11-22-24 FULL SHOW - Water Wars, Financial Moves, and A Theory That Doesn't Work

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Bill and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy ton.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Kam god, wait, you want to study Kevin nictyus through three?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Andy Connell, keeping you sad? Baby.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
Welcome Bafa, Welcome to a Friday edition of the show
Altogether now woo. I would like to start the program
with a text message on our Common Spirit Health text line.
You can reach us there at five six six nine. Oh, Mandy,
please tell me Grant is still around. I haven't heard him.
And truly Miss Cooper Beka in Big al Zach is great.

(00:48):
Guess here's here today? It's me. It's Grant. He'll never leave.
We've got our cloth into him now, ladies and gentlemen,
Dred will never be allowed to go anyway. All right,
it's going to be that kind of Friday. So I
got up today, Grant. I was like, you know what,
Lucy goosey, today let's do and ask me anything kind
of day. Got some interesting interviews, but I was going

(01:10):
to keep it light and then oh my god, the
news got in my way. It is in my way
right now because there are some stories out today. Let's
jump into it by going to the blog. You can
go to mandy'sblog dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com. Then
go to latest posts and look for the headline that
says eleven twenty two twenty four blog water Wars, financial

(01:34):
moves and a theory that doesn't work. Click on that
and here are the headlines you will find within an.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
Evening office half of American allyships and clipments of SASA
press plant.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Today on the blog water is a big deal. Let's
talk end of year financial moves. Modern monetary theory is hokum.
Colorado Springs mayor Jemmy Maballada was implicated in a hate
crime hoax. It's time to stock the vacancy committee appointments.
Denver's homeless response is a mess. Scrolling scrolling skiing is
a massive part of our economy. Say dot is expanding

(02:08):
its line. Jumper finds where is doge looking for cuts?
Rfk is going after food additives. The Oxford Comma still matters.
Gavin Newsom begins his presidential campaign, while Jared Polis thinks
he cut your property taxes tells the King rolls on,
even though Sly is out as Maga Airlines need to
work with air tags. Denver gets a nod from Connast

(02:32):
and now a baby bottleflip scrolling. What shows fell off
so hard you didn't finish them? Cynthia Arrivo is annoyed
again the new Superman trailers here. Pokemon Go was a
total scam. Even Jake Paul knows the fight was bad.
Those are the headlines on the blog. The band already
packed it in. There's the band just left. That's okay.

(02:54):
It's a voluminous blog, Grant voluminous. So much information on there,
I know you. The least of which is there's an
interview at the very bottom. Did you watch the Jake
Paul Mike Tyson fight last week?

Speaker 1 (03:05):
No?

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Okay. I love boxing, so I was like, okay, I'm
gonna watch the undercards at least because they were real
boxing matches. There was a WCBC featherweight match that was
absolutely incredible. When it was declared to draw, I was like, yep, yeah,
I mean they beat the crap out of each other.
And then there was two chicks fighting, and I was like,

(03:27):
I don't know about chick fighting, but let me tell you,
those chicks beat the crap out of each other. They
were both great fights. Although in the chick fight, Serrano
got robbed. They gave it to Katie Taylor, and there's
no freaking way that Katie Taylor won that fight. But nonetheless,
well that probably wasn't the only mixed result on the night.

(03:47):
I said, so the Tyson Jake Paul fight, it was like,
first of all, do you really want to watch somebody
box your grandpa?

Speaker 6 (03:53):
Right?

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Do you really want that?

Speaker 7 (03:55):
No?

Speaker 4 (03:55):
You don't, you do not. And Mike Tyson, I think
through like a through a punch, like a total of
maybe seven or some ridiculously low number. So it's basically
eight rounds of them dancing around, jabbing a little bit
here and there without actually making contact. And even Jake
Paul knows the fight sucked. That's what video on the

(04:15):
bottom of the blog is about. Even he was like, yeah,
I wish Mike had thrown some more punches, but when
I wasn't getting hit, the motivation to fight kind of
went out of the uh of the of his sales.
New Superman trailers out and on the blog today, and
I gotta tell you, I like it. The new Superman
looks like Superman, and I like it. I'm very excited

(04:39):
about Superman twenty twenty five coming out, so James gunflicks,
so it's gonna be really good. Also, on the blog today,
we have a lot of news, and I mean a
lot of news, not the least of which is a
video that you you know what, Grant, I don't think
I've ever told my listeners. I am requiring you to

(04:59):
go to the blog today and watch this video. But
today is the day. I realize it's Friday and the
next week is a holiday week for a lot of people.
So maybe mentally you've checked out and you're like, Manda,
you're not the boss of me. But I'm just saying
I hardly well Aerod pointed out, I asked you to
go read the blog every day whatever, But other than that,
I hardly ever ask for anything, And I'm telling you

(05:22):
you have to go watch the video of Gavin Newsom.
First of all, he's standing in front of what looks
like a car dealership, so it just makes his whole
spiel even smarmy. And by the way, if you are
a professional who sells cars, I am not talking about you.
When I use the old sort of scaeotype of the

(05:44):
old used car salesman the guy who knew the car
was a lemon, he knew it had been in an accident,
but he lied to you to make you drive it
off the lot. That's who I'm talking about. I know
people who sell cars as a profession, and they are
a delight. They don't fall into that stereotype. But when
I say used car salesman, we all know what I'm
talking about, right, So imagine Gavin Newsom. He's wearing a

(06:07):
purple suit. I believe it's purple, looks purple, and I
just want you to listen to this claptrap for just
a second. Let me get my audio there, Grant, thank you.
This is Gavin Newsom, slash used car salesman slash perhaps
evangelical preacher on TV. He's got a little bit of
that vibe going. Listen to this.

Speaker 7 (06:27):
I'm not looking this is about voters. It's not about
it's not about voters. I care about people. I don't
care who you voted for. I don't I care about people.
I care about Trump supporters. I care about RFK Junior supporters.
I care about Tucker Carlson supporters. I care about Charlie perksl.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
Now what you can't see in this video of used
car salesman Gavin Newsom is that he's doing the Bill
Clinton thing with the hands and like he puts the
thumb down on the fist and he's like and as
he's said, I care about Trump supporters, that little fiss
goes out there. I care about RFK supporters, that little
fits goes out there. I care about people. Why because
I like people. So now we have Gavin Newsom v

(07:07):
Jared Polis, they are clearly both in the race. Grant,
we should make some kind of like like a like
a whiteboard and we'll put a little finish line at
the end, and then whenever Gavin Newsom does something, we'll
give him a little up, and then when Jared Polis
does something, we'll and we'll have a little car race
between the two of them leading right up till twenty
twenty eight. Those are two front runners for well, they

(07:29):
are the ones clearly running. Yeah, clearly right for sure.
Well funny you should say that because Jared pol Is
sent out a tweet of an interview with the Guardian.
The Guardian is a left leading newspaper in the UK.
I want to I want to read this to you
and I want to hear. You can text us at

(07:51):
five six six N I O. If anything jumps out
at you, this is our governor of this state. Okay,
most of the US shifted right these question from the Guardian.
Most of the US shifted right in this election. Colorado
didn't why what's going on there? And our governor said,
And I don't know if he giggled, Wally said it,
or if you managed to do it with a straight face.
The biggest issue that Coloraden's face is really no different

(08:13):
than the biggest issue Americans have faced these last few years,
which is rising costs. Now that sentence right there, see
what he did here. The biggest issue that Coloradin's face,
the people that I am charged with leading, is no
different than the biggest issue Americans have faced. And I
could lead you to people. So then he continues, and

(08:34):
we took that on early. And you guys, wait a minute,
if you're driving, If you're driving, I need you to
just focus for just a second, because what I'm going
to tell you next is going to want to make
you pull your car over to an embankment for a
single car accident because you're going to be so frustrated
your head's might explode like a grape. So everybody ten
and two on the wheel, all right, you ready? Because
our governor said to the Guardian, and we took that

(08:57):
on early. With cutting the income tax three times, with
cutting property taxes, with eliminating the sales tax on necessary
items that families buy, like diapers. We just really tried
to meet people where they're at and say what can
we do to get government out of the way, reduce costs,
and help people afford to live in our great state.

