
New name. I think we pretty much already have it
at the Department or actually I guess it's the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, of Firearms Explosive Usage as opposed to regulation.
(00:22):
If you know the military, you know how that works.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I like that. I like that, So is the Department
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, because that's technically what
it is now. They used to be under the Department
of This of Secret Service and I don't know, or
(00:50):
the Bureau of Secret Service, and I don't know what
department that's under. I think it's under Justice, either that
or the ETF was moved to Justice. By the way,
Independent Institute, the little organization I run for twenty something
years now, has been doing our famed Alcohol, Tobacco and
(01:11):
Firearms party where we smoke, drink and shoot. It's a kick.
It's a fundraiser for us. We love it. I don't
know if we have any seats open. Go to thinkfreedom
dot org, Thinkfreedom dot o RG and and sign up
if you like. It's a great fundraiser for us. John Fund,
(01:31):
National Calumnists reporter, Wall Street Journal. Guy, it will be,
will be, we'll be speaking. Remember one year we had
Steve Moore, who was still with the Wall Street Journal
at that point, the economist and how how how to
say it? He couldn't hit anything, you know, he's he's
(01:53):
a city boy. He couldn't hit anything with his shotgun.
And so when we introduced him, I said, he he
he says he works for Wall Street Journal, but after
seeing him shoot, I'm pretty sure he works for the
New York Times. Yeah, they're they're better insults three or
(02:15):
three seven, one, three eight two five five seven to
one three talk? Hey, did you see this bit? I
did not watch the first NFL game of the season
last night as the Eagles and Cowboys played, but apparently
there was some poor sportsmanship. There you go. The NFL
(02:41):
world exploded in anger on Thursday night after Philadelphia Eagles
star Jalen Carter was ejected from the game against the
Dallas Cowboys before evening playing, before even playing a snap.
After kickoff, the Cowboys and Eagles players began to talk. Yeah.
(03:01):
The Eagles have always been known as a low down,
dirty team with a low down dirtier set of fans.
Carter was seen spitting towards now i'd say, spitting on
Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, and in front of an NFL official.
(03:23):
The official flag was thrown, penalized Carter and ejected him
from the game. Yes easily. I mean, this is just insulting.
What a disrespectful, awful, unsportsmanlike thing to do. The game
(03:49):
hasn't even started, so these annoying multi multi millionaires who
get played to get paid to play a game, don't
act like like sportsmanship counts. This is just one. It's
(04:10):
disgusting and I don't care what it is. Spitting on
somebody is is so disgusting, is unsanitary. And so this
this star player hawks alugi on on the opposing team
(04:31):
at home. What what is this? I mean it is
that an eagle. So it's kind of makes a little
bit of sense, but still not the kind of help
help me understand that one.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
They're just I don't know, Yeah, that's there's massive hatred
between the two teams, or at least the fan base.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
The fan base Broncos and Raiders just have no home anymore,
you know. It's it's yeah, it's hard to hate the
LA Raiders and the Oakland Raiders, and the LA Raiders,
the Oakland Raiders and now the Vegas Raiders. But still
you're the world champions, you won the Super Bowl, and
(05:20):
this is how you start your season. This is trailer trash.
I mean, it's perfect Philadelphia, but it's trailer trash. What
a what a shame? What a shame? I hope he
gets more than just being ejected from one game. This
is an opportunity to to really what's the appropriate punishment here?
(05:49):
How many games should he miss? I just find it's
so awful he should miss the whole season in my opinion,
But that's not gonna happen. What do you think anyway?
Give me a call three h three seven one three
eight two five five seven to one three talk. So
you've heard by now, and this is not a surprise
(06:12):
to anybody that the left hates our flat income tax here.
And while most states are moving towards no income tax,
we have more and more states that are announcing how
they're converting to no income tax. There are progressives in
(06:35):
Colorado that want to bring back the progressive income tax
in Colorado, which we haven't had since nineteen eighty seven.
Independence Institute was crucial in passing the flat tax, and
then a few years later in nineteen ninety two getting
Tabor passed, which put our flat tax into the constitution.
