May 27, 2025 • 23 mins
(May 27,2025)
Trump administration cancels FEMA earthquake retrofit grants. Immigration is the only thing propping up California’s population. Buying 100% American is really, really hard. So, what happens to America’s 114 billion pennies once the US stops making them.
Trump administration cancels FEMA earthquake retrofit grants. Immigration is the only thing propping up California’s population. Buying 100% American is really, really hard. So, what happens to America’s 114 billion pennies once the US stops making them.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty Bill Handle Here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Tuesday Taco Tuesday, May twenty seventh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Do anybody have tacos anymore? Actually? I had tacos last night,
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Okay, coming up, Oh hold on, man, I've got it.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Ah, sorry, coming out to eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm gonna talk about what happened yesterday in Jerusalem with
a parade and some thoughts that I want to share
with you about what's going on. And it's taken from
my eyes seen through a family that that perished in
the Holocaust, and it's I'm devastated about what's going on
(00:48):
in Israel right now as well as in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Certainly. Okay, let's move to California. Well, let's move to California.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
That's where we've But in terms of the topic, one
of the things that's so delightful about California that people
moved to californiaarticularly southern California, is the chance and our.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
History of earthquakes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You no, he sort of just liked being shaken around,
right if you remember, And I'm in here virtually my
entire life. I came here since I've been here since
I've been five years old. So growing up in southern California,
I've been through my share of earthquakes, as.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Maybe you have.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
In nineteen ninety four, particularly thirty five or thirty eight,
people died, particularly especially in Worsda.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
There was an apartment building that pancaked.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
It just went straight down all three or four floors,
and a bunch of people died in there. And it
turned out that the earthquake shook not just the foundations
but the support polls. Because one of the things about
southern California, before the earthquake codes came in, a lot
of these homes were just put on.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
These support poles.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I mean you've seen them, the motel and not the motels,
the apartment buildings, the older ones that have car ports underneath,
and you have these poles, maybe six inches in diameter
steel poles that holds up the building above the car port.
And that gets to be a little crazy. So there
was a program. FEMA had a program to retrofit buildings.
(02:30):
If you owned a building, you lived in a building,
you owned a home that clearly was going to go
down because the support poles were not going to withstand
an earthquake. FEMA had a program in which money was
just straight out given to you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It was a grant to save lives.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, the Trump administration just took away that grant, done
finished because it was waste and I guess fraud did
I don't know what's waste and fraud anymore. But this
is a program where you simply tried to make your
home earthquake proof. There was earthquake resistance. There was a program.
(03:10):
When I bought a house before the Persian Palace, I
lived in a duplex I wish I had tomp and
bottom and it was built in nineteen twenty seven, and
it was really built well, and it was and it
sat on the foundation. It sat on the foundation. It
was not bolted to the foundation. So in a big earthquake,
(03:36):
and this happened to some of the buildings.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It just slipped off. It just moved four inches or
six inches. The whole thing just slid. That's it. House
is gone. You can't move it back on.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And so you had these wonderful old homes and apartment buildings,
duplexes that became useless.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
They became the biggest paperweights I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So I had one and I retrofitted it, and it
cost me at that point those days, thirty five hundred dollars.
I don't even think they had a program out there
in those days.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I didn't even look.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I just I bought the place and I had to
retrofit it because I'm fanatic about being earthquake resistant. And
there's this program that the administration said, no, absolutely not.
