July 13, 2026 • 27 mins
(July 13, 2026)
Lindsey Graham: The quintessential politician of this era. Here’s what the ‘once in a lifetime’ federal housing bill means for California. LAPD suspends use of flock surveillance cameras over privacy issues. Americans fear this retirement setback more than death
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're list Saints KFI AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio FFI AM six forty
bill Handle Here. It is Monday morning, July thirteenth, and
(00:20):
we are about to enter a major heat wave.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is going to be hot the rest of the country.
It is just crazy. I mean, the kind of flooding
that's going on, the heat wave on the East Coast.
And of course the weather up to this point has
been super nice the last few weeks, and then again
now comes the heat. Senator Lizzie Graham died and I
(00:47):
think it was yesterday is when he died? Or was
it Saturday that he died? Amy, she's nodding her head, Saturday,
Saturday night, all right, Republican senator from South Carolina, one
of them will well known senators out there. I mean
there were a hundred senators and most of them we've
never even heard of. But Lindsey Graham was a national figure.
(01:09):
A lot of it has to do because of fact
he was in the Senate for over thirty years. He
was involved in foreign affairs in a big way over
the years. A fervent American, I mean, he wore his
patriotism on his sleeve, one of the most. He was
(01:29):
an interesting background, born and raised in a small town
in South Carolina. His parents died when he was in
his twenties, so he got himself and his.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Younger sister through college.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
He was a member of the ROTC, which is officers
training and you get paid during school. During college you
get a monthly stipend and then someone has to or
you or whoever is doing it has to join the military.
For number of years he became a military lawyer, served
(02:06):
in West Germany during the Cold War. Great time to
be in Germany during those during the Cold War. I me,
your dollar went crazy and the Cold War was really cold,
and it really was a war. He stayed in the
reserves for two decades, traveling to working in Iraq in Afghanistan,
not as part of the Senate, just as part of
(02:28):
his deployment as a reservist. He would actually go even
while in the Senate. One of his best best friends
in the Senate was John McCain. They were inseferable, even
though in sufferable, insufferable, in unseparatable, in separable, I think
(02:48):
that's what I said. Even though they had different beliefs
in many ways. And a wonderful quote from Lindsay Graham
about John McCain in something that he disagreed with, And
he was asked by a reporter about John McCain's vote,
and he said, this man is a hero. This man
was a pow. This man is a genuine American hero.
(03:10):
He can vote any way he wants.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
They were close.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He believed that we should be at the center of
NATO and the Democratic Alliance. He described himself at twenty
fourteen as a pragmatic politician who didn't like populist slogans.
He said, I know Washington is broken, but what's broken
about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
To fix it. I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And a quick word about his death that looks like
a tearing his a orda and they're investigating it now.
That was a preliminary finding, and of course the conspiracy
theorists have exploded.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Cash Patel, head.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of the FBI, is now put FBI investigating his death.
Come on, guy, let me tell you about Graham. When
Donald Trump first came out in US politics, and it
was real alien ideology Graham and totally against what Graham
had practiced since childhood. We have to have alliances where
(04:15):
they're as head of the free world. He privately mocked
that we're talking about. Trump probably mocked the military that
Graham loved. He called the military suckers and losers. In
twenty fifteen, Graham described Trump as a race baiting, xenophobic,
religious bigot who should go to hell. Also a nutjob.
(04:38):
So President Trump wins the presidency, and what happens, he says,
never mind, I like the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He is spectacular.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
He completely decided to abandon all of his previous ideals
and instead became a very loud follower. We're a sycophantic
follower of the president. He played golf with Trump, made
excuses for him on TV, backed him up no matter what,
supported him. As Trump destroyed those alliances he was so defending.
(05:15):
He of course refused to vote to convict Trump. And
even after the results of the election and when the
the overrunning of the capital first happened, Lindsey Graham went
up there and really did blame Trump for it. Now
that's changed completely. It's you know, it's a shame that
(05:38):
that happened. And like every other Republican, you was very
difficult to go against Trump because of maga. One of
the things that Trump up to this point had the
ability to do. I don't know from now on whether
he does or not, is he could primary people out.
And Lindsey Graham up for election a matter of fact,
(06:00):
up for the general election come November. Well, his term
was about to end. And now what happens, Well, the
governor now appoints a senator, appoints someone to be senator
until the end of the term, and there will be
the election will happen, and Graham's name will of course
(06:22):
not be on the ballot. Sometimes when someone dies before
the name can be removed, the name appears on the ballot.
