May 22, 2025 • 26 mins
(May 22, 2025)
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passes House. The Eaton and Palisades fire area’s next potential health issue… MOSQUITIOS. Veterinary students are in high demand despite huge school debt and alarming suicide rate.
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passes House. The Eaton and Palisades fire area’s next potential health issue… MOSQUITIOS. Veterinary students are in high demand despite huge school debt and alarming suicide rate.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, and this is KFI Bill Handles Morning Crew.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
It is a Thursday morning, May twenty two, and a
big couple of stories we're looking at in Washington, d C.
The Jewish Museum. There were two staffers that were walking
out of an event, a man and a woman who
were gunned down, killed by a man of Hispanic at
(00:33):
least his name was Hispanic. He was arrested and yelled free,
Free Palestine as he was being dragged off. Just a
horrible situation. And a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway
is set to reopen tomorrow, at least temporarily before the
next rock cascade comes down, you know, in the next
avalanche of rocks.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So it'll be a few days now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yesterday, actually early this morning, after all all night session
of debate, the Big Beautiful Bill passed past the House
of Representatives. It's a thousand pages. It was originally to
be named Joe Biden was the worst president in the
history of United States. Thank god we have Donald Trump
(01:16):
and passed the Big Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Bill Act. Okay, don't you love the name?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Usually its names like what tax Saving Act of nineteen
or twenty twenty five, or.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Is something I've never quite heard of, the big beautiful bill.
Why not?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
In any case, it was past about seven am Eastern time,
two hundred and fifteen to two hundred and fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Is that close enough?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
And the fight was not so much with the Democrats
saying this is too much for border security and the
defense and not nearly enough for social programs, which cut
like crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It was. The fight was with Republicans.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That wanted more cuts to social security and or sociality
wasn't cut, but more cuts to social programs.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So let's start with a couple of things that the
bill does. Student loans.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It abolishes most student loan repayment plans. Now gives bars
two options or actually three options for paying off their loans,
one a standard repayment plan or a new plan based
on annual income. Or the third option, you can go
to debtors prison. Welcome to America. The bill also imposes
limits and restrictions on new loans and pell grants. Pell
(02:42):
grants being federal grants to people to students who have
no money and ask for financial assistance and get it again,
social programs that the Democrats love, and the Republicans hate,
and therein lies the entire issue. We are so polarized.
Here's the way the Republicans work. Social programs are a no. No.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Tax breaks are a yes.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Anything we can do to help business at the expense
of anything else we're going to do, and of course
border security is the end all be all, as well
as defense spending.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Democrats are exactly the opposite.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Social programs, yes, heavy taxation, not particularly friendly to business,
certainly not friendly to the wealthy. It's not even a
question of you have to pay your fair share. It's
a question of you have too much. We'll tell you
(03:46):
how much money you can have. Welcome to the world
of politics. Tax cuts big, big part of the budget bill,
more than five trillion dollars in ten tax cuts, and
part of it is the two hundred and seventeen tax
cuts that were passed his on during Trump's first term
(04:09):
are now permanent. And here's the way it is being described.
Two thirds of Americans would pay less tax in twenty
twenty seven, twenty five percent would see no changes, five
percent would pay more, which sort of seems to be
part of the wealthy pay more taxes. But when you
(04:31):
talk about on the surface. Oh, this is pro worker,
this is pro social programs.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Now you've got a temporary increase of five hundred dollars
to the child tax credit, temporary two thousand boosts to
the standard deduction, and it would raise the estate tax
exemption to fifteen million dollars. Right now it's eleven million dollars.
What does that mean? You die and you and you
hand down or you inherit eleven million dollars you don't
(04:59):
pay a state. Now that's going to go up to
fifteen million dollars, which is virtually everybody, not too many
people inherit fifteen million.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Dollars or more.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Also, the one that I find fascinating the no tax
on tips provision, And this is what Trump campaigned on.
This I don't understand because let me ask you a question.
If your job entails mainly tips that is the majority
of your income, which in the service industry is much
(05:30):
the case, you're basically not taxed.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You're taxed on minimum wage.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And what kind of tax do you think you pay
on minimum wage?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And if you're working in a high end or medium
end restaurant and it's all tax you know, you're out
of tax and man, that is less money coming to
the government in a big, big way. Also, over time,
you're not taxed on overtime. Again, that's just a different
(06:06):
way to go.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now. It was really close.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
The President actually went to Capitol Hill, which almost never happens,
met with the entire Republican caucus, which might met with everybody,
but met with all the Republicans and sat down or
stood up in front of him for an hour and
pushed and pushed for his bill because there were some
holdouts to say, it hasn't gone far enough, because we're
(06:33):
still in defits at spending and you're still under this
bill going to add several trillion dollars to the national
debt over the next several years.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And Trump just said.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Really clearly, if you don't vote for this bill, it
is a betrayal and you won't be a Republican much longer,
which is not even code. It just says I'm going
to primary you out. You're gonna lose your seat. I've
never heard of a president having that much power over
(07:08):
a party and wielding that much party, that much power
over a party, which is why the Republican Party is
defined as the Trump Party, and it is he gets
whatever he wants. Mike Johnson, who is the Speaker of
the House, he does not control the House to whatever
extent he does. He is not part of the House
(07:29):
of Representatives. He is simply a representative of Donald Trump.