It was thirty three million dollars to retrofit seismically vulnerable apartments,
(04:32):
and it's been canceled, the government saying it was wasteful
and ineffective. I don't understand it. We have so many
of these in southern California. Now. Was this a drop
in the bucket. Probably, But it's one of those things
(04:52):
that takes decades to figure out and to establish, and
you just pray and hope that a major earthquake doesn't
take place.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I remember after was it the ninety four earthquake.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I think it was in which we had the overpass
that took down Librea.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I think LaBrea Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Librea runs north and south, and it was the ten
freeway that ran east and west, and that the overpass
at that point just collapsed, just collapsed, and it took
I don't know, eight nine months to repair it was
supposed to take a year.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
In change, and the.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Contractor got a nice bonus for having finished it very quickly.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
But what happened to the city council.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
The city council passed an ordinance saying that every single
overpass in the city had to be retrofitted, had to
be reinforced, had to be strengthened. And I'm thinking, you know,
if we got one another two weeks from now where
we had another three weeks, it's all going down.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I mean, passes all over the city are going to
go down.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, it turned out we haven't had a major one
since then, and we have finished all.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The retrofits.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And at least those have a good chance of not
going down even in a major quake. It just takes
time to catch up, and this was part of it.
Just takes time to catch up. And it's just you know,
we're moving into social programs, health programs, the EPA just gone,
(06:32):
the FDA, just protection of the population. Where our money
going is to the border and to defense. That's where
the money is going.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Do I agree with it?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I tell you, if I lose my house because of this,
if I live in an apartment because of the fact
that the foundation goes the supports go, I'm not gonna
be a very happy camper. Okay, California. I love to
about California because not only do I obviously live in
California as you do, but California is a unique state
(07:07):
in many many ways. It is the forefront of social change,
social engineering, if you believe that it's gone that far.
And one of the things about California, Southern California particularly
is we have always been the land of immigrants. Why
Southern California, Well, the weather for one thing, the opportunities
(07:32):
for another thing, the economic opportunities, the fact that it's
just the traffic that people come to from all over
the world because people love traffic. The fact that you
can go to the mountains in an hour and a half.
You've got the seashore, You've got the deserts, you have
the woods. I mean, it's all of it in one place,
(07:53):
in a very short distance. And you have the entertainment industry.
Every person, every little girl or every young women from Peoria, Illinoise,
it comes out and wants to be in showbiz and
ends up a hooker.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
We have a lot of those. It's just a great
place to be and to go.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And so how about the rest of the people that
live here, Well, the birth rate has collapsed.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
People aren't having kids.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And the number of people that are coming into California
because of the Trump Administration's what the Trump administration is
doing at the border, which a lot of people believe
in immigration from south the boarder, illegal immigration has really collapsed.
Why is population still going up in California, Well, it's
(08:45):
because there are so many people here that are on
these H one B visas. The other thing about southern
and particularly northern California is we are.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Major technology centers.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And one things that President Trump has said we should
have jobs for Americans, not for foreigners.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Which I don't think many people disagree with that. I
certainly don't.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
The problem is what does the company do when there
aren't enough highly skilled.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
People there just aren't enough of them.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, you bring them in from overseas H one B visas,
technological visas or skilled visas of some kind. And the
companies that they're going to make the application to come
to bring that person in saying that, you know what,
we don't even have the ability to hire people locally.
(09:41):
And I think one of the rules of H one
B visas they have to advertise to look for someone
in the United States first and take applications and do whatever. Now,
we had that situation when Bill Carroll was here, if
you remember, he was a talk show host here on KFI,
came from Canada. The only way to bring him in
was through an H one B visa, a work visa,
(10:02):
because he couldn't immigrate, because it's almost impossible to immigrate.
And that was to establish that there was no one
else of that caliber because.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
He came from a major markets.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And it works because if you have a unique enough job,
it is legitimate for a company to bring you in.
Usually it's highly skilled technical work that's brought in, usually
computer work, coding, cybersecurity. Now and the Trump administration is
shutting it down, and the problem is there aren't enough people.
(10:36):
You know, who's defending H one B visas like nobody else.
Elon Musk it's saying we can't function without these people
and telling the Trump administration, okay, we understand jobs for Americans.
What happens when there are no Americans or not enough Americans?