And what happens that's fun, is that they get elected.
Dead people get elected. And I think Graham would have
(06:42):
gotten elected because he was that popular. And I think
mainly because there are some elect some members of the electorate,
the citizens citizenry are just stupid and don't pay attention,
and I think others would do it as a statement
of how much he was beloved. So Lindsey Graham, dead
at the age of seventy one, which is way too
(07:06):
young to die, had very high blood pressure, had a
lot of plaque and as a result of that. One
of the symptoms of very high blood pressure is euryeorda
explodes because it weakens the AORDA.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, so here's what happened. A couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
There was and is a federal housing bill that is
now a federal housing law, and supporters hope it's going
to put a dent in California, mainly in the nation's
housing shortage. It is the largest single piece of federal
housing legislation in at least thirty years coming out of Congress,
(07:48):
and the bill became law in the middle of the
night early Saturday, without fanfare, without the president's signature. The
vast majority of cases bills are passed because the president
is involved, and the president signs the bills and sometimes
signs the bills with a great deal of fanfare, has
(08:10):
the table as the people behind them says, this is
going to affect millions of people, or this is going
to straighten out whatever problems we had. Not then, although
it was originally set up to do exactly that the
President was going to come. The lectern was being put up,
the chairs were being put up in I think it
(08:30):
was the East room where he was going to do it,
and then all of a sudden, a couple hours before,
all of a sudden, the chairs are removed, the lectern
is removed.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's all done, it's all gone.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Why well, it's a Save America Act that the President
is pushing very hard and has to do with voter
id and he said, I'm not signing this until Congress
passes the Save Act. And Congress was not about to
pass the Save Act because it's going to stall in
(09:04):
the Senate. Got it in the House. I mean, Mike
Johnson will do anything that the president wants, rolls over,
puts his paw up, gets a treat I mean, whatever
the president wants, Mike Johnson does, but not necessarily the Senate.
So he just let it become law because according to
the Constitution, if a bill is passed and the president
(09:26):
does not sign it, it becomes law in ten days.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So now what happened, Well, it's law.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
The President has made his point very clear, you don't
pass the Save America Act. I'm not signing. What's going
to be interesting? What else he's not going to sign?
And here is what the bill does, not a lot.
It has fifty six regulatory tweaks, programs, low cost loans grants,
(09:59):
they're not going to move the needle because it's not
a lot of money. Supporters say that collectively put it
all together, it might just move the needle. We don't
know because the numbers have to be so astronomical and
this is little bits and pieces. So what is what's
happening with it? Well, first of all, the reason that
(10:22):
in the Senate it's the Grow or the Save America
Act didn't pass, not the House because of Mike Johnson,
Because there is a yes in my backyard movement, especially
here in California where we have more experience than most
in continuing with affordable housing because we don't have any Now,
(10:47):
what's making housing more affordable if they can help? Well,
money is given to various programs. There are some tweaks
which I'm going to tell you about in a moment,
but to give you an idea, And it's described as
overwhelming support. I mean overwhelming support both the Senate and
the House. As in the Senate for example, it was
(11:11):
originated as a joint proposal by Tim Scott South Carolina,
who is a conservative among conservative conservatives, and Elizabeth Warren,
who's about as left wing as it can be one
of the things. For example, would change something called the
Community Development Block grant. This is federal money going to
(11:33):
the cities for affordable housing and economic development. And with
price the cities, well, they'll have their grant funds cut
by ten percent, but then the savings go to municipal
counterparts that are more effective non governmental NGOs, hoping that
(11:55):
the building will be at a faster clip. Here's one
that is kind of interesting, just to show you the
kind of archaic rules manufactured housing. Manufacture housing are these,
I guess trailers.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But they don't move around very much.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
They're built on assembly lines, they're shipped to where they're needed,
and they are affordable, and both lawmakers California, United States
say we need those in droves. And the ones placed
on permanent foundations are fewer than one in ten.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They never move again.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
However, federal law says that manufactured housing includes its reference
to mobile origins, it has to have a permanent chassis.
Federal building codes force it to have a permanent chassis
so it can be moved. Houses don't move, and the
(12:56):
expense of building a movable foundation is astronomical compared to
a normal foundation. So what ends up happening, there's a
ten to twelve inch thick floor beneath the floor because
it has to be able to be moved. Well, no,
(13:17):
we don't need that. So that's one of the things
that this bill does. It removes a permanent chassis requirement.