(06:58):
And now now they want to raise taxes. Now it's
a great little gimmick. It's great politics. What you do
is you give most people a little tiny tax cut,
and then you wildly tax the wealthy. In other words,
you do what California is doing, which is driving the
(07:22):
wealthy and the productive and the employers out of the state.
More and more businesses leave places like California to go
to places like Texas. Chevron just left California, Tesla left California.
(07:43):
People are leaving California, and tax policy has everything to
do with it. People are leaving New York. Imagine what's
gonna happen if Mondadi Mandabi, Mendavi, Mendanni, Mendanni. There we
go become mayor. We're going to have more and more
(08:03):
productive people leaving. Why would you stay in a place
that doesn't want you. I know, people hate the rich.
It's easy to hate the rich. It's also easy to
tax the rich. Why because you're not rich, And the
same reason it's easy to tax people who are from
(08:25):
out of town. That's why we have outlandish hotel taxes
and car rental taxes. I'm sorry, fees. We have fees.
So we have all these ridiculous tax the rich. Make
them pay their fair share. They do pay the fair share,
They pay the same share you to. In fact, they
(08:48):
even pay more. What people don't get here is, in
a way, we already have a progressive income tax, even
though our flat tax, which I'm very proud that Independence
Institute was able to lower twice in the last few
years by putting it on the ballot. Our tax is
(09:08):
now four point four percent. The current rate is actually
four point twenty five, but that's going to pop back
up when our taper refunds end. But they say this
flat tax favors the rich. That's what a flat income
(09:30):
tax system, they say does. But it's not true. And
in fact, all you need to do and then you
can go to complete Colorado this morning. Christopher Song has
a great little piece here and it shows very clearly.
According to the last Colorado Tax Profile and Expenditure Report,
(09:51):
the highest income groups already shoulder a disproportionately large share
of Colorado income taxes. In fact, Coloraden's earning two hundred
thousand dollars or more. That's over eight percent of Colorado households. Really,
(10:11):
that's pretty impressive. Eight percent of Coloradden's make over two
hundred grand. Nice. So those people who make over two
hundred grand already pay forty eight percent of all the
income taxes. Yeah, let me say that again. People who
(10:33):
are wealthy pay the most, and they even pay a
larger effective income tax rate. Why because on the lower
end of the scale, you have your deductions, you have
the salt deduction, you have all the other deductions, and
(10:53):
you have the standard deduction. So if you're making you know,
grand a year, you're really taxed on nothing. When you
make one hundred grand a year, you might be able
to take twenty five thousand dollars off in deductions, and
you're still taxed on seventy five percent. So in total,
(11:17):
the guy who's making twenty five pays zero percent income tax.
So the trends in effective income tax rates across Colorado
indicate a system that is far more regressive. Indeed, it
shows it's far from regressive. It shows a progressive tendency.
(11:44):
Let me give you some of the effective tax rates.
You understand the idea of an effective tax rate. The
effective tax rate is after you take out all your deductions,
after you take out all your credits. Really, how much
are you paying? According to twenty twenty numbers, people who
(12:06):
make between fifteen and thirty grand a year, and this
is from Colorado's government's statistics, you're paying less than two
percent Colorado income tax one point eight percent one point
eight percent. The effective tax rate for people making between
(12:28):
one hundred and fifty and two hundred is three point
four percent, nearly double. So the effective tax rate is
already very progressive. Effectively, people with money are paying twice
(12:48):
as much as people who are lower income. But still,
the left has always wanted to bring Colorado a progressive
income tax. What a crime? What a crime that was
going to be? What is it going to do to
(13:11):
Colorado if we have a progressive income tax, if we
want to soak the rich, as so many people want
to soak the rich, what does that really do? Do
you think it's going to help you? If you take
a look at how much poor people are going to
save by the little tiny tax cut they're going to
(13:34):
give them in order to have a huge tax increase
on their wealthy. Yeah, they'll save one hundred bucks a
year and millionaires will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You know what millionaires can do. They can relocate. You
(13:55):
know what millionaires can do. They can take their businesses
and plant them someplace else. They can they can go
somewhere else and do it. How does how is it
(14:16):
that the left cannot learn from California and New York?