Can we hire people? And right now the answer is no, Hey.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Bill, Yeah, is Elon Musk an American citizen?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I think yes he is.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Okay, I just wasn't sure.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, he's an American. He is an American citizen eventually
from South Africa. Yeah, he was born in South Arica. Yeah,
but he is an American citizen.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I mean you think I think he was naturalized many,
many years ago because he came to the United States
as a young man, nineteen or twenty years old. I
believe we're twenty two years old, something along those lines.
The H one B visas, I mean, I have friends,
my god daughter is her fiance is here on an
H one B visa.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, he's Indian. His name is Raj.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
We call him the Raj Mahal, and he highly technical,
very skilled, and there just aren't that many people that
have that level of skill.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
And so what do you do?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, you know, I would the Trump administration if I
had a computer company, going, hey, you find someone that
can do this work because I can't. Now applications are
down twenty five percent. That doesn't mean that the jobs
still aren't necessary. That doesn't mean that the jobs are
still not needed. It's just the fees have gone up dramatically,
(12:21):
it's much harder. And the move towards we want to
have Americans working, I think is totally legitimate.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I have no problem, but let's be reasonable about it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
For example, hitting up Apple, which is about to be
hit with what a twenty five percent tariff, with President
Trump saying we want those phones made here in the
United States, well, easier said than done. That's years to
transfer production.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So we're not going to have that many H one
B visas.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And because most of these very highly skilled technical people
a lot from India on weekends, as you know, they
work at seven elevens for just a few extra dollars,
you're gonna see seven elevens being empty of clerks, you
know that. Yeah, though, okay, we're done so buying American
(13:27):
bill handle here, I'm just thinking of something about buying American.
My mind went there, and I'm trying to remember the
last time I bought something that was fully American, and
I don't know when that ever happened. Even though it
has made in America, do you know what really is
made in America?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Very little?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
If it's assembled in America, you can say it's made
in America. If you have X number of parts that
are made in America. In a given product, you can
say made in America.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So there are some people out there.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
The Wall Street Journal did a story about folks that
are working very, very hard to buy products that are
made in America, only in America, and it is not easy.
They try, they try. It can't be done. It just can't.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Why.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, because we don't pay extra money for the same
quality of a product when we can get it for
far cheaper. You go to Walmart and you buy an appliance, okay,
and it costs you whatever appliance, an air fryer, and
it'll cost you sixty bucks.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
If it were.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Made in the United States, that same air frier would
probably cost you one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Why because it's made in China.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's why we had a world economy and we should
have free trade. And this is where President Trump is
dead on because it is unfair. But across the board,
what do you do. For example, we don't even produce
certain parts. We don't have rare earth minerals, Well, we
(15:21):
should produce them here.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
We don't have.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Them, Well, it's the labor should be here. We should
have the manufacturing jobs here. Okay, twenty five dollars an hour,
and the steel is that much more expensive, and the
parts are that much more expensive. We can grab them
in China because they're good at that kind of manufacturing,
and we take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And what the administration is saying, those days are done.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
What we want to do is make everything here in
the United States, even when it becomes virtually impossible to do,
especially now with the distribution system, with a manufacturing system.
For example, Apple makes its phones overseas in Taiwan and China,
and Trump has said, we want to move it all
over here twenty five percent tariff. Well, if it was
(16:08):
moved all over here, which it can be done. We've
been hearing three thousand and thirty five hundred dollars for
a phone that costs a thousand bucks. So let's say
it's two thousand dollars for a phone that costs a
thousand bucks. By the way, that's a great job to
have here in the United States assembling phones. That's really
what you want to do. We want to bring those
(16:29):
jobs here. Why would we want to bring jobs here
that effectively no one wants and it's not something that
we I don't want my kids to grow up and
go and sit in front of a desk and assemble
a phone. There are other jobs available, and they will
become and are going to become available with AI and
(16:50):
high tech and the development that the United States has.
One of the things about the US which is at
the forefront of other countries is Techechnologically. We are so
advanced that we create industries, AI for example, being one
of them. Now, is AI going to kill a lot
of industries a lot of jobs. Absolutely, And we're just
(17:12):
trying to figure out where to go with that. But
at the same time, manufacturing, and this is where I
don't understand what President Trump is doing. Let's bring here
the manufacturing jobs that are mindless, that are boring, that
are repetitive. You know, we can do better than that.