That alone, according to Representative Scott Peters, Democratic San Diego, said,
we'll expand access to one of the mostly affordable forms
of homeowner ownership because it's thousands and thousands of dollars
(13:39):
to do that. Also, the chassis business, you can't build
multiple housing, you can't build in stacks. And also what
happens after a natural disaster, After emergency federal dollars have
come and gone. What Congress is doing is providing communities
with long term rebuild than grants.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
That's new.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So over the last decades, the program spent more than
one hundred billion dollars on long term work of recovery,
home construction, infrastructure repair. That money tends to be reserved
for low income in people in communities do not bounce
back quickly. Well, that is going to be expanded. So
(14:26):
the bottom line is that this program, of which I
think there are fifty eight provisions little bits and pieces
put them all together, and the supporters hope that it's
going to move the needle. The President has said that
this housing bill is small potatoes. It's a big yawn.
(14:48):
Where the voter registration bill is critical to the security
of this country. So let me throw something at you,
voter id how's it going to affect you. It's not
gonna affect me. I don't think it's any.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Big, Neil.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The housing situation in this country is so dire. Anything
that can help, particularly here in southern California where housing
is downright unaffordable. Okay, before we get into a flock
surveillance and what it is, Neil, tell us about the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Indeed, the Dodgers today are playing. They've got the T
Mobile Home Run Derby going on today. So this afternoon
at the T Mobile Home Run Derby in Philadelphia, starting
at five one LA Sports, stock up for your summer
barbecue with packs of hoppy premium beef franks, which are
(15:48):
delicious and they are especially their bacon wrapped hot dogs
at Smart and find All.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Okay, flock surveillance cameras.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I don't know if you've heard about flock surveillance, but
there's some big issues because LAPD uses FLOCK surveillance or
did they suspended them? And what they do is their
license place readers is what they are. And the problem
is and these are folks privacy advocates that are saying, well, okay,
(16:22):
they are supposed to just be used for police purposes, surveillance,
dealing with bad guys, people that are on the run,
people that have committed crime, were in the middle of
committing crime, and so a lot of concerns over who
controls the data, how it can be shared with other agencies,
(16:46):
including immigration. Now an Inspector General AUDIT is urging a
pause on the new deployments and contracts with cities until
privacy security oversight rules are in place. Just to give
an idea what FLOCK does. It contracts with over five
(17:07):
thousand municipalities across the country, including LAPD and San Francisco,
San Diego, I mean all of it in La alone,
one hundred and thirty eight pole mounted cameras, and it
allows the authorities track vehicles have been reported stolen or
registered to fugitives and its Flock is only one of
(17:32):
the vendors used by the city for automated license plate
readers and boy, have they been criticized sharing data with
state and federal officials, and advocacy groups are worried that
the information could help the immigration crackdown.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That's the fear. LAPD.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Dean Giamalis, chief Information officer, told news outlets that the
LAPD s making more protections around the information collected.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
The sticking point is around having.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Very clear terms about who owns the data, what happens
with the data once it's collected, and he said the
LAPD is going to stop using flocks until we get
those privacy security sharing concerns ironed out three year contract
the LAPD has with Flock, but it's set to expire
(18:27):
on Saturday, and LAPD officials had previously announced the City
Attorney's office was working on drawing up a new contract,
and one of the Flock people said Saturday's decision that
they're holding off re signing is a surprise.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
LAPD has used license plate readers for years, and Flock
says the technology should have strong privacy protections and oversight.