(09:21):
This is the same governor that has imposed bag fees,
delivery taxes as much as they can bleed from the
people of Colorado. This governor has overseen two of those
income tax cuts that he talks about. He had nothing
to do with the Independence Institute put them on the ballot.

(09:46):
Uh cutting our property taxes. If they had acted before
the massive increase went in place, then maybe we can
say they cut our property taxes. But what they did
was let them skyrocket because of inaction at the legislature.
And then they want credit for cutting the skyrocketed property

(10:06):
taxes who are which are still sky high, but they
want credit for that. Y'all in through the nose, out
through the mouth. I wanted a nice light Friday. I
wanted to like fun Friday, Like, ask me anything, what
do you guys want to know? Let's talk about something dumb.
Who's gonna go see Gladiator two this weekend? But no,

(10:28):
here we go anyway, let's talk about something else anyway.
But I need I do. I am requiring the blog
today because you got to see the Gavin and I
have it right above the rest of that stupid interview
that our governor did.

Speaker 6 (10:44):
I just.

Speaker 4 (10:48):
Okay, you know what, you know what we're gonna do,
and we're gonna do this after the first of the year,
and I'm gonna put it in my calendar so I
don't forget, because I know a bunch of the things
that our governor has done. To make everything in Colorado
more expensive, to strip away freedoms, to insert the government
in between parents and their children. I know all of
the things this governor has done. But after the first

(11:09):
of the year, we are going to compile a list
and then we are gonna make it a booklet on Amazon,
and then we're gonna have a fundraiser and we're gonna
buy a whole bunch of them. We're gonna go leave
them everywhere and send them to every national media outlet
in the country. So this cannot be allowed to become
his narrative that he's the cutter of costs, he's the

(11:31):
protector of freedoms. The only freedom that he has protected
is one to kill a baby until the moment of birth.
That's it. Ugh Ah, Mandy, it should be like Price
is Right, where the mountain climber gets to the top
and they go over the amount, they fall off a cliff.
Give Polus and newse them their own face on competing

(11:52):
mountain climbers. That is so funny, Texture, because that is
exactly what I was thinking. But then you remember, isn't
that the game on Prices?

Speaker 8 (12:01):
Right?

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Once they stop it, they can't restart it again. Grant
they can't restart it for twenty four hours. What I
always was like, even as a child, I was like, well,
that's dumb. I mean, they can't fix that they How
complicated can this guy going up the hill be in
real life? Anyway? Mandy, Bond Villain level Polus create a

(12:26):
problem and then step in front to solve it. Do
you realize that most of what government does at this
point is trying to correct a problem. That government created
in the first place. I mean, we're so far down
the rabbit hole of ginormous government. I have on the
blog today the column that was written by Elon Muskin
to Viak Ramaswami about what they're going after when it

(12:47):
comes to government efficiency, and they are coming in hot.
So let's talk about what Donald Trump learned the last
time he got elected president based on what Donald Trump
has done this time since being elected president. Last time,
he had a real struggle getting cabinet positions filled. He
was trying to find the right people. He shows people

(13:07):
that he thought would be good at the job without
really looking at some underpinnings of what they were doing.
So here's what he learned. He learned that the entire Washington,
d c. Bureaucracy is going to work against him. So
in order to get anything in his agenda, which is
shrinking the size of regulatory structure and government, he has
to have people at the head that are absolutely on

(13:29):
board with that vision, which is why we've got Linda
McMahon at the board of you know, Department of Education.
Did I see that coming? No, I didn't call me confused,
But it's okay. I'm okay. With it because I honestly
believe is going to make an effort to get rid
of the Department of Education, and I am fine with that.
The only thing that comes out of the Department of
Education that I think is truly important is pell grants,

(13:51):
and we can move that to somewhere else, move it
to Treasury. I don't care. We can do that somewhere else.
It's fine. So Donald Trump also learned that he cannot
roll things out in a timely fashion as the government
gears in Congress have always wanted to do. He watched
Democrats get elected and immediately start throwing legislation against the

(14:15):
wall as fast as possible, and he learned, I would
guess that on the first day of the new Congress,
you are going to see a slew of bills filed
and taken up for consideration that are directly related to
his agenda. The Democratic Party is going to be left
the same way the Republican Party was in twenty twenty.
I'm completely caught flat footed and trying to fight a

(14:37):
million different fires at the same time. I'm not altogether
unhappy about it. I'm not gonna lie because everything I
see so far is about protecting our food supply. And
you know, let me just say this about RFK Junior,
because we haven't really talked about his appointment that much.
But RFK Junior has a lot of wack of doodle opinions.

(14:58):
They really does. I mean, you know, I heard Ross
talking about vaccines earlier and how he thinks that any
suggestion that vaccines can cause autism is crazy. I'm not
nearly as certain of that. Until they find a definitive
cause for autism. There is a tiny there's a percentage
chance that certain people could be affected a certain way.

(15:22):
Gene expressions being what they are, we don't know. Now.
My child is vaccinated. I take vaccines. You know, I'm
never taking another COVID vaccine. But I take traditional vaccines.
I believe that they have made our society a healthier
long term society. The spread of these diseases has been
largely wiped out until we've seen an influx of people

(15:44):
from Central and South America who do not have the
same access to vaccines that we have here. So it's
you know, I'm just not as certain of these things,
is all I'm saying. But RFK, when he talks about
the food supply, he is one hundred percent right and
just absolutely spot on. And I'm ready for him to

(16:05):
come in and say, you know what, why do you
put chemical flavorings and dyes in our food here that
you don't put into other people's food. And the answer
simply is because they can. And I have something on
the blog today about that, the specific situations that RFK
is going on offen or onto, globbing onto in our

(16:28):
food supply, I'm for all of these things. We have
an epidemic of obesity in this country, and it isn't
just because people all of a sudden one day collectively
decided to continually overeat. It's because of the way our
food is made, and our food is made to be addictive.
That's just the simple truth.

Speaker 9 (16:50):
You know.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
The reason that things like McDonald's French fries taste so
good is because they're designed to be addictive, and man
they are. But that means said, I'm interested to see
if he gets confirmed. First of all, I'm not certain
that he's going to sail through because pharmaceutical companies have
a lock on so many legislators in terms of they

(17:13):
will call them and that they know that they will
get the right votes and by the right votes. That
means anybody that could upset our apple cart where we
have an ongoing, you know, basically switch through of people
that go to work for the FDA and then they
go to work for drug companies, or they work for
drug companies and then they go to work for the FDA.
It's a very incestuous oversight situation, and RFK is going

(17:35):
to go after it, but I don't know if he's
going to make it through confirmation, simply because so many
legislators get a lot of money from big pharma every
single year. Anyway, Now, today on the show, we got
some guests. One of them coming up next I'll tell
you about Marion in just a second. We've got Josh
Coomran from the Retirement Planning Center of the Rockies coming up.