(17:36):
Let the Chinese make the phones. Let's figure out a
way that we can do what we do and translate
that into work. Because this concept of we want everything
brought here in America America firster is America. We want
to be accept we are exceptionalists. We do everything better
than everybody. We don't, and we should concentrate on developing
(18:02):
the technology and the jobs. Oh, by the way, this
balance of trade business right that we talk about where
we buy more than we import from China to the
hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You know that doesn't account the service jobs, the service
jobs we export.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Did you know that we sell more service oriented and
technology oriented jobs or services than we bring in. So
it's just manufacturing, it's products, it's.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Buying American. You can't do it. You won't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You can't do it. It's impossible. You know, there's too
much out there. It's a world economy.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's that simple. Okay. I want to tell you a
little bit about what happened a little while ago.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think I was at a seven to eleven and
I was buying some ice cream thing, and the.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Bill came to three dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I think it was three dollars one penny, and I
had enough bills or enough money to come up with
three dollars or two ninety nine, I don't remember, but anyways,
I was short a penny. I am done the math,
and I said, hey, can you slide for a penny?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
And the gal said no, I go, it's a penny.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
She said nope, nope, And so I get ninety nine
cents in change. If I had a fork, I would
have put it through her eyeballs at that moment. Now
you go to in an out burger, I mean they'll
suck it up right there. I don't worry about it.
(19:40):
I mean they're mentions about it. The rest. I gotta
tell you, that's crazy. So what's happening. We're getting rid
of the penny, Thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
So that's it. We're stopping them in pennies.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The US mint no longer, no more pennies, and next
year there'll be no more minting. And by the way,
it costs a lot more than a penny to mint
a penny.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I think it's a fifty six million dollars a hit.
That's worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
What do you amy.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Cost four cents to produce a one cent penny?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's crazy, makes no sense none. Although it cost war
to produce a nickel, then it's worth a nickel. I
think the dime that no one uses is probably where
they break even in any case, So good news, we're
not gonna have use pennies anymore. Canada did the same
thing with their penny. They did that thirteen years ago.
(20:32):
You go to Canada and let's say you're short of penny,
and you have the woman behind the counter with a
fork sticking out of her eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Because I had just been list I'd just been visiting there.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
You'll still get ninety nine cents and change because pennies
are there. You know, there are one hundred and fourteen
billion pennies out there in circulation. And who uses pennies?
Do you have pennies in your pocket? If you have
(21:07):
a change drawer? How many pennies are in a change jar?
How many pennies are in your change jar? You throw
them in there? How many drawers in your home? Has
have pennies? Go into the couch between the cushions?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
What do you have? You've got pennies? Wait?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Wait, what do you make wishes with bill? You throw
dollar bills?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, I throw tenns, I throw tens.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You're an ass urine ass a penny a penny for
your wishes? Right?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
What is a wish worth with a penny?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
If you're going to really throw pennies, you've got to
the Trevy fountain, for example, in Rome, and you know
you throw it, you know, you put your back to
it and you throw it backwards, which you really want
to do?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And this is kind of fine.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I mean, it's cost you a dollar, but you know,
we still get dollars if you can find them. We
still have dollar coins. And you throw it as hard
as you can, hoping to hit someone in the back
of the head or in their face.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
That is worth the dollar.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I have a wealthy that you go and you pay
someone five dollars to throw a penny in for you.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, Neil, you don't stop with this, do you.