Okay also says the technology complies with California law that
the information not be shared with certain agencies. Well, it
(19:08):
turns out the FLOCK does share with federal authorities, including ICE,
and it has led to smaller cities just straight out
in their relationship. Mountain View, Northern California turned off its
thirty flock cameras in February because city officials announced that
the federal and state law enforcement agencies had access city
(19:30):
data in violation of the policy of the city. And
as you can imagine, the demonstrators in recent months outside
of LAPD headquarters are gathering and they demonstrate for weeks
at a time. In the meantime, LAPD boosters, homeowner associations
elected officials have pressured the city to increase the number
(19:54):
of cameras.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
So what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, I like surveillance, especially catching bad guys. At the
same time, do I want the information shared with immigration? Well,
there has to be a limit with how much it's
shared with. So I'm on the side of the bad
(20:21):
guys getting surveilled, and because I don't think there's much
privacy out there, although this helps invade your privacy, but
you know, risk versus benefit, adverse versus positive. My guess
is once this is ironed out, we're going to go
(20:42):
back to using these license plate readers.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I just like it.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
The only time I am not in favor of license
plate readers, and this one really gets my eyre up
is those license plate readers that read your license at
toll booths. I hate those. Those should be illegal going
through toll booths, those toll roods where they read your
(21:07):
license plate. And if you don't pay, or you don't
have prepaid a prepaid card, you're screwed.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
You're a man of ethics and standards.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Complete hypocrisy, I mean complete across the board. All right, question,
I'm going to ask you what what do Americans old
people fear more than death? Other than working here? Connor,
(21:41):
what are you afraid more than death? Just curious because
you're not old, but still the question still remains.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
More than death, more than death? What do you fear
more than death? Okay, Amy, what do you fear more
than death?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I don't know if it's more than death, because I
think it would result in death, but it would be
like being burned.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Alive, burned alive, Okay, not bad, Neil more than.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Death, anything happening to my wife or son?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, fair enough. Anne already knows because she came up
with the story. Let me tell you what it is
running out of money when you retire. People are more
frightened of running out of money. This is an annual survey.
It's a survey, of course, a Lion Center for the
Future of Retirement. Sixty seven percent of Americans worry more
(22:37):
about running out of money than dying. Not being able
to afford healthcare is the biggest one.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
There was five recent annual surveys. Running out of the
money always won. This year the margin was higher than ever.
People are living longer, inflation is there, the cost of
healthcare and long term care are rising, and people have
no idea. Anybody who actually looks at it is going
(23:08):
to realize that running out of money is a huge,
huge issue. Do you know what you need to Let's
say you earn fifty thousand dollars a year. Do you
know what you need to earn fifty thousand dollars a
year during retirement? A million dollars in your bank account,
in your retirement fund. Who the hell has a million dollars?
(23:31):
Now it doesn't count so security, so you don't need
quite that much. But to have a comfortable retirement. According
to the folks that are are art Public Policy Institute
I'm sorry. It's one point four million dollars so declining
healthcare that retires, long term care, social security cuts that
(23:53):
are going to have it happen outliving savings and investments
and long term care is really rising. The average assisted
living facility now charges sixty two hundred dollars a month.
When my mother was in her living facility, it was
eight thousand dollars a month that I paid, and I
(24:17):
should have just parked her on the sidewalk. She wouldn't
have known the difference.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Who can afford that?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
That's the whole point. Who can afford that? I mean,
there are people that can. If you're dead broke, medical
will put you up in a place and they'll pay
thirty two hundred and thirty three hundred dollars a month.
And there are facilities that accept that much money. But
you're two to a room. You basically people are in
(24:44):
wheelchairs in the hallway just waiting to die. The place
smells like you can't imagine, smells like urine. It's horrific.
Life expectancy is up. It reached seventy nine years in
twenty twenty four, that's I think for men, and that's
(25:06):
a record high. And longer life raises the odds of
outliving your money because your money doesn't go up, but
the cost of living goes up.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
So what do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You think about your retirement way early. I started thinking
about my retirement in my thirties, and I should have
started in my twenties. But I've spent a lot of
time thinking about my retirement and I've been spoiling out.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
Weren't you busted out and your thirty weren't you living
with your parents?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
But living with my parents at thirty five was that
was just a stop gap. I was still making a
good living as an attorney. That was just yeah, I
just had I sold my house, had no place to
go and just live with my mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Just I was going to live for a few weeks.
I stayed a year.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
But that's the other thing that people who younger people
stay with their parents now because they can't afford it.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
One of the few people I know that is in
fact saving up and dealing with retirement in a big
positive way.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
You kneel, well, yeah, we try and make good decisions, but.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people can't
make good decisions because they don't have the money to
make good decisions. So anyway, you're more frightened of death,
I'm more frightened of having more kids like mine. The
(26:39):
thought of doing that again, I'm going to blow my
brains out. All right, We're done.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Coming up.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Quite often we've heard about this billionaire exodus. Billionaires are
leaving the state. Rich people are leaving the state because
taxes are too high. Boy, do I have a stat
that I'm going to share with you that is really
and that's coming up. KF I am six point forty.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my
Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're list Saints KFI AM six forty the bill Handles
show on demand on the iHeartRadio FFI AM six forty
bill Handle Here. It is Monday morning, July thirteenth, and
(00:20):
we are about to enter a major heat wave.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is going to be hot the rest of the country.