And his job is to push anything through the House,
which is what he did here. And the bill was
passed this morning. And one of them is being portrayed
as a cut to medicaid, one of the new provisions.
It really isn't a cut to medicaid. What it is
(07:52):
is making it more difficult to get medicaid. And this
is medical care. If you are too poor to insurance
and you have none, it is a program. The state
has a program medical and it's a federal program, Medicaid.
And here is what the government, this bill now is
demanding that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You either work or look for work.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And if you're not, you ain't gonna get medicaid. And
who gets nailed the worst California.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
By a long shot.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Eighteen percent of California population is on medicaid.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I mean it is nuts. Now.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Is there a lot of waste? Is there a lot
of fraud? You know, my guess is yes. And there
hasn't been a really good job of overseeing Medicaid and
other programs. And this is where the Trump administration is going, Hey,
let's take care of this and look at it. The
problem is is if you have a hardcore Republican, all
social problem programs are waste and fraud. Poor people should
(09:02):
be on their own because we have opportunities in this
country and pull yourself by bootstraps. And if you get
governmental aid, that's something horrible and it's just a philosophy.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I mean it is. I mean some people think that way.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So everyone eligible under the new work requirements were to apply,
If everyone eligible were to apply and receive coverage, the
cost savings would be minimal. I mean they're talking about
trillions of dollars of cost savings. Well, the way they're
going to have trillions of dollars you just to make
it more difficult, there has to be a reporting where
(09:36):
have you applied to work?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What have you done?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
We need proof and we're talking about really poor people
who are not really good at filling out paperwork or
dealing with a bureaucracy. So I believe the plan is
the cut is going to be because fewer and fewer
people will be able to follow the rules right now,
all basically all you have to do is apply. I
(10:03):
don't know what the restrictions are, but they're far less
than what the new restrictions would be.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now are there exceptions all over the place.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
There always are parents caring for young kids or elderly parents,
people dealing with health issues, those.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Between jobs, as long as you're looking for work.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
And the problem is Medicaid recipients may fall below even.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
The proposed hourly requirement.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I mean, if you are working but you're not making
enough money.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You apply and you are exempted.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
And the problem is is that in terms of social programs,
California is on top of the heap. We just are
a state that believes in social programs. Consider the most
liberal state. It's that simple. EPA rules are rolled back.
Education programs, housing programs rolled back because there's just so
(11:03):
much waste and fraud. It's almost as if the Republicans
believe that social programs per se are riddled with fraud
and waste. I have not heard of waste and fraud
in the border security issue. That doesn't exist in the
in the defense sector with a nine hundred billion dollar budget,
(11:27):
no fraud no waste. I haven't heard much about it,
but when it comes to social programs all over the place.
And now keep in mind and this I always say
this for liberals and those who believe in social programs. Hey,
we the United States voted someone who said, that's exactly
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
No pitching, no complaining.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
You don't like it, move to a country that has
an autocratic government that believes in social programs. Move to Europe,
Go to Scandinavia, go to Finland. You know, why not
go to Sweden. Boy, you're gonna get all the social
programs you could ever want. So we're gonna see what happens.
(12:13):
And what's gonna happen is, by the way, a thousand pages.
Does anybody ever read a thousand pages? Do you think
any one?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh, come on, kono, any.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
One legislature reads one thousand pages of a new bill?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
How about the budget of the United States? Have you
ever seen that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
These are volumes that are four or five inches thick
and there are a dozen of them, and that's the
budget of the United States, like twenty thousand pages or thing.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It's just completely crazy, all right.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I don't know if you're one of those people that
believe every life of every kind is sacrisanct.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You know, God created life, therefore life is holy.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, get a mosquito bite and die of dang fever
and tell me how sacrisanct life is, would you please.
And herein lies the story of mosquito control and the
Palisades and Eaten fires. Look at your tax bill, your
property tax bill, and you will see, of course you
(13:17):
have the big taxes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And then you have all the other taxes, and all
the other fees are not taxes.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
One of those mosquito control, the Mosquito Control District, mosquito
Control vector. And what that does is, strangely enough, control mosquitoes.