You You've started, you started this where people people think
that I'm the wealthiest guy out there. Give me a break. Now,
I had a successful law practice. Granted I have a
couple of businesses. I do okay in the radio, so
I'm fine. I'm comfortable. But for God's sake, Neil, stop it.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Whatever you say, Richie, rich.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
This is KFI A M six forty. You've been listening
to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
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 Bill Handle Here.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
It is a Tuesday Taco Tuesday, May twenty seventh.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Do anybody have tacos anymore? Actually? I had tacos last night,
So there you go.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Okay, coming up, Oh hold on, man, I've got it.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Ah, sorry, coming out to eight thirty.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm gonna talk about what happened yesterday in Jerusalem with
a parade and some thoughts that I want to share
with you about what's going on. And it's taken from
my eyes seen through a family that that perished in
the Holocaust, and it's I'm devastated about what's going on
(00:48):
in Israel right now as well as in Gaza.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Certainly. Okay, let's move to California. Well, let's move to California.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
That's where we've But in terms of the topic, one
of the things that's so delightful about California that people
moved to californiaarticularly southern California, is the chance and our.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
History of earthquakes.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
You no, he sort of just liked being shaken around,
right if you remember, And I'm in here virtually my
entire life. I came here since I've been here since
I've been five years old. So growing up in southern California,
I've been through my share of earthquakes, as.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Maybe you have.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
In nineteen ninety four, particularly thirty five or thirty eight,
people died, particularly especially in Worsda.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
There was an apartment building that pancaked.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
It just went straight down all three or four floors,
and a bunch of people died in there. And it
turned out that the earthquake shook not just the foundations
but the support polls. Because one of the things about
southern California, before the earthquake codes came in, a lot
of these homes were just put on.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
These support poles.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I mean you've seen them, the motel and not the motels,
the apartment buildings, the older ones that have car ports underneath,
and you have these poles, maybe six inches in diameter
steel poles that holds up the building above the car port.
And that gets to be a little crazy. So there
was a program. FEMA had a program to retrofit buildings.
(02:30):
If you owned a building, you lived in a building,
you owned a home that clearly was going to go
down because the support poles were not going to withstand
an earthquake. FEMA had a program in which money was
just straight out given to you.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
It was a grant to save lives.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, the Trump administration just took away that grant, done
finished because it was waste and I guess fraud did
I don't know what's waste and fraud anymore. But this
is a program where you simply tried to make your
home earthquake proof. There was earthquake resistance. There was a program.
(03:10):
When I bought a house before the Persian Palace, I
lived in a duplex I wish I had tomp and
bottom and it was built in nineteen twenty seven, and
it was really built well, and it was and it
sat on the foundation. It sat on the foundation. It
was not bolted to the foundation. So in a big earthquake,
(03:36):
and this happened to some of the buildings.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
It just slipped off. It just moved four inches or
six inches. The whole thing just slid. That's it. House
is gone. You can't move it back on.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And so you had these wonderful old homes and apartment buildings,
duplexes that became useless.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
They became the biggest paperweights I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
So I had one and I retrofitted it, and it
cost me at that point those days, thirty five hundred dollars.
I don't even think they had a program out there
in those days.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I didn't even look.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
I just I bought the place and I had to
retrofit it because I'm fanatic about being earthquake resistant. And
there's this program that the administration said, no, absolutely not.
It was thirty three million dollars to retrofit seismically vulnerable apartments,
(04:32):
and it's been canceled, the government saying it was wasteful
and ineffective. I don't understand it. We have so many
of these in southern California. Now. Was this a drop
in the bucket. Probably, But it's one of those things
(04:52):
that takes decades to figure out and to establish, and
you just pray and hope that a major earthquake doesn't
take place.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
I remember after was it the ninety four earthquake.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
I think it was in which we had the overpass
that took down Librea.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
I think LaBrea Boulevard.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Librea runs north and south, and it was the ten
freeway that ran east and west, and that the overpass
at that point just collapsed, just collapsed, and it took
I don't know, eight nine months to repair it was
supposed to take a year.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
In change, and the.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Contractor got a nice bonus for having finished it very quickly.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
But what happened to the city council.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
The city council passed an ordinance saying that every single
overpass in the city had to be retrofitted, had to
be reinforced, had to be strengthened. And I'm thinking, you know,
if we got one another two weeks from now where
we had another three weeks, it's all going down.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I mean, passes all over the city are going to
go down.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Well, it turned out we haven't had a major one
since then, and we have finished all.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
The retrofits.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
And at least those have a good chance of not
going down even in a major quake. It just takes
time to catch up, and this was part of it.