(17:56):
It's the end of the year and it's a great
time to kind of give your finances and overview while
you're getting ready for your taxes and stuff like that.
We're going to talk about different stages of life than
what you need to do in different stages of life
to kind of, you know, be on track for your retirement.
So we're going to talk about that, and then at
two thirty A guy named Alexander Salter wrote a great
column the other day about how modern monetary theory may

(18:19):
have gotten Trump elected and it is the dumbest economic
theory I have ever heard, but because it allows government
to spend wildly and unchecked, it has become very popular
in Washington, d C. Now coming up next, I'm telling
you there's so much news today is so much You
know what the news is that shocked me today? Were

(18:40):
you with us Grant when we talked to Yemy Mobilade
from Colorado Springs? Okay? I had Yemmy on the show
before he became mayor. Was just super interesting guys, and
immigrant had this great story, ran as an independent, and
became mayor of Colorado Springs. So today the Daily Wire
breaks the story that a couple of weeks ago on
the show, I talked about a story about two people,

(19:03):
three people who are now facing charges for a fake
hate crime that involved Yemy's campaign signs. And in that
report it said something like this guy talked to Jemmy
multiple times before this all happened, and I was like, well,
what's going on there? But I didn't really have any
more information. Well, now we do, and it seems that

(19:25):
the FBI referred Yemi Mobilata for prosecution to the Department
of Justice because it seems, at least according to them,
that he seemed to have a role in this fak crime,
and the DOJ chose not to press charges because they
were not going to prosecute Colorado Springs first, Black Mayor.

(19:46):
That is the kind of political treatment of criminal justice
that needs an absolute overhaul to DJ. And we're going
to get to Pambondi later. Love that piic though for
ag love that. We're going to talk to Mary and
Goodland when we get back. She just wrote a long
piece about water policy. You guys, if you've just moved

(20:06):
to Colorado, you have no idea how important this is.
It is incredibly dense subject. We're going to see if
we can get through it with Mary Anne. But it's US,
tribal nations, seven other states, all these other people all
fighting over the same water in the same river. We
will talk to her next. Keep it on KOA. Marian Goodland,
she is with Colorado politics, and she has written a

(20:29):
long article, very very informative about what I say is
the most important, most worring topic in the history of Colorado.
But when I say water and water rights is the
number one issue in Colorado, I am not exaggerating. Marian,
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 8 (20:44):
First of all, thank you so much for having me on, Mandy,
I'm happy to be with you.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
Well, I'm glad to have it. And let's start a
big picture because we have a lot of transplants. Like
you know, I got here eleven years ago. It never
occurred to me that I didn't own the water rights
at my house. Right It's just so foreign to me.
So let's start at the beginning. Right now, negotiations are
going on between whom about what, lots.

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Of different parties who were involved in this one. This
has to do with the shortages that of the Colorado
River that have been getting worse and worse because of
climate change, drought, lack of snowfall, lack of rainfall. This
has been going on now for twenty years. We are
in a twenty year megadrought that a lot of people
say is like one that you get every two thousand years,

(21:32):
that's how bad it is. And the issue here is
that there are seven states that share the water from
the Colorado River and they and for the last one
hundred and two years. Since nineteen twenty two, there has
been a compact that has governed who gets what now.
When the Colorado River Compact was signed one hundred and

(21:55):
two years ago, there were only about seven million people
in those seven states. There's about forty million people in
those seven states, but the numbers haven't changed. What's changed, however,
is the hydrology how much water the river can supply. Now,
Colorado is in what's called the Upper Basin States, and
that includes US in Utah and Wyoming and New Mexico,

(22:16):
and then you have the lower Basin States, which is Arizona, Nevada,
and California. And California is the big dog in this one.
They have the most senior water rights and they get
the most water out of the Colorado River. So what
happens is that the Bureau of Reclamation sort of manages
the operations of the river and they do it through

(22:37):
two big lakes reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Lake
Cowell is sort of the water bank for Colorado. Lake
Mead is the water bank for the lower basin states.
And there's a lot of difference between how both these
two entities, upper and Lower Basin, how they evaluate how
much water they're getting. For a long time, the lower

(22:59):
base and states were taking a lot more water than
they were actually entitled to, and the Upper Basin states
kind of fussed about that. And we're now in this
situation with this drought that and we're getting ready to
have new guide operating guidelines in how the river is managed.
And this is a process that is being managed by

(23:20):
the Bureau of Reclamation, which is part of the Department
in the Interior, and they have been trying now since
two thousand and one to get these two entities, the
Lower and Upper bas States, to kind of agree on
what's going to happen when these guidelines that we're under
right now expire at the end of twenty twenty six.
And there is no agreement. These two sides have just

(23:42):
never never come to an agreement on how these things
are going to work. So the Bureau has had to
take something of a harder role in sort of forcing
everybody to get along. And this week they issued what
they called alternatives, and basically they're going to adopt one
of these alternatives or maybe a combination of them that

(24:04):
are going to establish just how much water goes to
each one of the basins. How much is the upper
basin going to get? How much is the lower basin
going to get? And this is important because and this
is important to every Colorado. Just keep it in mind
when you turn on your tap, your shower, your sprinkler heads,
eighty percent of that water is coming from the Colorado River. Now,

(24:27):
you might ask, how did that get all the way
over from the Western Slope, which is where the Colorado
River starts, all the way to Denver. And over many
many years, many many decades, what's happened is that there's
been these big tunnels that have been built on the
western slope. They go through the mountains and then they
come out on the on the eastern side of the

(24:47):
Continental Divide, and they feed water into the South Platte
River and some of the other and some of the
other rivers in northern Colorado. And that's that's how you
get your water, folks, that's water coming from Colorado River.
So what happens to the Colorado River should matter to everybody,
because if we wind up with cutbacks water cutbacks, which

(25:09):
is part of the conversation that's going on right now,
it's called a compact call. That's sort of the technical name.
If the lower basin states feel like they're not getting
their fair share, they're going to demand it from basically
from the upper basic states. And that's what the Bureau
of Reclamation is trying to avoid is a compact call
and a big what would be a very big legal fight.

Speaker 4 (25:32):
So here's my question, and it's a question that everybody
who isn't familiar with this is going to ask. So
I'll just take the head as the dummy. What if
we just said it's our water and we're not going
to share it with you. Where how far back does
this compact go? And why does California have so many
rights in the first place, when in my mind, California
should be investing in desalinization and getting their water from

(25:54):
the ginormous Pacific Ocean coastline that they have, and they are.

Speaker 8 (26:00):
There is some de desalination projects going on in the
southern California. It's not like they aren't trying it. But
California has had what are known as senior water rights,
which means that they claimed them first, they get to
have them first. And that's water law that goes back
in Colorado all the way back to eighteen seventy six

(26:21):
and in many other states the same thing. Whoever claims
those water rights first gets to have them. And that's
why we can't shut off, shut off the tap and
say we're not going to send any more water down there.
It's known as the law of the river, and we
don't really have a say in it.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
Okay, So let me ask this, Marianne, because we kind
of talked about this. I feel like people will start
to notice and pay attention and really engage on water
issues when more edicts come down from local governments about
what kind of grass you can have or maybe not have,
or new developments requiring zero escaping to lower the amount
of water that is coming. And when you talk to

(26:58):
people from California, they have a water scarcity mentality that
is far different than ours. I mean, they are so
water conscious. I have friends that I mean the extremes
they go to to protect their water. So I think
the people of California are getting it. But is it

(27:18):
time for us to get it too?