And it you know, it has trucks and goes around
and has people that check out stagnant water. You know,
your swimming pool, for example, waters in chains the filter
isn't working and it's turning brown and green, and you
(13:43):
know that's a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed and
to thrive and to spread all these fun diseases. And
what's going on is that in the Eaton and Palisades fire,
you've got a lot of swimming.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Pools that were affected.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Swimming pools don't burn down. What burns down are filter systems,
cleaning systems. You people don't come to clean your pool.
I've got a guy once a week comes out and
cleans my pool. Not well, but then I got a
great price, So that works out. And the ashen debris
(14:22):
that have come to these places, and it's perfect. What
a breeding ground for the two major mosquitos they'd hear
in southern California. One gives you Dngey fever and one
gives you West Nile fever. And if you pull the lottery,
you pull the brass ring, you get both, which is
always a lot of fun. And so you have the
(14:44):
Mosquito Control District and they don't have enough money to
do what they want to do, and they have asked
the state to come up with money in the county
to come up with money, and they have about half
of what is needed. And people are scrambling. And let
me tell you what the numb members are. You know,
for example, in the San Gabriel District, district officials that
(15:07):
spend three hundred and seven thousand dollars that's it to
apply a pesticide treatment to about half of the fourteen
hundred or fifteen hundred effected.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Pools, and they want that.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I want twice as much because the way mosquito control
works is there are several treatments. You do it once,
then you come back a few months later, you do
it again, and then you come back a few months later,
you do it again, and there isn't enough money, but
it's in the hundreds.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Of thousands of dollars. That's the part that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I mean, I understand, as long as I'm not dying
or a loved one isn't dying, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I'm not particularly affected.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
But even I who don't care about you rite or
care about human beings for a few hundred thousand dollars
of governmental money, for God's sake, come on, you know,
I mean, it's pretty horrible diseases. Now, there aren't many
in the various counties that we're talking about. In southern California,
we're talking dozens of people who have gotten dangay in
(16:10):
West Nile, and a couple of people have died, but
that was relative to a couple of years ago when
it was the zero or one person had it. So
this is one of those issues where I mean, we're
not talking billions and billions of dollars. We're talking about
hundreds of thousands, and they're moving towards it, but not
(16:31):
quickly enough because the mosquitoes breed and they go and
they don't. It doesn't take long for stagnant water for
a mosquito to breed, and the little larvae come up
and then they come dancing out, and all of a sudden,
you have three million of them off enough standing water
that's literally in a capful a soda cap, you know,
a screw off cap.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Okay, quick factoid, Neil, this is for you. Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Walter Reed Medical Center and mosquito control, how do they connect?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Do doo doo doo doo doo do no clue?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Walter Reed was an army official who discovered a mosquito
control putting oil on surfaces, and he saved countless lives
because that was the understanding of how mosquito's bred.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And Walter Reed Medical Center is named after him.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Wow, no, there, you got impressive.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, I just made that up, by the way.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Uh, actually, you know more impressive.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, I know, you know what. I don't know if
I'm right or not on that. Hey Siri, Oh my god,
who was Walter reed.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
US Army physician UH nineteen oh one led the team
to confirm the theory of Cuban doctors Carlos Finley that
yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, and
was able to control it with oil on the surface. Damn,
I'm telling you my impressed me.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
If anybody loves animals, which I do, I have a
couple of dogs, and I just had one of my
dogs it was eaten for breakfast by coyote a few
months ago, and it was a heartbreaker. I mean, putting
down a dog is absolutely no fun. I don't know
if you've ever done it, but you know, especially if
(18:23):
you're holding on and looking and you know, as the
drugs going in.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The dog is looking at you, and you know she
was saying no, no, please do.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
It's really difficult. It is so here is the problem
is that there are too many dogs that are being
given up by people because during the pandemic so many
people adopted dogs from shelters, and shelters for the most part,
are no kill shelters now because there's a whole different
way of thinking. And not only is there not enough food,
(18:58):
so donations, donate.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Food all the time to our local shelter.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Their shelters are super crowded, and one of the things
that's not being talked enough about is they don't have
any veterinary care, or not nearly enough. Veterinarians who work
in private practice make buckets of money. Well, veterinarians are
(19:23):
needed at shelters and there aren't anywhere near the number.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And why is that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Well, for plenty of people want to go into veterinary care,
there's no question about it. Problem is there are very
few veterinary schools out there relative to medical schools. And
all the veterinary at least the ones I've talked to
the people of the schools, and the people who want
to become vets or who are vets for some reason,
(19:50):
they all want to be equine veterinarians working with race
horses at race tracks. Making eight hundred thousand dollars a year.