Just takes time to catch up. And it's just you know,
we're moving into social programs, health programs, the EPA just gone,
(06:32):
the FDA, just protection of the population. Where our money
going is to the border and to defense. That's where
the money is going.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
Do I agree with it?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I tell you, if I lose my house because of this,
if I live in an apartment because of the fact
that the foundation goes the supports go, I'm not gonna
be a very happy camper. Okay, California. I love to
about California because not only do I obviously live in
California as you do, but California is a unique state
(07:07):
in many many ways. It is the forefront of social change,
social engineering, if you believe that it's gone that far.
And one of the things about California, Southern California particularly
is we have always been the land of immigrants. Why
Southern California, Well, the weather for one thing, the opportunities
(07:32):
for another thing, the economic opportunities, the fact that it's
just the traffic that people come to from all over
the world because people love traffic. The fact that you
can go to the mountains in an hour and a half.
You've got the seashore, You've got the deserts, you have
the woods. I mean, it's all of it in one place,
(07:53):
in a very short distance. And you have the entertainment industry.
Every person, every little girl or every young women from Peoria, Illinoise,
it comes out and wants to be in showbiz and
ends up a hooker.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
We have a lot of those. It's just a great
place to be and to go.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
And so how about the rest of the people that
live here, Well, the birth rate has collapsed.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
People aren't having kids.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And the number of people that are coming into California
because of the Trump Administration's what the Trump administration is
doing at the border, which a lot of people believe
in immigration from south the boarder, illegal immigration has really collapsed.
Why is population still going up in California, Well, it's
(08:45):
because there are so many people here that are on
these H one B visas. The other thing about southern
and particularly northern California is we are.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Major technology centers.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And one things that President Trump has said we should
have jobs for Americans, not for foreigners.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Which I don't think many people disagree with that. I
certainly don't.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
The problem is what does the company do when there
aren't enough highly skilled.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
People there just aren't enough of them.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Well, you bring them in from overseas H one B visas,
technological visas or skilled visas of some kind. And the
companies that they're going to make the application to come
to bring that person in saying that, you know what,
we don't even have the ability to hire people locally.
(09:41):
And I think one of the rules of H one
B visas they have to advertise to look for someone
in the United States first and take applications and do whatever. Now,
we had that situation when Bill Carroll was here, if
you remember, he was a talk show host here on KFI,
came from Canada. The only way to bring him in
was through an H one B visa, a work visa,
(10:02):
because he couldn't immigrate, because it's almost impossible to immigrate.
And that was to establish that there was no one
else of that caliber because.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
He came from a major markets.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And it works because if you have a unique enough job,
it is legitimate for a company to bring you in.
Usually it's highly skilled technical work that's brought in, usually
computer work, coding, cybersecurity. Now and the Trump administration is
shutting it down, and the problem is there aren't enough people.
(10:36):
You know, who's defending H one B visas like nobody else.
Elon Musk it's saying we can't function without these people
and telling the Trump administration, okay, we understand jobs for Americans.
What happens when there are no Americans or not enough Americans?
Can we hire people? And right now the answer is no, Hey.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Bill, Yeah, is Elon Musk an American citizen?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
I think yes he is.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Okay, I just wasn't sure.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Yeah, he's an American. He is an American citizen eventually
from South Africa. Yeah, he was born in South Arica. Yeah,
but he is an American citizen.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
I mean you think I think he was naturalized many,
many years ago because he came to the United States
as a young man, nineteen or twenty years old. I
believe we're twenty two years old, something along those lines.