Speaker 8 (27:21):
And our legislature actually is already pushing forward with this.
They put in turf replacement, a turf replacement program in
the last legislative session. These things right now are all
optional everything's you know, they're not mandating it, but if
we don't start getting smart about conserving water, we could

(27:42):
very well be in the same situation that other states
are in Nevada. Las Vegas, for example, does a phenomenal
job of educating its residents about saving water, and they
have very very strict regulations about landscaping and they're even
putting in regulations about pools. Is a big deal in
Las Vegas. Know about the size of pools that you

(28:04):
can have, so that so that they're doing their part
to conserve Nova takes actually less water from the Colorado
than any of the other states, but they're actually way
ahead of everybody else on conservation. Colorado has got to
get smart about conservation too. Now, keep in mind that
most of the Colorado River water and most of the
water in Colorado goes to feed agriculture, so that's that's

(28:28):
also a really big part of the conversation around conservation
is how do you get farmers to work with governments
and some of the other things that are going on
right now in order to help conserve water. And that's
a really really difficult conservation or conversation because farmers want
a farm, they want to grow their crops. What's the

(28:50):
part of that conversation right now is trying to convince
them to grow crops that use less water. Instead of
going alfalfa, for example, there's other kinds of hay that
you can grow that has the same nutritional benefits and
same uses but doesn't use as much water. So that's
also a really big part of the conversations. What do

(29:10):
you do about agg which is a huge economic driver
in this state.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
Well, we just had a guy on with the new
Colorado Israeli Chamber of Commerce and we talked about them
working with farmers for drip irrigation systems to lower their
water footprints. So there are things happening in that respect.
But I do know that, I mean, nobody wants to say, sorry,
you can't grow our food. But let me ask you
one more question, Marian, and that is if the if

(29:35):
all of these groups, the tribes and the states, and
the Upper Bays and the lower basin, they can't come
to a conclusion. Am I reading this right that the
Bureau of Land Management is basically going to say We're
going to pick one for you.

Speaker 8 (29:48):
That's exactly right. It's a Bureau of Reclamation just in
charge of all of all of this, and they have
come down in the past it says, if you can't
work things out, we will work it out for you.
But that also could mean spending a lot of time
in the courts and this problem not getting solved in
twenty twenty six or twenty twenty seven when these guidelines

(30:10):
are supposed to come out. So there's a lot of
pressure on everybody who's doing these negotiations. And thank you
for bringing in the tribes. There are thirty tribes who
also have a city in this so does Mexico. There
are two states in Mexico to get water from the Colorado.
So the hope of the Bureau of Reclamation is that
everybody can figure out something that will work for everybody.

(30:31):
Right now, we've got these four alternatives that they're going
to be looking at in the next month, and in
a month from now we'll know kind of where they're
headed with.

Speaker 6 (30:40):
All of this.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
If you want a more detailed deep dive, I linked
to a great article that Marian did in Colorado Politics
in the Denver Gazette on the blog today, Marian, thank
you so much for taking some time to sort of
walk us through this.

Speaker 8 (30:51):
Today You're very welcome. Thank you for having me on.
I get really excited when I get to talk about water.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
I get you're the only person ever who's excited about it.
But it's infectious. Marianne, thanks so much, thank you, and
thanks for having me on. All right, we'll be right back.
I have a kabbajillion stories on the blog today, cabajillion. Okay, uh, Grant,
did you have a chance to go watch the Gavin Newsom?

Speaker 10 (31:21):
No?

Speaker 4 (31:21):
What do I have to do to get you to
this used Hunday kind of conversation?

Speaker 6 (31:24):
There?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
Boy boy, these guys are already out there. Somebody else
pointed out JB. Pritzk are also already running for president. Yeah,
it's gonna it's gonna be a long four years, my friends,
along four years. If you are in town this weekend,
I would love for you to come down to the
Castle Rocks star lighting, because yours truly. We'll be doing

(31:46):
a little of the stage announcements for stage number four
And I've never been to the Castle Rocks star lighting.
Have you ever done this?

Speaker 6 (31:54):
Grant?

Speaker 4 (31:54):
Have you ever been down there?

Speaker 2 (31:55):
No?

Speaker 4 (31:56):
But I've always wanted to. It's what when is it? Saturday? Sturday?
It's Saturday from two to six. Basically, two to five
is when the like all the kids, you're performing on
the different stages and dance routines and Salvation Army brass
bands and all that stuff, and then I think the
actual star lighting is like five thirty.

Speaker 10 (32:13):
Okay, that's so there you go. My wife is a
Christmas baby. Christmas is her favorite holiday, so.

Speaker 4 (32:20):
I know that about Olivia, but it's unsurprising. Yes, Christmas,
you know things that go on. So we done this.
We've already got our Botannic Gardens tickets for our family.
What other things do we need to do here? I'm
gonna have to text her see if you can find out.
Because light show this year? Yeah, I don't. Okay, here's

(32:40):
my problem with drive through light shows. You're just sucking
up somebody else in front of the carbon monoxide. Yeah,
but you get to.

Speaker 10 (32:46):
Tune your radio to channel and then the little mouse
on the lights move around with the songs.

Speaker 4 (32:52):
Okay, well i'll give you that. Well, maybe the problem
that I'm thinking of is that the last one of
those that I went to was in a giant cave. Okay,
so there's nowhere for the carbon When I say you
were driving through somebody. I mean it was like, oh,
are we trying to guess the entire world right now?
It was pretty rough. I used to be the biggest
I wouldn't.

Speaker 10 (33:08):
Say the biggest grinch, but I was definitely not someone
who got in the holiday spirit every year. Yeah, and
Olivia has completely transformed me now out of it.

Speaker 4 (33:16):
It's perfect. Well, it's you just have to lean in, right,
You just got to lean in. That's my only choice now.
So yeah, yeah, the ghost of Charles Harrington Elster is
listening me. And Chuck is horrible grammar. Yes, it is Chuck,
and I I know Rip Chiles, I know, Mandy, what
do you mean? It's gonna be a long four years.
People are already running for president, not officially, but it

(33:39):
is happening right now. You know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna make a list. I'm gonna on permanent, I'm
with permanent marker grant. I'm making a list and I'll
just add to it throughout the year. I'm putting on
a cardboard Dems running for pres Hopefully I'll be able
to know what that is. We've got Polists, We've got Newsome,

(34:01):
We've got Pritzker. It's only a matter of time before
Gretchen Whitmer enters the chat. We shall see how long
that takes.

Speaker 10 (34:08):
How many was it in twenty What was the first
year that Biden ran twenty twenty, twenty twenty, there was
like ten or eleven more or less.

Speaker 4 (34:16):
This time more? Well, you know what, it's kind of
a wild situation right now because the old guard of
both parties is now being shuffled out. Right. So whereas
Nancy Pelosi kept just an iron claw grip on everything
party related, she no longer has that. So I think
there's kind of gonna be a little bit of a
struggle for the leadership of the party. And that means

(34:36):
all bets are off and it's gonna be amazing, amazing
Ooh the Glen Eerie Christmas Madrigal dinner and show Yes.
Sign me up now you people are texting me. Okay,
when we get back, it is the end of the year,
you are probably gonna start gathering your tax documents and
getting everything ready. What else do you need to do?

(34:58):
We're gonna give you a little end of year financial checkup.
Next with Josh Comberin from Retirement Planning Center of the
Rockies back in a moment right after this.

Speaker 1 (35:08):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Andy Conall.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
On KLAM ninetym.

Speaker 7 (35:23):
Got the Sky and the Nicety, the Prey, Mandy Connell,
keeping sad Thing.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Welcome Local, Welcome to the second hour of the show.
I just want to respond to one text before I
get to my guest. Hey, Mandy, do you need to
add Harris to your president list. I've seen a few
indications that she might run again in twenty eight. Prediction
she will get as many Electoral College votes in twenty
twenty eight as she got in twenty twenty, which is zero.