That seems to be sort of the holy grail. Well,
if you've ever been to a vet, and it is,
I mean, the money is insane what it costs. When
my little Gucci was eaten by the coyote, she survived
(20:14):
and we took her to the vet and surgery and
it was I think six thousand dollars and didn't heal completely.
She needed a second operation because it was far worse,
and the vet said this will be seventeen thousand dollars.
And I literally at that point turned to Lindsay and said,
(20:38):
she's gonna die.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That's it. That dog is dying.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean, there's no question if you think I'm going
to pop for seventeen grand for a dog, I wouldn't
pop for seventeen rand out of pocket for one of
my kids, much less a dog. And there aren't enough
vets out there, and the veterinary schools aren't producing as many,
and it is so difficult to get.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Into veterinary school.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So The Only Times did a story about a fourth
year VET student, Alexandra Ponky, and as her last day
as a student, she did the primary the role of
primary surgeon to spay a dog and remove the ovaries.
I got my little one that to.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Replace a little Gucci.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So I got this little the izzy, little brown chocolate
e Doxy who has to be spaid and now and
it goes and I'm sure I'm going to get some
veterinary student who does this because you know, vets make a.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Whole lot more money doing primary surgery.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So and the way it works is she goes in
as the primary surgeon and then the next day she's
not the primary someone.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Else and she assists. And it is expensive and it's
four years.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Effectively, it's medical school, except it's vet school. And it's
weird stuff because human doctors are doctors who treat humans.
It's humans, that's basically what they know. You know, you're
a veterinary surgeon. What the hell do you know about
the inside of a parakeet or a gerbil? Because people
(22:16):
are crazy enough to have their gerbils operated on. So
it is not easy. It is a bucket of money.
I know there's insurance which I now have, which helps.
The other thing about vets, which is really strange.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I want to end it with this one.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Okay, there was a twenty nineteen study by the Centers
for Disease Control and talked about vets, and this one
is strange.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What would you think?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And I'm gonna and you're never gonna guess this, Neil,
what do you think is the one weird thing about vets?
If you could come up with some reason, what do
you mean just in general. I mean, that's just a
subord question because yeah, it's stupid question because it's too
broad and it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
So I'm going to just throw it at you.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
One of the more interesting factoids about vets is, uh,
they commit suicide at four times the rate of the population. Really, yes, yes, no,
it's a quote more than Dennis.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Why is that that's so?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I mean, I would think it would be rewarding to work.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You would think so, you would think so maybe and
it is. This is the CDC wrote a report. They
didn't say why. They just said that it happens.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Maybe it's because they have to euthanize so many pets.
Maybe it's depressing.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, maybe that part of it is Like when I, uh,
years and years ago, I had to you know, I
told that story of euthanizing Suki, uh, my parents dog
that I had. I love that little dog, and they
wouldn't and she needed to be euthanized.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
She was dying of cancer.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And people keep their dogs way more than they should,
very reluctant to put down their dogs. And I took
Suki to the vet, literally in the vet. Wanted to
say that vet said, do you want to hold her
as we put her down, and I said, yes I would,
and I so was holding a little suki and you know,
she's looking right at me as she closed her eyes.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It was very moving.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And then the VET said, do you want us to
take care of her? Do you want to take her home?
I said, literally, I'm not exaggerating now, I'm not kidding.
I looked at the vet and said, what am I
going to do with a dead dog?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay, yeah, but you'd think that intellectually they're scientists, you know,
you're dead dogs? No, but veterinarians, and.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
So, I don't know. I don't know why. I think
Amy has it.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I think Amy called it, and that is because so
often dogs are euthanized. And when the seventeen just get
seventeen thousand dollars, I was told by the vet for
the second operation, which there was no chance after spending
six thousand on the first one, I said, what do
you do when the owners just say I can't afford
(25:11):
it even two thousand, even five thousand dollars? What do
they do when they can't afford it? You know, there's
no medicaid, there's no governmental program. That just doesn't exist.
And she looked at me and said, we euthanize the dogs.
Dogs that could easily be cured with some kind of
(25:34):
surgery or some kind of treatment, and the people just don't.
They just don't have the money, so she says, we
euthanize them. I can see the depression there. I think, Amy,
I think you called it all right, coming up, Joel Larsgard.
Interesting fact, isn't it, by the way, true story with
little Suki. But I've told you that story before, Will
I don't think heard that story before.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Heart of Gold, dead dog. Don't know what they did
with the dead dog.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
However, you did bring your parents home after you had
them euthanized.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Uh, yeah, No, I'm not one of those people that
bring parents home in like boxes. I'm really not. That's
the whole world unto itself. You know on the mantel,
you know, a little cigar boxes right filled with parents.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
No, I don't do that. KF I am six forty.