The H one B visas, I mean, I have friends,
my god daughter is her fiance is here on an
H one B visa.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Yeah, he's Indian. His name is Raj.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
We call him the Raj Mahal, and he highly technical,
very skilled, and there just aren't that many people that
have that level of skill.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
And so what do you do?
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Well, you know, I would the Trump administration if I
had a computer company, going, hey, you find someone that
can do this work because I can't. Now applications are
down twenty five percent. That doesn't mean that the jobs
still aren't necessary. That doesn't mean that the jobs are
still not needed. It's just the fees have gone up dramatically,
(12:21):
it's much harder. And the move towards we want to
have Americans working, I think is totally legitimate.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I have no problem, but let's be reasonable about it.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
For example, hitting up Apple, which is about to be
hit with what a twenty five percent tariff, with President
Trump saying we want those phones made here in the
United States, well, easier said than done. That's years to
transfer production.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So we're not going to have that many H one
B visas.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
And because most of these very highly skilled technical people
a lot from India on weekends, as you know, they
work at seven elevens for just a few extra dollars,
you're gonna see seven elevens being empty of clerks, you
know that. Yeah, though, okay, we're done so buying American
(13:27):
bill handle here, I'm just thinking of something about buying American.
My mind went there, and I'm trying to remember the
last time I bought something that was fully American, and
I don't know when that ever happened. Even though it
has made in America, do you know what really is
made in America?
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Very little?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
If it's assembled in America, you can say it's made
in America. If you have X number of parts that
are made in America. In a given product, you can
say made in America.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
So there are some people out there.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
The Wall Street Journal did a story about folks that
are working very, very hard to buy products that are
made in America, only in America, and it is not easy.
They try, they try. It can't be done. It just can't.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Why.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Well, because we don't pay extra money for the same
quality of a product when we can get it for
far cheaper. You go to Walmart and you buy an appliance, okay,
and it costs you whatever appliance, an air fryer, and
it'll cost you sixty bucks.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
If it were.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Made in the United States, that same air frier would
probably cost you one hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Why because it's made in China.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
That's why we had a world economy and we should
have free trade. And this is where President Trump is
dead on because it is unfair. But across the board,
what do you do. For example, we don't even produce
certain parts. We don't have rare earth minerals, Well, we
(15:21):
should produce them here.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
We don't have.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Them, Well, it's the labor should be here. We should
have the manufacturing jobs here. Okay, twenty five dollars an hour,
and the steel is that much more expensive, and the
parts are that much more expensive. We can grab them
in China because they're good at that kind of manufacturing,
and we take advantage of it.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
And what the administration is saying, those days are done.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
What we want to do is make everything here in
the United States, even when it becomes virtually impossible to do,
especially now with the distribution system, with a manufacturing system.
For example, Apple makes its phones overseas in Taiwan and China,
and Trump has said, we want to move it all
over here twenty five percent tariff. Well, if it was
(16:08):
moved all over here, which it can be done. We've
been hearing three thousand and thirty five hundred dollars for
a phone that costs a thousand bucks. So let's say
it's two thousand dollars for a phone that costs a
thousand bucks. By the way, that's a great job to
have here in the United States assembling phones. That's really
what you want to do. We want to bring those
(16:29):
jobs here. Why would we want to bring jobs here
that effectively no one wants and it's not something that
we I don't want my kids to grow up and
go and sit in front of a desk and assemble
a phone. There are other jobs available, and they will
become and are going to become available with AI and
(16:50):
high tech and the development that the United States has.
One of the things about the US which is at
the forefront of other countries is Techechnologically. We are so
advanced that we create industries, AI for example, being one
of them. Now, is AI going to kill a lot
of industries a lot of jobs. Absolutely, And we're just
(17:12):
trying to figure out where to go with that. But
at the same time, manufacturing, and this is where I
don't understand what President Trump is doing. Let's bring here
the manufacturing jobs that are mindless, that are boring, that
are repetitive. You know, we can do better than that.