It is just crazy. I mean, the kind of flooding
that's going on, the heat wave on the East Coast.
And of course the weather up to this point has
been super nice the last few weeks, and then again
now comes the heat. Senator Lizzie Graham died and I
(00:47):
think it was yesterday is when he died? Or was
it Saturday that he died? Amy, she's nodding her head, Saturday,
Saturday night, all right, Republican senator from South Carolina, one
of them will well known senators out there. I mean
there were a hundred senators and most of them we've
never even heard of. But Lindsey Graham was a national figure.
(01:09):
A lot of it has to do because of fact
he was in the Senate for over thirty years. He
was involved in foreign affairs in a big way over
the years. A fervent American, I mean, he wore his
patriotism on his sleeve, one of the most. He was
(01:29):
an interesting background, born and raised in a small town
in South Carolina. His parents died when he was in
his twenties, so he got himself and his.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Younger sister through college.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
He was a member of the ROTC, which is officers
training and you get paid during school. During college you
get a monthly stipend and then someone has to or
you or whoever is doing it has to join the military.
For number of years he became a military lawyer, served
(02:06):
in West Germany during the Cold War. Great time to
be in Germany during those during the Cold War. I me,
your dollar went crazy and the Cold War was really cold,
and it really was a war. He stayed in the
reserves for two decades, traveling to working in Iraq in Afghanistan,
not as part of the Senate, just as part of
(02:28):
his deployment as a reservist. He would actually go even
while in the Senate. One of his best best friends
in the Senate was John McCain. They were inseferable, even
though in sufferable, insufferable, in unseparatable, in separable, I think
(02:48):
that's what I said. Even though they had different beliefs
in many ways. And a wonderful quote from Lindsay Graham
about John McCain in something that he disagreed with, And
he was asked by a reporter about John McCain's vote,
and he said, this man is a hero. This man
was a pow. This man is a genuine American hero.
(03:10):
He can vote any way he wants.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
They were close.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
He believed that we should be at the center of
NATO and the Democratic Alliance. He described himself at twenty
fourteen as a pragmatic politician who didn't like populist slogans.
He said, I know Washington is broken, but what's broken
about it is everybody yelling and nobody trying.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
To fix it. I'm trying.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And a quick word about his death that looks like
a tearing his a orda and they're investigating it now.
That was a preliminary finding, and of course the conspiracy
theorists have exploded.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Cash Patel, head.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of the FBI, is now put FBI investigating his death.
Come on, guy, let me tell you about Graham. When
Donald Trump first came out in US politics, and it
was real alien ideology Graham and totally against what Graham
had practiced since childhood. We have to have alliances where
(04:15):
they're as head of the free world. He privately mocked
that we're talking about. Trump probably mocked the military that
Graham loved. He called the military suckers and losers. In
twenty fifteen, Graham described Trump as a race baiting, xenophobic,
religious bigot who should go to hell. Also a nutjob.
(04:38):
So President Trump wins the presidency, and what happens, he says,
never mind, I like the guy.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
He is spectacular.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
He completely decided to abandon all of his previous ideals
and instead became a very loud follower. We're a sycophantic
follower of the president. He played golf with Trump, made
excuses for him on TV, backed him up no matter what,
supported him. As Trump destroyed those alliances he was so defending.
(05:15):
He of course refused to vote to convict Trump. And
even after the results of the election and when the
the overrunning of the capital first happened, Lindsey Graham went
up there and really did blame Trump for it. Now
that's changed completely. It's you know, it's a shame that
(05:38):
that happened. And like every other Republican, you was very
difficult to go against Trump because of maga. One of
the things that Trump up to this point had the
ability to do. I don't know from now on whether
he does or not, is he could primary people out.
And Lindsey Graham up for election a matter of fact,
(06:00):
up for the general election come November. Well, his term
was about to end. And now what happens, Well, the
governor now appoints a senator, appoints someone to be senator
until the end of the term, and there will be
the election will happen, and Graham's name will of course
(06:22):
not be on the ballot. Sometimes when someone dies before
the name can be removed, the name appears on the ballot.
And what happens that's fun, is that they get elected.