It is It is so ridiculous that they cannot see
that California is hemorrhaging money, hemorrhaging jobs, hemorrhaging employers. And
the biggest reason is that their top their top earners
(14:39):
are paying thirteen percent thirteen percent. Why would you spend
thirteen percent of everything you make for the privilege of
living in California when you can just move to Texas
and get a thirteen percent raise instantly because they have
(15:00):
no tax there at all, no income tax there at all.
Or go to Florida and pay no income tax, or
go to Wyoming and pay no income tax, or the
other dozen states around the country that has no income tax. Yep,
Colorado's influx has already petered out. We had this huge
(15:26):
decade of population growth, and that's not continuing. They're going
someplace else. Why. Kids can't afford to buy a home here,
they can't get on the first rung of the economic ladder.
The regulatory burdens are too high for many businesses to locate,
(15:47):
so they're going to go someplace else. When Chevron left California,
even though Colorado is the fourth largest oil producing state,
where did they go? Not to Colorado? They went to Texas.
(16:07):
Why because one Texas is an ashamed of oil and
gas and two because they made an instant five percent
return or excuse me, thirteen percent return and compared to
Colorado a four percent return. So this is likely going
to be on the ballot next year. If if Liberals
(16:31):
put it on the ballot through the initiative process, it's
it's going to be a test because it's very hard
for people to vote against a progressive income tax. Why
it's easy to vote for people who aren't you to
(16:52):
be hurt. Think about cigarette taxes. Cigarette taxes almost always passed.
Why because twelve percent of Colorado's smoke, so the other
eighty eight percent go. I don't care. It brings in
money for things I like, and I don't have to
pay it, just like hotel taxes and car rental taxes.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Go.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I don't go to too many hotels in Colorado. As
for people who come here, they're not voting on it. Well,
that's the idea of a of a progressive income tax.
People at the lower ends will give you, we'll give
you a little bit of tax cut, and then we're
gonna soak the rich. The problem is it doesn't bring
(17:38):
in the money they think, so they end up soaking
the rich more, and then more of them leave and
it doesn't bring in as much money, so they continue
this death cycle. And that death cycle is called California.
Why do we hate the wealthy? Why do we want
(18:00):
to chase them out of the state. Let's not let
it happen.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
Prior to World War Two, we had two military departments,
the Department of the Davy, which included the air the Marines,
and the Department of War, which included the Army.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And the Air Corps.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
When the Air Corps was elevated to a full military
department is set, it created a third military department that
combined them all.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
That's fascinating, all right, that's really helpful to me.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
I do like the history lesson. But you only got
thirty seconds in those talkbacks.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
I have three seconds in those talkbacks, all right, So
if our caller was explaining it correctly. The reason the
reason we have the Department of Defense is because we
had a department of a Navy and a Department of Army.
When you think about the formation of our nation, it
wasn't like there was an air force before we could fly.
(19:06):
There wasn't a space force before we could go to
the moon. These all combined, so it made sense to
combine them. So you had the Department in Navy, the
Department of War. The It is interesting that these different departments,
(19:27):
these different army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, it's a great
way to anyway. All of these are in different different services,
but they're all wrapped up into the Department of Defense.
The President wants to rename it the Department of War.
Actually kind of go back to the Department of War.
(19:48):
But if our caller there gave us the right information,
the Navy wasn't part of the Department of War, even
though the Navy was a big part of of World
War Two and a big part of American defenses since
our founding. I like the idea of the Department of War.
(20:11):
I just like the name of it. Mind you, I'm
the kind of guy who prefers Mount Evans to Mount
Blue Sky. So I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled that the governor
or the President wants to bring it back to the
Department of War. It likely won't happen. It likely won't happen, huh,
(20:43):
because the Congress has to approve it. But it's a
great way to mix things up. He loves to do this.
What would you what would you call our Defense Department
if you had to rename it, John says one text,
if it was Biden, it would be the Department of
(21:04):
Don't oh, I like that one. So we're talking about
this proposed proposal. How's that it's not on the ballot.