(35:57):
And you will see the whole Well, she's amazing, and
she's joy and she's all of that is over. It's
all all. No, I'm not adding her, not yet, not
unless I absolutely have to. Now it is coming up
to the end of the year. I don't know if
you guys know this. I don't know how it's already
November twenty second, when it was October thirty first, like

(36:18):
fourteen minutes ago. Grant's still wearing his costume from Halloween
I mean, you know, that's how it's just so close.
But it is the end of the year, and for
a lot of people that means it's time to kind
of begin tax planning and stuff like that. I thought
it would be interesting tap Josh Kumeran from a retirement
planning center of the Rockies, come on to do a
little nerdy financial talking about the end of the year. Josh,

(36:39):
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 9 (36:40):
Thanks Mandy, and I love that you use the term
nerdy because we are nerds.

Speaker 4 (36:44):
Yeah it is, but you want nerds when you're having
someone help you with your finances. You don't want like,
you know, some wack a doodle someone. So let's talk
for a second. First of all, because this is a
question that has come up over and over and over again.
What does a new administration mean for people going forward?
I know you guys are probably getting these questions because

(37:04):
there's anytime although there's a little bit of a known
quantity here. So does this kind of get easier for
you guys to answer that question.

Speaker 9 (37:11):
Well, absolutely, and you're right, that is probably the biggest
question we're getting even more than a year planning type
stuff right now. There's a pretty large level of optimism
surrounding the markets going forward, as evidenced by immediately after
Trump was elected, right, the markets responded favorably, and you

(37:35):
just due to his own policy and things that he
stands for that bodes well for the market going forward.
So a lot of people have been asking us, well,
do I need to make changes? Do I need to
get more aggressive? Do I need to do X, Y
or z? And Really, Mandy, the simplest answer that I
can give you is, don't go crazy making changes in
your portfolio, because when you're chasing the market, that's when

(37:57):
you tend to hurt yourself a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (37:58):
Right, those for me feel like emotional decisions right when
you're chasing the market that is not based in rational analysis.
That is, oh my gosh, I'm afraid I'm going to
miss out on something if I don't do something.

Speaker 8 (38:09):
Now.

Speaker 9 (38:10):
Yeah, fomo is a real thing. I mean, we talk
about it, you know, in the pop culture world, fomo
I want to be involved.

Speaker 4 (38:17):
The same applies to the market.

Speaker 9 (38:19):
Don't try to chase everything that you can that you
think is going to be advantageous to your returns over right,
the course of the next year or so, you know,
stick to your plan. That's what we're here for us
at Retirement Planning Center. We're focused on helping people stick
to a plan that they know is going to work.

Speaker 6 (38:36):
Right.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
That's whether it's a good.

Speaker 9 (38:38):
Market, whether it's a poor market, it doesn't matter. You're
going to stand the test of time because you have
a plan and you got a steady plan one hundred percent.
We call the Summit Retirement Guide in our office.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
So at the end of the year, as people are
doing their tax planning, or maybe they're sort of looking
to see how they did year over year, maybe they're
maybe they're going to take some profits, maybe they're going
to do that. What are some of the things that
you need or you guys look at when it comes
to someone's age, like if someone's forty, what has to
happen at the end of the year versus someone who's
fifty five or sixty clinton nearing retirement. What do you

(39:12):
guys recommend in that respect?

Speaker 9 (39:13):
Right, So, the name of the game as we near
the end of the year is tax planning.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I mean, pure and simple.

Speaker 9 (39:19):
There's nothing you can really do from an investment standpoint
that's going to change the outcome between now and the
end of the year. So the thing that you can
control is what you do to help mitigate your tax
liability going forward. A lot of that can be done
by maxing out your contributions to retirement accounts. That's a
big one. Obviously, seeing if there's any tax savings that
can take place, you know, through business expenses or other avenues,

(39:44):
you know, health savings accounts, whatever, you want to take
advantage of those so that you can lower your taxable
income prior to the end of the year.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
That's that's critical.

Speaker 9 (39:54):
It doesn't really matter how much you earn in your
investments if you don't get to keep any of it
because I'm doing that appropriate tax planning.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
So let's talk for a second about catching up the
irs allows how much extra in contributions into a four
toh one K if you're over is it fifty two
or fifty five? Fifty fifty?

Speaker 8 (40:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (40:10):
So my partner, Jarris, I'm gonna give him a shout out.
I'm gonna throw hi under the bus. He hit that
old man age.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Jump out this year when check the different box on
the age. I just did that and it broke my
heart all of a sudden. I'm in the fifty five
to sixty four group. What the hell? It's not cool, right,
I feel you charge.

Speaker 9 (40:32):
It's kind of depressing, But in reality it's actually a
blessing too, because then you have an additional catchup that
you can throw into a four to one K.

Speaker 6 (40:38):
Right.

Speaker 9 (40:39):
For example, those under fifty can put up to twenty
three thousand dollars for the year in but because you're
over fifty, you have an additional I think it's like
seven thousand, seventy five hundred dollars eight thousand. Yeah, they're
changing it all the time, so you get an extra
catchup provision that allows you to put more into your
four to one K. That helps lower that tax liability

(40:59):
on your tax and you can.

Speaker 4 (41:00):
Actually do that into next year. I don't until tax
time is when you can make those contributions for this year.

Speaker 9 (41:05):
Yes, and no, with a four to one K, it's
just a payroll deduction, right, so you can't catch up
that way. But if you're using like an IRA, which
you have total control over now, the contribution limits are
much much less than IRA, right, you can only put
up till like eight thousand dollars if you're over fifty
into that, so you can retroactively pay into that HIRA

(41:26):
up until April fifteenth of next year for the prior
year's contributions.

Speaker 4 (41:31):
Okay, so we got the irs catchups for people over fifty.
I've been reading a lot lately about minimum distributions and
roth IRA conversions. At what age do you need to
start worrying about we're thinking about those things. Let's start
with the required minimum distribution distribution.

Speaker 9 (41:52):
Yeah, for most folks, seventy three is going to be
the age where you have to start pulling money out
of your retirement accounts. That's whether you need the income
or not, right, And that's a hard pill for a
lot of people to swallow, especially if income's either strong
or you just don't need that additional income. But that's
something that you're gonna have to do. And at that
age it's about three point sixty five percent.

Speaker 4 (42:14):
So what is the logic that the government? Why is
that rule in place?

Speaker 9 (42:17):
Sure, so the agreement that we enter into with the
government when we contribute to retirement accounts is, hey, I'm
going to let you defer those taxes for ah.

Speaker 4 (42:29):
They just want their money.

Speaker 9 (42:30):
It's time for us to get ours essentially, you know.
And is there any sort of rhyme or reason to
the age. No, not really. That's just when the government deemed, Okay, you've.

Speaker 4 (42:39):
Had your money enough long enough, we want our cut, right.
That is just Isn't that just the most the most
excellent example of government just being a bloodsucking vampire on
the American people, isn't it?

Speaker 6 (42:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (42:54):
And can I make it worse?

Speaker 7 (42:55):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 9 (42:57):
So if if you don't pull out the whole required
minimum distribution that you're supposed to pull out, there's a
penalty of twenty five percent.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Oh, because they're gonna get their money either way.

Speaker 9 (43:08):
So it used to be fifty Oh my god, the
of the amount you should have but didn't.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
So there's no real way around this. Okay, So those
alternative what if people don't necessarily need that cash? Do
they just reinvest it? What happens there? So you're basically
pulling it out, taking the capital gains, and then just
putting it back into the market.