Dead people get elected. And I think Graham would have
(06:42):
gotten elected because he was that popular. And I think
mainly because there are some elect some members of the electorate,
the citizens citizenry are just stupid and don't pay attention,
and I think others would do it as a statement
of how much he was beloved. So Lindsey Graham, dead
at the age of seventy one, which is way too
(07:06):
young to die, had very high blood pressure, had a
lot of plaque and as a result of that. One
of the symptoms of very high blood pressure is euryeorda
explodes because it weakens the AORDA.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Okay, so here's what happened. A couple days ago.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
There was and is a federal housing bill that is
now a federal housing law, and supporters hope it's going
to put a dent in California, mainly in the nation's
housing shortage. It is the largest single piece of federal
housing legislation in at least thirty years coming out of Congress,
(07:48):
and the bill became law in the middle of the
night early Saturday, without fanfare, without the president's signature. The
vast majority of cases bills are passed because the president
is involved, and the president signs the bills and sometimes
signs the bills with a great deal of fanfare, has
(08:10):
the table as the people behind them says, this is
going to affect millions of people, or this is going
to straighten out whatever problems we had. Not then, although
it was originally set up to do exactly that the
President was going to come. The lectern was being put up,
the chairs were being put up in I think it
(08:30):
was the East room where he was going to do it,
and then all of a sudden, a couple hours before,
all of a sudden, the chairs are removed, the lectern
is removed.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
It's all done, it's all gone.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Why well, it's a Save America Act that the President
is pushing very hard and has to do with voter
id and he said, I'm not signing this until Congress
passes the Save Act. And Congress was not about to
pass the Save Act because it's going to stall in
(09:04):
the Senate. Got it in the House. I mean, Mike
Johnson will do anything that the president wants, rolls over,
puts his paw up, gets a treat I mean, whatever
the president wants, Mike Johnson does, but not necessarily the Senate.
So he just let it become law because according to
the Constitution, if a bill is passed and the president
(09:26):
does not sign it, it becomes law in ten days.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So now what happened, Well, it's law.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
The President has made his point very clear, you don't
pass the Save America Act. I'm not signing. What's going
to be interesting? What else he's not going to sign?
And here is what the bill does, not a lot.
It has fifty six regulatory tweaks, programs, low cost loans grants,
(09:59):
they're not going to move the needle because it's not
a lot of money. Supporters say that collectively put it
all together, it might just move the needle. We don't
know because the numbers have to be so astronomical and
this is little bits and pieces. So what is what's
happening with it? Well, first of all, the reason that
(10:22):
in the Senate it's the Grow or the Save America
Act didn't pass, not the House because of Mike Johnson,
Because there is a yes in my backyard movement, especially
here in California where we have more experience than most
in continuing with affordable housing because we don't have any Now,
(10:47):
what's making housing more affordable if they can help? Well,
money is given to various programs. There are some tweaks
which I'm going to tell you about in a moment,
but to give you an idea, And it's described as
overwhelming support. I mean overwhelming support both the Senate and
the House. As in the Senate for example, it was
(11:11):
originated as a joint proposal by Tim Scott South Carolina,
who is a conservative among conservative conservatives, and Elizabeth Warren,
who's about as left wing as it can be one
of the things. For example, would change something called the
Community Development Block grant. This is federal money going to
(11:33):
the cities for affordable housing and economic development. And with
price the cities, well, they'll have their grant funds cut
by ten percent, but then the savings go to municipal
counterparts that are more effective non governmental NGOs, hoping that
(11:55):
the building will be at a faster clip. Here's one
that is kind of interesting, just to show you the
kind of archaic rules manufactured housing. Manufacture housing are these,
I guess trailers.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
But they don't move around very much.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
They're built on assembly lines, they're shipped to where they're needed,
and they are affordable, and both lawmakers California, United States
say we need those in droves. And the ones placed
on permanent foundations are fewer than one in ten.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
They never move again.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
However, federal law says that manufactured housing includes its reference
to mobile origins, it has to have a permanent chassis.
Federal building codes force it to have a permanent chassis
so it can be moved. Houses don't move, and the
(12:56):
expense of building a movable foundation is astronomical compared to
a normal foundation. So what ends up happening, there's a
ten to twelve inch thick floor beneath the floor because
it has to be able to be moved. Well, no,
(13:17):
we don't need that. So that's one of the things
that this bill does. It removes a permanent chassis requirement.