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Yeah, and this is KFI Bill Handles Morning Crew.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
It is a Thursday morning, May twenty two, and a
big couple of stories we're looking at in Washington, d C.
The Jewish Museum. There were two staffers that were walking
out of an event, a man and a woman who
were gunned down, killed by a man of Hispanic at
(00:33):
least his name was Hispanic. He was arrested and yelled free,
Free Palestine as he was being dragged off. Just a
horrible situation. And a stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway
is set to reopen tomorrow, at least temporarily before the
next rock cascade comes down, you know, in the next
avalanche of rocks.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So it'll be a few days now.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yesterday, actually early this morning, after all all night session
of debate, the Big Beautiful Bill passed past the House
of Representatives. It's a thousand pages. It was originally to
be named Joe Biden was the worst president in the
history of United States. Thank god we have Donald Trump
(01:16):
and passed the Big Beautiful.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Bill Act. Okay, don't you love the name?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Usually its names like what tax Saving Act of nineteen
or twenty twenty five, or.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Is something I've never quite heard of, the big beautiful bill.
Why not?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
In any case, it was past about seven am Eastern time,
two hundred and fifteen to two hundred and fourteen.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Is that close enough?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
And the fight was not so much with the Democrats
saying this is too much for border security and the
defense and not nearly enough for social programs, which cut
like crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
It was. The fight was with Republicans.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
That wanted more cuts to social security and or sociality
wasn't cut, but more cuts to social programs.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
So let's start with a couple of things that the
bill does. Student loans.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It abolishes most student loan repayment plans. Now gives bars
two options or actually three options for paying off their loans,
one a standard repayment plan or a new plan based
on annual income. Or the third option, you can go
to debtors prison. Welcome to America. The bill also imposes
limits and restrictions on new loans and pell grants. Pell
(02:42):
grants being federal grants to people to students who have
no money and ask for financial assistance and get it again,
social programs that the Democrats love, and the Republicans hate,
and therein lies the entire issue. We are so polarized.
Here's the way the Republicans work. Social programs are a no. No.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Tax breaks are a yes.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Anything we can do to help business at the expense
of anything else we're going to do, and of course
border security is the end all be all, as well
as defense spending.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Democrats are exactly the opposite.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Social programs, yes, heavy taxation, not particularly friendly to business,
certainly not friendly to the wealthy. It's not even a
question of you have to pay your fair share. It's
a question of you have too much. We'll tell you
(03:46):
how much money you can have. Welcome to the world
of politics. Tax cuts big, big part of the budget bill,
more than five trillion dollars in ten tax cuts, and
part of it is the two hundred and seventeen tax
cuts that were passed his on during Trump's first term
(04:09):
are now permanent. And here's the way it is being described.
Two thirds of Americans would pay less tax in twenty
twenty seven, twenty five percent would see no changes, five
percent would pay more, which sort of seems to be
part of the wealthy pay more taxes. But when you
(04:31):
talk about on the surface. Oh, this is pro worker,
this is pro social programs.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Now you've got a temporary increase of five hundred dollars
to the child tax credit, temporary two thousand boosts to
the standard deduction, and it would raise the estate tax
exemption to fifteen million dollars. Right now it's eleven million dollars.
What does that mean? You die and you and you
hand down or you inherit eleven million dollars you don't
(04:59):
pay a state. Now that's going to go up to
fifteen million dollars, which is virtually everybody, not too many
people inherit fifteen million.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Dollars or more.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Also, the one that I find fascinating the no tax
on tips provision, And this is what Trump campaigned on.
This I don't understand because let me ask you a question.
If your job entails mainly tips that is the majority
of your income, which in the service industry is much
(05:30):
the case, you're basically not taxed.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
You're taxed on minimum wage.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
And what kind of tax do you think you pay
on minimum wage?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (05:45):
And if you're working in a high end or medium
end restaurant and it's all tax you know, you're out
of tax and man, that is less money coming to
the government in a big, big way. Also, over time,
you're not taxed on overtime. Again, that's just a different
(06:06):
way to go.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now. It was really close.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
The President actually went to Capitol Hill, which almost never happens,
met with the entire Republican caucus, which might met with everybody,
but met with all the Republicans and sat down or
stood up in front of him for an hour and
pushed and pushed for his bill because there were some
holdouts to say, it hasn't gone far enough, because we're
(06:33):
still in defits at spending and you're still under this
bill going to add several trillion dollars to the national
debt over the next several years.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And Trump just said.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Really clearly, if you don't vote for this bill, it
is a betrayal and you won't be a Republican much longer,
which is not even code. It just says I'm going
to primary you out. You're gonna lose your seat. I've
never heard of a president having that much power over
(07:08):
a party and wielding that much party, that much power
over a party, which is why the Republican Party is
defined as the Trump Party, and it is he gets
whatever he wants. Mike Johnson, who is the Speaker of
the House, he does not control the House to whatever
extent he does. He is not part of the House
(07:29):
of Representatives. He is simply a representative of Donald Trump.