It's still got a long way to go to bring
Colorado back to a progressive income tax, which we shed
decades ago. And let's remember it was a Democratic governor
(21:28):
who signed into law our flat income tax rate back
in nineteen eighty seven. It was at proposal by Independence Institute,
carried by a Republican legislature, signed by a Democratic governor,
a truly bipartisan effort. A text do you remember when
(21:51):
Governor Jared Polus told us he wanted to have state
income tax at zero percent. Yes, he says that he
has supported my initiatives, my two initiatives to lower income
taxes in Colorado Independence Institute wrote those. We got him
on the ballot and overwhelmingly people voted for a lower
(22:16):
income tax. We'd like to do it again, but the
legislature passed a bill saying that if there's ever a
tax cut, you have to put this preamble on the
ballot that basically says this tax cut will hurt children,
throw little old ladies into the streets, and take away
(22:37):
people's wheelchairs. So they've been very good at making sure
we don't lower the income tax. The state legislature could
do it. Paulus says he wants to do it, but
he really hasn't made any effort to do it. The
Republicans have put in tax cut proposals through the legislature,
(23:00):
the governor has never gone to bat for them. Now
I know Jared. He does understand that a flat rate
income tax is the way to go, and lowering that
income tax often brings in more money. The idea is
illustrated what's known as the Laugher curve. Art Laugher explained
(23:23):
that when you lower taxes sometimes you get more tax revenue,
particularly when it comes to income tax. And this makes sense.
If your income tax rate was zero, how much would
government bring in in tax revenue from income tax? Zero?
(23:44):
All right, that makes sense. What if it was one
hundred percent, how much would government bring in? Art Laugher said, zero? Zero? Why?
Because no one would work all day to give one
hundred percent of their earnings to the government. There's no
(24:07):
incentive to work. Incentives matter, he said. If you make
it easier for people to be more productive, they're more
productive and they will make more money. And then you
will be able to get more in tax revenue by
lowering income tax rates and low and behold. When JFK
(24:31):
lowered income taxes, the government got more tax revenue. When
Reagan did it, we got more tax revenue. And Bush
did it, we got more tax revenue. And when Trump
version one point zero did it, the Feds brought in
more money. It's the same reason why stores lower prices
(24:54):
on items. They don't lower prices to get less money.
They lower price. This is to sell more of the product.
And even though marginally they might make less money on
each sale, the number of sales, the number of transactions
increase and they make a lot more money. We found
the same thing in Colorado. When we lower the income tax,
(25:19):
often we get more money. It brings more people into
the state. Rochelle writes in and says, I don't know
if you heard the guy from the Bell Policy Center
on the news the other night. No, I didn't. He
argued that businesses like Amazon are too big to leave
if taxes increase. He said, studies have shown that neither
businesses nor wealthy people actually leave the state. Are you high,
(25:46):
She writes, guess he hasn't heard of the large companies
that left California. He also stated that since federal government
blew a one point two billion dollar hole in our
state budget, these axes were needed. The federal government did
not blow a hole in the state budget during COVID governments.
(26:10):
State governments were showered with money that was just printed
out of thin air from the federal government, and instead
of realizing these were a short term thing, state governments,
like all governments, do what they do. They spend the
money on things that require even more spending. Not one time,
(26:35):
not one time, payments like building a road. No, they
put people on the dole. They increase unemployment, they increase
Medicaid enrollment, they increased things that require yet bigger spending
the next year. That's what Colorado did. Therefore, were in
(26:57):
a hole. That's not a surprise. Even the state government
a couple of years ago said we need to prepare
for when this money ends. They didn't do it. So
now they've got this budget hole they need to get
(27:19):
out of, and they're gonna say, oh no, it's the
one big beautiful Bill's fault. Hardly that deficit was structural
and they knew about it. Don't you get tired of
politicians lying the federal budget. The federal government didn't blow
a hole in the state budget. Federal government gave us
(27:41):
emergency money during COVID that our lawmakers got addicted to God.