That alone, according to Representative Scott Peters, Democratic San Diego, said,
we'll expand access to one of the mostly affordable forms
of homeowner ownership because it's thousands and thousands of dollars
(13:39):
to do that. Also, the chassis business, you can't build
multiple housing, you can't build in stacks. And also what
happens after a natural disaster, After emergency federal dollars have
come and gone. What Congress is doing is providing communities
with long term rebuild than grants.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
That's new.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
So over the last decades, the program spent more than
one hundred billion dollars on long term work of recovery,
home construction, infrastructure repair. That money tends to be reserved
for low income in people in communities do not bounce
back quickly. Well, that is going to be expanded. So
(14:26):
the bottom line is that this program, of which I
think there are fifty eight provisions little bits and pieces
put them all together, and the supporters hope that it's
going to move the needle. The President has said that
this housing bill is small potatoes. It's a big yawn.
(14:48):
Where the voter registration bill is critical to the security
of this country. So let me throw something at you,
voter id how's it going to affect you. It's not
gonna affect me. I don't think it's any.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Big, Neil.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The housing situation in this country is so dire. Anything
that can help, particularly here in southern California where housing
is downright unaffordable. Okay, before we get into a flock
surveillance and what it is, Neil, tell us about the Dodgers.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
Indeed, the Dodgers today are playing. They've got the T
Mobile Home Run Derby going on today. So this afternoon
at the T Mobile Home Run Derby in Philadelphia, starting
at five one LA Sports, stock up for your summer
barbecue with packs of hoppy premium beef franks, which are
(15:48):
delicious and they are especially their bacon wrapped hot dogs
at Smart and find All.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
Okay, flock surveillance cameras.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I don't know if you've heard about flock surveillance, but
there's some big issues because LAPD uses FLOCK surveillance or
did they suspended them? And what they do is their
license place readers is what they are. And the problem
is and these are folks privacy advocates that are saying, well, okay,
(16:22):
they are supposed to just be used for police purposes, surveillance,
dealing with bad guys, people that are on the run,
people that have committed crime, were in the middle of
committing crime, and so a lot of concerns over who
controls the data, how it can be shared with other agencies,
(16:46):
including immigration. Now an Inspector General AUDIT is urging a
pause on the new deployments and contracts with cities until
privacy security oversight rules are in place. Just to give
an idea what FLOCK does. It contracts with over five
(17:07):
thousand municipalities across the country, including LAPD and San Francisco,
San Diego, I mean all of it in La alone,
one hundred and thirty eight pole mounted cameras, and it
allows the authorities track vehicles have been reported stolen or
registered to fugitives and its Flock is only one of
(17:32):
the vendors used by the city for automated license plate
readers and boy, have they been criticized sharing data with
state and federal officials, and advocacy groups are worried that
the information could help the immigration crackdown.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
That's the fear. LAPD.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Dean Giamalis, chief Information officer, told news outlets that the
LAPD s making more protections around the information collected.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
The sticking point is around having.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Very clear terms about who owns the data, what happens
with the data once it's collected, and he said the
LAPD is going to stop using flocks until we get
those privacy security sharing concerns ironed out three year contract
the LAPD has with Flock, but it's set to expire
(18:27):
on Saturday, and LAPD officials had previously announced the City
Attorney's office was working on drawing up a new contract,
and one of the Flock people said Saturday's decision that
they're holding off re signing is a surprise.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
Now.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
LAPD has used license plate readers for years, and Flock
says the technology should have strong privacy protections and oversight.
Okay also says the technology complies with California law that
the information not be shared with certain agencies. Well, it
(19:08):
turns out the FLOCK does share with federal authorities, including ICE,
and it has led to smaller cities just straight out
in their relationship. Mountain View, Northern California turned off its
thirty flock cameras in February because city officials announced that
the federal and state law enforcement agencies had access city
(19:30):
data in violation of the policy of the city. And
as you can imagine, the demonstrators in recent months outside
of LAPD headquarters are gathering and they demonstrate for weeks
at a time. In the meantime, LAPD boosters, homeowner associations
elected officials have pressured the city to increase the number
(19:54):
of cameras.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
So what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Well, I like surveillance, especially catching bad guys. At the
same time, do I want the information shared with immigration? Well,
there has to be a limit with how much it's
shared with. So I'm on the side of the bad
(20:21):
guys getting surveilled, and because I don't think there's much
privacy out there, although this helps invade your privacy, but
you know, risk versus benefit, adverse versus positive. My guess
is once this is ironed out, we're going to go
(20:42):
back to using these license plate readers.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
I just like it.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
The only time I am not in favor of license
plate readers, and this one really gets my eyre up
is those license plate readers that read your license at
toll booths. I hate those. Those should be illegal going
through toll booths, those toll roods where they read your
(21:07):
license plate. And if you don't pay, or you don't
have prepaid a prepaid card, you're screwed.