Speaker 9 (43:26):
Yeah, that's that's a way to look at it. Some
folks will do that, a lot of people. What's interesting
is if they are more focused on creating like a legacy,
you know, leaving something behind, what they'll do is they'll
funnel that from their retirement accounts over to say, like
a life insurance policy.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Okay, because what that's.

Speaker 9 (43:44):
Doing is that's, you know, not only funneling cash into
a life insurance policy, it's creating additional death benefit. A
lot of times there could be long term care benefits
through that life insurance policy. But really what they're doing
is they're turning a dollar into multiple dollars, right, so
that they can leave behind a legacy that's going to
be favorable to their errors.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
So let's talk about to speaking of tax favorable, let's
talk about Roth conversions. When I first heard the phrase
Wroth conversion, I had absolutely no idea what we were
talking about or why you would want to do this.
Why would someone First of all, what is a Roth conversion?
For someone like me? I now know what it is,
but I'm just going to play the dummy on the
radio for you. What is that? Yeah?

Speaker 9 (44:21):
So this is a really cool strategy for a lot
of folks that maybe can't necessarily con contribute to a
roth ira because there's a lot of people that are
phased out of income. But what a Roth conversion essentially
is is you take money from either a four oh
one k or an ira and you convert that over
to a wrath while paying taxes on the amount that
you convert over.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
To the roth. What is that benefit?

Speaker 9 (44:44):
So what that does is that allows you to kind
of take control out of how much you're pulling out
of your retirement accounts in the first place, as opposed
to waiting all the way until rm D.

Speaker 4 (44:52):
Age, right told what you have to take out.

Speaker 9 (44:55):
But there's a little bit of strategy, Mandy, where you know,
we try to help folks within that same tax bracket, right,
and we'll say, okay, so if you're still working.

Speaker 4 (45:03):
At a full capacity, it might not be the best
idea because then you'll just add that to your income
and it'll possibly push you into a different tax bracket. Correct. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (45:11):
Where we really find that sweet spot is is between
retirement and RMD age. So for some folks that might
be sixty five years old, that they retire and they
have until seventy three before they have to start pulling out.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
So we've got an eight year window. Cool, Do you
have a limit on how much you can convert one year?

Speaker 11 (45:27):
No?

Speaker 9 (45:27):
If you have a million dollars and you want to
convert a million dollars, you know, if you'd have to
stick tax hit, I'd have to take a pretty heavy taxit.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
So there's no limitation there, now, you know, I want
to This is going to be a kind of a
dumb question, but we have a lot of people in
our audience that are like late thirties, early forties, and
maybe they're just socking money into their four one K
and when they hear you talking about you know what
you guys do, they think, Eh, you know, I'm either
not ready for that, or you know, I don't have
a big enough portfolio, or I'm doing just fine. I

(45:57):
wish that I had engaged with someone like you a
lot earlier. I mean, oh my gosh, cause I just
I didn't know anything. And when you don't know anything,
you're just honestly, my first few four one K, like
when I was you know, I just literally could have
just thrown a dart against the wall and just picked something.
I've learned a lot since then. Sure, But what do
you say to the people who are like, well, I'm

(46:18):
not right for this yet.

Speaker 9 (46:20):
You know, just start I mean, really, the benefit that
folks have is establishing the habit, right, because when you
get in the habit, then it's all a sudden out
of side, out of mind.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
It's meaning just shoveling money into savings instead of having
it come to your.

Speaker 9 (46:34):
Bank, right absolutely, And then you know, over time you
can progressively, you know, increase that amount to really take
advantage of the benefits that you get for doing that.

Speaker 4 (46:43):
But yeah, I just start.

Speaker 9 (46:45):
I mean, everybody always thinks, you know, Mandy, I'm never
going to reach you know, fifty sixty years old, so
far down the road. I don't even have to worry
about it. I got so much to worry about. Now,
just start the habit, even if it's fifty dollars a month.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
See, I was going to say. I was talking to
a friend and she said, look, even if you only
have five dollars to save five dollars, you mentally start
that habit. And when that five dollars turns into fifty
dollars turns into one hundred dollars, you begin to realize
how fast that snowballs. And it does. She was specifically
talking about creating that mentality. So for people that are

(47:19):
kind of working on the margins, you don't have to
save a million dollars every paycheck, but save something because
that is a muscle that has to be worked, that
savings muscle to make that happen. So when you are
talking about tax preparation and mitigating tax stuff like that,
that sounds very foreign to people who have been doing
a ten to forty easy their entire life, the most

(47:40):
basic tax form. At what point in someone's financial life
do they need to go you know what, maybe I
need to talk to an accountant. I talk about it
all the time. That money I pay my accountant is
the best money I spend all year, hands down, sure,
hands down. At what point does someone in their financial
journey need to start saying, you know what, maybe it's
time to itemize.

Speaker 9 (47:58):
Yeah, so that's a really good questions. So, while we're
not CPAs, we understand taxes very very well. You know,
if you've got a family, you know, multiple kids, you've
got a home that you're paying mortgage insurance and taxes on,
if you contribute to charity, I mean so many different
things you probably don't even think about, Like, oh, that

(48:18):
adds up really quick. That standard deduction all of a
sudden is getting smaller and smaller for me. So maybe
it makes sense to start talking with a CPA or
something of that sort. But not only that. It's not
even just about itemizing taxes or not. It's what kind
of forward looking can I do to help not only
set myself up for success right now, but in the future.

Speaker 6 (48:41):
Right.

Speaker 9 (48:42):
That's one of the biggest things that people just don't
think about, Mandy, is how can I set myself up
for success.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
In the future? Right?

Speaker 9 (48:50):
And that's when you really probably ought to consider talking
to a CPA.

Speaker 4 (48:53):
I when we first went to the CPA, genuinely thought
this is a waste of money. And then I was like, Nope,
that was not a waste of money because I did
him on one of the online tax things and he
came back and my tax burden was so much lower
because I don't know what's in the tax code. You know,
I have no idea he does. That's what you pay for, Mandy.
We have been working with a management company for a

(49:15):
while now and haven't seen much in the way of returns.
Can you ask your guest if there's a good way
to go about validating investment strategies and if there's a
good way to get a second opinion? Yeah, second opinion,
call us. I was going to say, I was kind
of locked in that softball up for you. Josh, you
don't knock that out, is it? I mean, I have

(49:35):
a certain level of paranoia about this stuff. How often
should you seek a second opinion or just in the
case of this texter who says, eh, you know, we're
not getting great returns, we'd like to have somebody else
look at it.

Speaker 9 (49:45):
I love this question more than anything because oftentimes when
we work with a money manager, it's only focused on
the investment piece, right, that's it. Typically you're going to
pay what one one and a half percent somewhere in
that range, which is very, very very common, and I'm
not saying that's a horrible fee, but the problem is
all you're getting for that one to one and a
half percent fee is investment management. I can go throw

(50:10):
my money in the S and P five hundred index
fund and be just fine for thirty forty years. But
what you really need to get for that fee is
not only the investment performance, but you need to get
an income plan out of that. You need to have
a tax plan out of that, you need to have
a healthcare plan, you need to have a legacy plan.

(50:31):
Those five things, including the investment piece, that's what creates
a financial plan or a retirement plan, and too often
we hear those financial outfits out there. They're all they're
focused on is that investment piece and collecting their fee,
and we have a huge issue with that. And yeah,
that's where you collect the fees is from the investments.
Totally get that. But if you don't have the other

(50:53):
four areas complementing that investment piece, then you might need
to seek a second opinion, which in this case sounds
like it might be necessary.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah, just call Retirement Planning Center of the Rockies. You
can find them online rpcenter dot com. I love this.
I love this adage that a texture just set and
the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago,
the second best time is today. Yeah, I love it.
I've always loved that saying because it's so good. Best
to do roth conversions when you are primarily in the

(51:21):
twelve percent tax bracket before you're advancing into one of
the higher brackets. Yeah, yeah, I don't remember the last
time I was in a twelve percent times bracket to be,
and if I was, I sure didn't have a wroth
that I was or four oh one k I was
looking to convert. So there you go, all right, Josh,
So let's give a checklist for people. What should they

(51:42):
be doing before the end of the year, at the
very beginning of the next year. You know, we're all
kind of making goals for our new year at this point.
Financial goals should be a part of that. So what
do people need to do?