And his job is to push anything through the House,
which is what he did here. And the bill was
passed this morning. And one of them is being portrayed
as a cut to medicaid, one of the new provisions.
It really isn't a cut to medicaid. What it is
(07:52):
is making it more difficult to get medicaid. And this
is medical care. If you are too poor to insurance
and you have none, it is a program. The state
has a program medical and it's a federal program, Medicaid.
And here is what the government, this bill now is
demanding that.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
You either work or look for work.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
And if you're not, you ain't gonna get medicaid. And
who gets nailed the worst California.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
By a long shot.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Eighteen percent of California population is on medicaid.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I mean it is nuts. Now.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Is there a lot of waste? Is there a lot
of fraud? You know, my guess is yes. And there
hasn't been a really good job of overseeing Medicaid and
other programs. And this is where the Trump administration is going, Hey,
let's take care of this and look at it. The
problem is is if you have a hardcore Republican, all
social problem programs are waste and fraud. Poor people should
(09:02):
be on their own because we have opportunities in this
country and pull yourself by bootstraps. And if you get
governmental aid, that's something horrible and it's just a philosophy.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
I mean it is. I mean some people think that way.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
So everyone eligible under the new work requirements were to apply,
If everyone eligible were to apply and receive coverage, the
cost savings would be minimal. I mean they're talking about
trillions of dollars of cost savings. Well, the way they're
going to have trillions of dollars you just to make
it more difficult, there has to be a reporting where
(09:36):
have you applied to work?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What have you done?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
We need proof and we're talking about really poor people
who are not really good at filling out paperwork or
dealing with a bureaucracy. So I believe the plan is
the cut is going to be because fewer and fewer
people will be able to follow the rules right now,
all basically all you have to do is apply. I
(10:03):
don't know what the restrictions are, but they're far less
than what the new restrictions would be.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Now are there exceptions all over the place.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
There always are parents caring for young kids or elderly parents,
people dealing with health issues, those.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Between jobs, as long as you're looking for work.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
And the problem is Medicaid recipients may fall below even.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
The proposed hourly requirement.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
I mean, if you are working but you're not making
enough money.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
You apply and you are exempted.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
And the problem is is that in terms of social programs,
California is on top of the heap. We just are
a state that believes in social programs. Consider the most
liberal state. It's that simple. EPA rules are rolled back.
Education programs, housing programs rolled back because there's just so
(11:03):
much waste and fraud. It's almost as if the Republicans
believe that social programs per se are riddled with fraud
and waste. I have not heard of waste and fraud
in the border security issue. That doesn't exist in the
in the defense sector with a nine hundred billion dollar budget,
(11:27):
no fraud no waste. I haven't heard much about it,
but when it comes to social programs all over the place.
And now keep in mind and this I always say
this for liberals and those who believe in social programs. Hey,
we the United States voted someone who said, that's exactly
what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
No pitching, no complaining.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
You don't like it, move to a country that has
an autocratic government that believes in social programs. Move to Europe,
Go to Scandinavia, go to Finland. You know, why not
go to Sweden. Boy, you're gonna get all the social
programs you could ever want. So we're gonna see what happens.
(12:13):
And what's gonna happen is, by the way, a thousand pages.
Does anybody ever read a thousand pages? Do you think
any one?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Oh, come on, kono, any.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
One legislature reads one thousand pages of a new bill?
Speaker 2 (12:28):
How about the budget of the United States? Have you
ever seen that?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
These are volumes that are four or five inches thick
and there are a dozen of them, and that's the
budget of the United States, like twenty thousand pages or thing.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
It's just completely crazy, all right.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
I don't know if you're one of those people that
believe every life of every kind is sacrisanct.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You know, God created life, therefore life is holy.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Yeah, get a mosquito bite and die of dang fever
and tell me how sacrisanct life is, would you please.
And herein lies the story of mosquito control and the
Palisades and Eaten fires. Look at your tax bill, your
property tax bill, and you will see, of course you
(13:17):
have the big taxes.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
And then you have all the other taxes, and all
the other fees are not taxes.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
One of those mosquito control, the Mosquito Control District, mosquito
Control vector. And what that does is, strangely enough, control mosquitoes.