Speaker 5 (21:16):
You're a man of ethics and standards.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Complete hypocrisy, I mean complete across the board. All right, question,
I'm going to ask you what what do Americans old
people fear more than death? Other than working here? Connor,
(21:41):
what are you afraid more than death? Just curious because
you're not old, but still the question still remains.
Speaker 6 (21:47):
More than death, more than death? What do you fear
more than death? Okay, Amy, what do you fear more
than death?
Speaker 5 (22:01):
I don't know if it's more than death, because I
think it would result in death, but it would be
like being burned.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Alive, burned alive, Okay, not bad, Neil more than.
Speaker 5 (22:11):
Death, anything happening to my wife or son?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Okay, fair enough. Anne already knows because she came up
with the story. Let me tell you what it is
running out of money when you retire. People are more
frightened of running out of money. This is an annual survey.
It's a survey, of course, a Lion Center for the
Future of Retirement. Sixty seven percent of Americans worry more
(22:37):
about running out of money than dying. Not being able
to afford healthcare is the biggest one.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
There was five recent annual surveys. Running out of the
money always won. This year the margin was higher than ever.
People are living longer, inflation is there, the cost of
healthcare and long term care are rising, and people have
no idea. Anybody who actually looks at it is going
(23:08):
to realize that running out of money is a huge,
huge issue. Do you know what you need to Let's
say you earn fifty thousand dollars a year. Do you
know what you need to earn fifty thousand dollars a
year during retirement? A million dollars in your bank account,
in your retirement fund. Who the hell has a million dollars?
(23:31):
Now it doesn't count so security, so you don't need
quite that much. But to have a comfortable retirement. According
to the folks that are are art Public Policy Institute
I'm sorry. It's one point four million dollars so declining
healthcare that retires, long term care, social security cuts that
(23:53):
are going to have it happen outliving savings and investments
and long term care is really rising. The average assisted
living facility now charges sixty two hundred dollars a month.
When my mother was in her living facility, it was
eight thousand dollars a month that I paid, and I
(24:17):
should have just parked her on the sidewalk. She wouldn't
have known the difference.
Speaker 5 (24:21):
Who can afford that?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
That's the whole point. Who can afford that? I mean,
there are people that can. If you're dead broke, medical
will put you up in a place and they'll pay
thirty two hundred and thirty three hundred dollars a month.
And there are facilities that accept that much money. But
you're two to a room. You basically people are in
(24:44):
wheelchairs in the hallway just waiting to die. The place
smells like you can't imagine, smells like urine. It's horrific.
Life expectancy is up. It reached seventy nine years in
twenty twenty four, that's I think for men, and that's
(25:06):
a record high. And longer life raises the odds of
outliving your money because your money doesn't go up, but
the cost of living goes up.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
So what do you do? Well?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
You think about your retirement way early. I started thinking
about my retirement in my thirties, and I should have
started in my twenties. But I've spent a lot of
time thinking about my retirement and I've been spoiling out.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 5 (25:38):
Weren't you busted out and your thirty weren't you living
with your parents?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
But living with my parents at thirty five was that
was just a stop gap. I was still making a
good living as an attorney. That was just yeah, I
just had I sold my house, had no place to
go and just live with my mom and dad.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Just I was going to live for a few weeks.
I stayed a year.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
But that's the other thing that people who younger people
stay with their parents now because they can't afford it.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Now.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
One of the few people I know that is in
fact saving up and dealing with retirement in a big
positive way.
Speaker 4 (26:12):
You kneel, well, yeah, we try and make good decisions, but.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, a lot of people, a lot of people can't
make good decisions because they don't have the money to
make good decisions. So anyway, you're more frightened of death,
I'm more frightened of having more kids like mine. The
(26:39):
thought of doing that again, I'm going to blow my
brains out. All right, We're done.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Coming up.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Quite often we've heard about this billionaire exodus. Billionaires are
leaving the state. Rich people are leaving the state because
taxes are too high. Boy, do I have a stat
that I'm going to share with you that is really
and that's coming up. KF I am six point forty.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show. Catch my
Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am, and
anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
The Bill Handel Show News
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