Speaker 9 (51:53):
Yeah, make sure we get those contributions in by the
end of the year. If you're of age, make sure
that you start the process on those requirements or required
minimum distributions like now, because if you missed that December
thirty first deadline of getting the money out, that penalty
will hit you.

Speaker 4 (52:10):
Yeah, don't get it. So you got to do that.
How long does that take to get a required distribution?

Speaker 9 (52:15):
Depending on the type of account that your money's in, right,
it could take a week, It could take a few days.
We've seen them take two, three weeks on the occasion. Yeah,
we've said, you really don't know, you really, you just
need to make sure that you can get it out
in time. So we tell all of our clients, do
not contact us after December first if you can avoid it. Wow,
that that's so we have enough room sure that we

(52:37):
get it out. No, hiccups, no issues whatsoever.

Speaker 4 (52:41):
That to me sounds crazy, isn't it. It is crazy,
and it takes that long and you're gonna get penalized
if you don't get it done in time. Of course?
Is that the financial services part that is? Oh yeah, okay, it.

Speaker 9 (53:00):
Depends on like I said, depends on the account. If
it's just in a bunch of mutual fund stock, that's
easy to get out. But there's folks that have money
and like annuities or other other types of things that
take a little bit of time to get out. Okay,
I want to just make sure you across your t's
and dot your eyes get it done early.

Speaker 4 (53:15):
What age is that again? Seventy three for most twenty three,
So if you are seventy three this year, you've got
to take that minimum distribution and you probably need to
do it now. Okay, that's that thing. What else do
we need to do before the end of the year.

Speaker 9 (53:27):
If you have like health savings accounts. This is not
something we really manage ourselves at Retirement Planning Center, but
we help folks advise because there's tax benefits obviously stock
whatever money you can into those, that's going to be
to your advantage.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
And then you know, because we all have medical costs
that come up.

Speaker 9 (53:46):
Gosh, those are probably some of the biggest.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
They surround taxes.

Speaker 9 (53:51):
You're minimizing your taxes because other than that investment management,
there's no real changes you need to make better.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
If you want to talk about any of this stuff.
Because I got to tell you there's few things you
just said. I was like, Hm, okay, I probably need
some help with that. I want to you can talk
to Josh and the team at Retirement Planning Center of
the Rockies. They do an incredible job. Find them online
at rpcenter dot com. What's the phone.

Speaker 9 (54:13):
Number, Josh nine seven zero six six three three two
one one thirty two.

Speaker 4 (54:19):
To eleven, Josh Piermina Joy, thank you for the great information.
You really good information. That was very helpful. I made
myself a list as you were talking. When we get back.
We got a lot of stories about things like the
Sea Dot expanding, the lane jumper lanes. Oh boy, I'm

(54:39):
not saying someone in my household that isn't me got
a ticket, but you know I'm not not saying that either.
We'll talk about where that can be expected after the
first of the year. And what cuts is DOGE gonna
go after the Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk
and Vivek Ramaswami. They just wrote a column about where
they're going to find five hundred billion dollars and savings,

(55:01):
and I am here for it. I'm not saying I
stood up and clapped, but I might have, and I'm
not saying. I'm not gonna say. I'm not saying anymore today.
Apparently it's become a theme because it's stuck in my head.
So I let you know what the over under on
me saying that today is eight. Take the over, take
the under. Do whatever you gotta do, cause it's eight now,

(55:22):
I'm me saying that. I think I've already said it
five times. Grant, you're taking the over, taking the under over,
Thank you, not a bad thing to do. We'll be
right back. I have a text message I want to
respond to. Hey, Mandy, I'd appreciate an update on what
I heard referred to as the great unfriending after the election.
I think I lost a dear friend last weekend by

(55:44):
just asking what she thought of the election. I got
fear and hate back from the offering hope and rational thought.
I see that hate is becoming more actionable, not less,
which makes me fear more from the resistance that from doc.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
I have.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
Actually, at this stage in the game, I'm kind of
shocked that some folks are still as unhinged as they
appear to be, But then I'm shocked when people become
unhinged over politics just in general. One of the benefits
of this job, and I do consider this a benefit

(56:23):
of this job, is that I've now been a professional
political observer since two thousand and five, so I've seen
I used to listen to Rush Limbau with my dad
right when I was a kid, and it always amazed
me when Rush would tell you what the other team
was going to do, and then they did that exact thing,

(56:43):
and Rush would say, I know these people like I
know every square inch of my glorious naked body. And
I thought that was kind of amazing. But then now,
many many years later, I realized that if you watch
it closely enough, it's all just cyclical, right. They all
just shift positions to accuse the other side of doing something,
but all the same issues are still kind of working

(57:04):
under the surface, and that is the quest for power,
and that ultimately is what drives our political system right now.
So I've kind of been I don't know. I feel
sorry for people that are freaking out posting videos themselves
crying and screaming on the Internet. I feel sorry for
them because how are they getting through life. I just
have this vision of these people going into like a

(57:25):
coffee shop and they're like, yeah, can I get a
latte with oat milk? And the coffee shop goes, oh,
I'm so sorry, we just ran out of oat milk,
and they just start screaming. I mean, it's very toddler
like the reaction. That's what it is. You know, Toddlers
have massive emotions and very little control overset emotions. And

(57:48):
that's what it feels like watching some of these folks
on It's Raspberry Beret, not Raspberry Parade. Don't take us
down on Manda Green's sidewinder, don't do it with your
mishard song lyrics. Don't you do it? Not right now?
But I'm wondering how many people in this audience have
had someone on their Facebook, their Twitter, whatever social media

(58:11):
that you are on, post one of those videos that
are like, if you voted for Trump, just unfriend me. Now.
I had one person do it, and I posted on
underneath them typical Democrat wanting someone else to do all
the work. They in friended me instead. I thought that
was very funny, and I thought they would know I

(58:33):
was kidding, but they did not. But I don't care.
It was someone I went to high school with that
I haven't and interacted with in twenty five years in
any meaningful way. Bute, Bye, It's okay, Mandy. Maybe the
politic political tribulations of today are because politics change from
managing a society to control it. Here's the thing, you guys.