They love to spend other people's money. So think of
all the businesses that have left California, and often they
go to Texas, they go to Tennessee, they go to Florida,
(28:08):
and people from Colorado have had enough become refugees and
go to Wyoming. All these places have something in common,
no income tax. I would love to see Colorado become
the next income tax free state. Income tax is one
(28:32):
of the most evil taxes. Why, because people need income
When you tax something. I know this is going to
come as a surprise to many progressives. When you tax something,
you get less of it. You tax things that you
don't like, and they go away. That's why the left
(28:56):
loves sin taxes, because they don't want us to smoke,
or drink or have a time. Apparently they don't want
us to They don't want us to make a living either.
If you love people, don't take away their money. Well, yes,
we need taxes, absolutely, we need taxes. That's why consumption
(29:22):
taxes are the best taxes. Consumption taxes, sales taxes, bat
taxes tax you on the stuff you consume, the stuff
you buy. Yeah, I understand you need to buy some
things to live, but you don't need to buy everything
(29:45):
to live. I would love to switch Colorado's income tax
to some sort of consumption tax. I'm not a big
fan of property taxes either. Why because once you buy
some thing, I figure you ought to be able to
keep it. You shouldn't have to pay a ransom to
keep things you have like your home. I mean I
(30:09):
get it. We have roads, we have sewage, we have
all these things services, fire departments to protect those homes.
So maybe maybe we tax those properties. The income tax
is the most evil of taxes. Why do we hate
(30:30):
the wealthy? Why do we hate the wealthy that come
here to Colorado, build businesses, employ people, invest in our state,
and pay taxes? Why do we hate them?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Why is it we vilify success in America? Now? I've
never understood that. If you could help me out with it,
I love it. Three or three seven one, three eight
two five five or grab a text for me. I'm
John kelderre I keep it right here. You're on six
point thirty k How John, I.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
Think it should be a Department of Weapons.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
Now down that way you can just walk around, say
let's get down tonight and knock her down. Hoo. We're
talking about the Department of Defense having its name changed
back to the Department of War. Yeah, the Army was
controlled by the Department of War, and I guess there
was a Department of Navy. They put them together after
(31:27):
World War Two. They actually have. Then the Air Force
got the Marines, and the Marines came out of the Navy.
I believe the Marines came out of the Navy, Do
I have that right? That sounds accurate, but don't quote
me on that one, right. And then the Navy also
has seals, and army has special forces, I think. And
(31:53):
then you also have, of course, the coast Guard, and
the coast Guard is kind of this odd hybrid of
military and police. And I'm glad we have this very
clear cut division between police, law enforcement, and military. And
(32:15):
that's why I'm concerned about when we get these things blurred.
I think Trump is blurring those. The idea is that
the military kills people and breaks things. That's their job,
and you send them off to do the job. Police, however,
(32:35):
do a very different job of enforcing laws, of catching
people and giving them their due process. There is no
due process in war. There are no search warrants in war.
There's no reading your miranda rights in war. War is when,
(32:57):
at all costs, you do everything you have to do
to win, and you break things and you do terrible stuff.
That's why it's two different skill sets. And the skill
set it takes to respect people, to follow the rule
of law, to respect individual rights and civil liberties is
(33:20):
not the same skill set as blowing crap up and
asking questions later. Two different worlds that should not get
mixed together. That's why only in emergencies do you have
martial law. Only in emergencies do you call in the
national guard. And there should be a pretty high standard
(33:44):
for doing that. So what would you call what would
you call the Department of Defense, the Department of Offense,
the Department of back the hell off Apartment of Oh
you don't want to be on our bad side. You
(34:04):
want to get that image across. You want to make
sure that people understand that around the world that you,
whatever country you have, have the most effective, most deadly,
most mean, most brutal department of war there is. That's
that's the idea, so that you never have to use it. Hey,
(34:29):
check out Independence Institute. Will you go to Thinkfreedom dot org.
That's a little organization I run. Sign up for my newsletter.
At the very least, you and I can stay in contact.
I'll send you someone once a week and I won't spam.
They promise. Go to Complete Colorado dot com every day
for all news and views, and by all means keep
it right here. You're on khow
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com