(17:36):
Let the Chinese make the phones. Let's figure out a
way that we can do what we do and translate
that into work. Because this concept of we want everything
brought here in America America firster is America. We want
to be accept we are exceptionalists. We do everything better
than everybody. We don't, and we should concentrate on developing
(18:02):
the technology and the jobs. Oh, by the way, this
balance of trade business right that we talk about where
we buy more than we import from China to the
hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
You know that doesn't account the service jobs, the service
jobs we export.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Did you know that we sell more service oriented and
technology oriented jobs or services than we bring in. So
it's just manufacturing, it's products, it's.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
Buying American. You can't do it. You won't do it.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
You can't do it. It's impossible. You know, there's too
much out there. It's a world economy.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's that simple. Okay. I want to tell you a
little bit about what happened a little while ago.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think I was at a seven to eleven and
I was buying some ice cream thing, and the.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Bill came to three dollars.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I think it was three dollars one penny, and I
had enough bills or enough money to come up with
three dollars or two ninety nine, I don't remember, but anyways,
I was short a penny. I am done the math,
and I said, hey, can you slide for a penny?
Speaker 3 (19:16):
And the gal said no, I go, it's a penny.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
She said nope, nope, And so I get ninety nine
cents in change. If I had a fork, I would
have put it through her eyeballs at that moment. Now
you go to in an out burger, I mean they'll
suck it up right there. I don't worry about it.
(19:40):
I mean they're mentions about it. The rest. I gotta
tell you, that's crazy. So what's happening. We're getting rid
of the penny, Thank goodness.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
So that's it. We're stopping them in pennies.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
The US mint no longer, no more pennies, and next
year there'll be no more minting. And by the way,
it costs a lot more than a penny to mint
a penny.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I think it's a fifty six million dollars a hit.
That's worth it.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
What do you amy.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Cost four cents to produce a one cent penny?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
It's crazy, makes no sense none. Although it cost war
to produce a nickel, then it's worth a nickel. I
think the dime that no one uses is probably where
they break even in any case, So good news, we're
not gonna have use pennies anymore. Canada did the same
thing with their penny. They did that thirteen years ago.
(20:32):
You go to Canada and let's say you're short of penny,
and you have the woman behind the counter with a
fork sticking out of her eyeballs.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Because I had just been list I'd just been visiting there.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
You'll still get ninety nine cents and change because pennies
are there. You know, there are one hundred and fourteen
billion pennies out there in circulation. And who uses pennies?
Do you have pennies in your pocket? If you have
(21:07):
a change drawer? How many pennies are in a change jar?
How many pennies are in your change jar? You throw
them in there? How many drawers in your home? Has
have pennies? Go into the couch between the cushions?
Speaker 3 (21:23):
What do you have? You've got pennies? Wait?
Speaker 1 (21:28):
Wait, what do you make wishes with bill? You throw
dollar bills?
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, I throw tenns, I throw tens.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
You're an ass urine ass a penny a penny for
your wishes? Right?
Speaker 3 (21:45):
What is a wish worth with a penny?
Speaker 2 (21:49):
If you're going to really throw pennies, you've got to
the Trevy fountain, for example, in Rome, and you know
you throw it, you know, you put your back to
it and you throw it backwards, which you really want
to do?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And this is kind of fine.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
I mean, it's cost you a dollar, but you know,
we still get dollars if you can find them. We
still have dollar coins. And you throw it as hard
as you can, hoping to hit someone in the back
of the head or in their face.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
That is worth the dollar.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
I have a wealthy that you go and you pay
someone five dollars to throw a penny in for you.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
You know, Neil, you don't stop with this, do you.
You You've started, you started this where people people think
that I'm the wealthiest guy out there. Give me a break. Now,
I had a successful law practice. Granted I have a
couple of businesses. I do okay in the radio, so
I'm fine. I'm comfortable. But for God's sake, Neil, stop it.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Whatever you say, Richie, rich.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
This is KFI A M six forty. You've been listening
to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Catch My show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
Popular Podcasts
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.
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
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.