And it you know, it has trucks and goes around
and has people that check out stagnant water. You know,
your swimming pool, for example, waters in chains the filter
isn't working and it's turning brown and green, and you
(13:43):
know that's a perfect place for mosquitoes to breed and
to thrive and to spread all these fun diseases. And
what's going on is that in the Eaton and Palisades fire,
you've got a lot of swimming.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Pools that were affected.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Swimming pools don't burn down. What burns down are filter systems,
cleaning systems. You people don't come to clean your pool.
I've got a guy once a week comes out and
cleans my pool. Not well, but then I got a
great price, So that works out. And the ashen debris
(14:22):
that have come to these places, and it's perfect. What
a breeding ground for the two major mosquitos they'd hear
in southern California. One gives you Dngey fever and one
gives you West Nile fever. And if you pull the lottery,
you pull the brass ring, you get both, which is
always a lot of fun. And so you have the
(14:44):
Mosquito Control District and they don't have enough money to
do what they want to do, and they have asked
the state to come up with money in the county
to come up with money, and they have about half
of what is needed. And people are scrambling. And let
me tell you what the numb members are. You know,
for example, in the San Gabriel District, district officials that
(15:07):
spend three hundred and seven thousand dollars that's it to
apply a pesticide treatment to about half of the fourteen
hundred or fifteen hundred effected.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Pools, and they want that.
Speaker 3 (15:19):
I want twice as much because the way mosquito control
works is there are several treatments. You do it once,
then you come back a few months later, you do
it again, and then you come back a few months later,
you do it again, and there isn't enough money, but
it's in the hundreds.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Of thousands of dollars. That's the part that's crazy.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
I mean, I understand, as long as I'm not dying
or a loved one isn't dying, I get it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
I'm not particularly affected.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
But even I who don't care about you rite or
care about human beings for a few hundred thousand dollars
of governmental money, for God's sake, come on, you know,
I mean, it's pretty horrible diseases. Now, there aren't many
in the various counties that we're talking about. In southern California,
we're talking dozens of people who have gotten dangay in
(16:10):
West Nile, and a couple of people have died, but
that was relative to a couple of years ago when
it was the zero or one person had it. So
this is one of those issues where I mean, we're
not talking billions and billions of dollars. We're talking about
hundreds of thousands, and they're moving towards it, but not
(16:31):
quickly enough because the mosquitoes breed and they go and
they don't. It doesn't take long for stagnant water for
a mosquito to breed, and the little larvae come up
and then they come dancing out, and all of a sudden,
you have three million of them off enough standing water
that's literally in a capful a soda cap, you know,
a screw off cap.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Okay, quick factoid, Neil, this is for you. Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
Walter Reed Medical Center and mosquito control, how do they connect?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Do doo doo doo doo doo do no clue?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Walter Reed was an army official who discovered a mosquito
control putting oil on surfaces, and he saved countless lives
because that was the understanding of how mosquito's bred.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
And Walter Reed Medical Center is named after him.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Wow, no, there, you got impressive.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, I just made that up, by the way.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
Uh, actually, you know more impressive.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah, I know, you know what. I don't know if
I'm right or not on that. Hey Siri, Oh my god,
who was Walter reed.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
US Army physician UH nineteen oh one led the team
to confirm the theory of Cuban doctors Carlos Finley that
yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito species, and
was able to control it with oil on the surface. Damn,
I'm telling you my impressed me.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
All right.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
If anybody loves animals, which I do, I have a
couple of dogs, and I just had one of my
dogs it was eaten for breakfast by coyote a few
months ago, and it was a heartbreaker. I mean, putting
down a dog is absolutely no fun. I don't know
if you've ever done it, but you know, especially if
(18:23):
you're holding on and looking and you know, as the
drugs going in.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The dog is looking at you, and you know she
was saying no, no, please do.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
It's really difficult. It is so here is the problem
is that there are too many dogs that are being
given up by people because during the pandemic so many
people adopted dogs from shelters, and shelters for the most part,
are no kill shelters now because there's a whole different
way of thinking. And not only is there not enough food,
(18:58):
so donations, donate.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Food all the time to our local shelter.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Their shelters are super crowded, and one of the things
that's not being talked enough about is they don't have
any veterinary care, or not nearly enough. Veterinarians who work
in private practice make buckets of money. Well, veterinarians are
(19:23):
needed at shelters and there aren't anywhere near the number.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
And why is that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Well, for plenty of people want to go into veterinary care,
there's no question about it. Problem is there are very
few veterinary schools out there relative to medical schools. And
all the veterinary at least the ones I've talked to
the people of the schools, and the people who want
to become vets or who are vets for some reason,
(19:50):
they all want to be equine veterinarians working with race
horses at race tracks. Making eight hundred thousand dollars a year.
That seems to be sort of the holy grail. Well,
if you've ever been to a vet, and it is,
I mean, the money is insane what it costs. When
my little Gucci was eaten by the coyote, she survived
(20:14):
and we took her to the vet and surgery and
it was I think six thousand dollars and didn't heal completely.
She needed a second operation because it was far worse,
and the vet said this will be seventeen thousand dollars.
And I literally at that point turned to Lindsay and said,
(20:38):
she's gonna die.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
That's it. That dog is dying.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I mean, there's no question if you think I'm going
to pop for seventeen grand for a dog, I wouldn't
pop for seventeen rand out of pocket for one of
my kids, much less a dog. And there aren't enough
vets out there, and the veterinary schools aren't producing as many,
and it is so difficult to get.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Into veterinary school.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So The Only Times did a story about a fourth
year VET student, Alexandra Ponky, and as her last day
as a student, she did the primary the role of
primary surgeon to spay a dog and remove the ovaries.
I got my little one that to.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Replace a little Gucci.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
So I got this little the izzy, little brown chocolate
e Doxy who has to be spaid and now and
it goes and I'm sure I'm going to get some
veterinary student who does this because you know, vets make a.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Whole lot more money doing primary surgery.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
So and the way it works is she goes in
as the primary surgeon and then the next day she's
not the primary someone.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Else and she assists. And it is expensive and it's
four years.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Effectively, it's medical school, except it's vet school. And it's
weird stuff because human doctors are doctors who treat humans.
It's humans, that's basically what they know. You know, you're
a veterinary surgeon. What the hell do you know about
the inside of a parakeet or a gerbil? Because people
(22:16):
are crazy enough to have their gerbils operated on. So
it is not easy. It is a bucket of money.
I know there's insurance which I now have, which helps.
The other thing about vets, which is really strange.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
I want to end it with this one.
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Okay, there was a twenty nineteen study by the Centers
for Disease Control and talked about vets, and this one
is strange.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
What would you think?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And I'm gonna and you're never gonna guess this, Neil,
what do you think is the one weird thing about vets?
If you could come up with some reason, what do
you mean just in general. I mean, that's just a
subord question because yeah, it's stupid question because it's too
broad and it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
So I'm going to just throw it at you.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
One of the more interesting factoids about vets is, uh,
they commit suicide at four times the rate of the population. Really, yes, yes, no,
it's a quote more than Dennis.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Why is that that's so?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
I mean, I would think it would be rewarding to work.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
You would think so, you would think so maybe and
it is. This is the CDC wrote a report. They
didn't say why. They just said that it happens.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Maybe it's because they have to euthanize so many pets.
Maybe it's depressing.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yeah, maybe that part of it is Like when I, uh,
years and years ago, I had to you know, I
told that story of euthanizing Suki, uh, my parents dog
that I had. I love that little dog, and they
wouldn't and she needed to be euthanized.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
She was dying of cancer.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
And people keep their dogs way more than they should,
very reluctant to put down their dogs. And I took
Suki to the vet, literally in the vet. Wanted to
say that vet said, do you want to hold her
as we put her down, and I said, yes I would,
and I so was holding a little suki and you know,
she's looking right at me as she closed her eyes.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It was very moving.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
And then the VET said, do you want us to
take care of her? Do you want to take her home?
I said, literally, I'm not exaggerating now, I'm not kidding.
I looked at the vet and said, what am I
going to do with a dead dog?
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Okay, yeah, but you'd think that intellectually they're scientists, you know,
you're dead dogs? No, but veterinarians, and.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
So, I don't know. I don't know why. I think
Amy has it.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
I think Amy called it, and that is because so
often dogs are euthanized. And when the seventeen just get
seventeen thousand dollars, I was told by the vet for
the second operation, which there was no chance after spending
six thousand on the first one, I said, what do
you do when the owners just say I can't afford
(25:11):
it even two thousand, even five thousand dollars? What do
they do when they can't afford it? You know, there's
no medicaid, there's no governmental program. That just doesn't exist.
And she looked at me and said, we euthanize the dogs.
Dogs that could easily be cured with some kind of
(25:34):
surgery or some kind of treatment, and the people just don't.
They just don't have the money, so she says, we
euthanize them. I can see the depression there. I think, Amy,
I think you called it all right, coming up, Joel Larsgard.
Interesting fact, isn't it, by the way, true story with
little Suki. But I've told you that story before, Will
I don't think heard that story before.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Heart of Gold, dead dog. Don't know what they did
with the dead dog.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
However, you did bring your parents home after you had
them euthanized.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Uh, yeah, No, I'm not one of those people that
bring parents home in like boxes. I'm really not. That's
the whole world unto itself. You know on the mantel,
you know, a little cigar boxes right filled with parents.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
No, I don't do that. KF I am six forty.
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Catch my show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app
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