(58:53):
Our government was never meant to manage society. Our government
was created by the founders to do a few things,
just a couple like, Hey, you know what, if we
get invaded, the government's going to be in charge of
our defense. Oh, by the way, if there's gonna be
interstate commerce, we want to handle that because that way

(59:14):
South Carolina can't levy attacks on North Carolina. And over
the ensuing two hundred and fifty plus years, we've just
added all of these quote responsibilities onto government that it
never was supposed to have. And so the Dog Committee
I was talking about this earlier, this is the Department

(59:36):
of Government Efficiency, which is not an actual department. It
is two incredibly wealthy, successful, brilliant men getting together with
a bunch of eggheads to figure out where they can
slash five hundred billion dollars from the budget. And they
wrote a column, and you know, I don't know if
they both wrote it, I don't know, but it is

(59:57):
credited to them in the Wall Street Journal, and it
is so good, so good. So no, it's not Raspberry Sorbet,
it's not still Raspberry barat, not Sorbet, not parade, none
of that. None of that's happening. But Elon and Paveik

(01:00:20):
are trying to roll back a ton, I mean an
absolute ton of money. And I'm here for it. I'm ready,
I'm ready to do. I'm ready to sign up to
work for free for these two just to make it happen.
But I'm not smart enough in the ways that they
need smart people. They need smart people that can look
at spreadsheets and see where money can be cut. So

(01:00:42):
I wanna share just part of this. First of all,
In this column, they go through and they lay out
two legal decisions that they believe give tremendous power to
the notion of cutting government The first is West Virginia
versus the Environmental Protection Agency from twenty twenty two, in
that the Justice is held that agencies can't impose regulations

(01:01:03):
dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically
authorizes them to do so. This is really an attack
on the bureaucracy, because right now the bureaucracy unelected, unaccountable.
They are passing so many rules and regulations that Congress
doesn't explicitly authorize them to pass, and so we've created

(01:01:25):
this giant regulatory state that is just onerous and unnecessary
in many cases. So that's the first case that they
think has given them a window into this. The second
one Loper Wright versus Raymondo from twenty twenty four. The
Court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts
should no longer defer to federal agencies interpretations of the

(01:01:47):
law on their own rulemaking authority. That means that bureaucrats
can't make up rules that are just automatically accepted as
correct by a judge. Okay, it's Raspberry brulai either, Texter. No,
And again, Mandy, I know it's not raspberry puree either.

(01:02:09):
So yeah, you guys, Earl killing me right now, killing me, Mandy.
The people I had friended left me a long time ago, lol.
They were friends from the past, not very close. My
daughter had her first unfriending just after this election. Out
of the blue. She had an old acquaintance send her

(01:02:29):
a message asking her who she voted for. She said
that it didn't matter and it was a private decision. Well,
a friend went absolutely crazy in the text. This was
my daughter's first election. We had a discussion. So there
you go, Mandy. This should probably be a call in.
But the other day I was on the phone with
a professional kitchen designer asking her about divider racks that

(01:02:51):
she owed me as a customer. I am the customer,
and she proceeded to launch into an anti Trump tirade
that was unbelievable, off the charts. She then proceeded to
lecture me on how I didn't know anything about World
War two and Trump was hitler. So you getting the

(01:03:12):
dividing rucks, That's my question. And I bet she took
your money, didn't she? Mandy late to the show, did you?
I'm basically doing an ask me anything right now while
I'm getting up to the brakes to just work with me.
I'll get into more of the doge comments after the break.
I don't want to jump in anymore because I don't
have that much time. Uh, Mandy, those are the friends

(01:03:36):
you ask what don't you understand?

Speaker 12 (01:03:38):
The bue or the bye bye bye bye bye here
late to the show, did did you hear the Denver
mayor blatantly gaslight deportations people being ripped from the checkout
lines at King Supers.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
He's on hinge. Denver's mayor, the affable Mike Johnston is
trying very hard to be tough, but it's kind of
like one of the care Bears being tough. I don't
really believe he's going to go through with it, but
he's saying all the right things. We'll be right back.

(01:04:11):
We didn't have the ability to pull up our phone
and look up the lyrics. We just heard the wrong
words and sang them incessantly until we embarrassed ourselves at
a party in front of someone else and bring Old
Chad to the lighthouse with hers. My other favorite, you
dropped a bomb on me by the gapman, You're just
a bumblebee grantee. Oh yeah, yeah, that happened to a

(01:04:34):
friend of mine who went on a blind date. They
went to a party in New York at somebody's apartment
and they're playing music and people are dancing in the apartment,
and all of a sudden, they play the gap band
and her date, who she already wasn't thrilled with, starts singing,
You're just a bumblebee babe, and she just picked up
her person walked out. That will be the night for me.
Thank you, I'm out, sir, Thank you, good sir. But

(01:04:55):
let's just go through this really quickly. To those of
you who didn't know it was raspbery beret, it is
not raspberry breulay. It is not raspberry bide. It is
not raspberry latte, nor is it raspberry boublay as in Michael,
how about raspberry Parfey? Nope, nope, text r that's not it.

(01:05:15):
Is it raspberry yo play grant? No again, No, Mandy,
are you sure it's not raspberry borrate? No, it's not.
There's no berating raspberry more eel. That's a bit of
a stretch. I think we've now dipped in. What's amazing
is that all of these are different, and they're from
different people.

Speaker 10 (01:05:34):
There's no repetition, right, It's not like they're working together
to come up with their ones.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
They can see what everyone else's texting did Raspberry hurray
to that? There you go. What's love but a second
hand in motion? Grant what's love? A second hand in motion?
That's actually pretty funny and completely believable as a mis
heard song lyric the Eagle's Life in the Fast Night,
my ex wife always thought, and it was pipe in

(01:06:00):
the vasseline. What you know once your ear Here's something
it's hard to unhear it right to our conversation about
the great unfriending Mandy. Two of my very best lifelong
friends are very liberal. I'm pretty conservative. I see them

(01:06:21):
every week over beers and we talk politics all the time.
There's a certain craft to it if you're honest and
not mean. It's fun. By the way, we're dudes. I
don't think chicks are capable of that smiley face. I
can talk politics with one of my liberal friends, but
because we very much respect each other, we realize we're
not trying to change anybody's mind, and it's just a conversation.

(01:06:43):
So yes, you can. Two ticks and a pair of mice,
pack your bags we'll leave tonight, grant two ticks and
a pair of mice. Why would you want to pack
that into your bag? Well, we got to think about
these things. Okay. So I'm like eleven when Super Freak
by Rick James comes out and there's a line that

(01:07:05):
says incense, wine and candles, and I thought it was
instant twine and candles. And I have no idea what
instant twine was that. It never occurred to me that
it would be something else. So I was saying instant
twine and candles for years and then I mean when
I was like thirty, I heard the song and I
was like, oh wait, that's about incense, wine and candles.

(01:07:27):
He was sitting stage. I had no idea until I
was like thirty, you guys, ham and mustard shake? What
is that? I don't know, dude, it's raspberry Beret? I know,
I know. Did you get raspberry Gourmet? Okay, we've beaten
this joke to death. It was not raspberry, No, lay,

(01:07:48):
it's not it. This one the Offspring come out and
play A friend thought it said drink your milk. Gotta
keep them separated. Mm hmmm h yeah. Yeah, So the
show has just gone completely off the rails. Now when
we get back, though, when we get back, it's gonna
get serious. We're gonna we're gonna pull it together on

(01:08:09):
a Friday. You know, I have a little bit of
the short timers disease, grant, do you find that? Is
that a thing that you're finding because you have a
couple days off next week, don't you? Yes? Okay, I
just wanted to make sure.

Speaker 10 (01:08:22):
Yeah, sourdays actually, wow, because the Broncos don't play next Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Oh that's amazing. Yeah, because they play Monday night, correct
against I work on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then we
have Thanksgiving and then we fly to be in on Friday.
Seven more sleeps until we get over to the Christmas markets.
And Chuck and I already like planning. We're starting to
lay out close. We're making Liz, we're off.

Speaker 10 (01:08:46):
Wait, so I thought you were Those were different Christmas
markets you were in last week last year.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
That was just Chuck and I went to Switzerland. Okay,
So this is an actual Mandy Connell adventure. And the
group that we have looks awesome. So I'm very very excited,
and I'm just trying to keep my focus my eye
on the prize for the next few days, one day
at a time. But if you're a regular listener, I'm
gonna make no sort of guarantees about the quality of
the programming for the next three shows. Mandy Brown Eyed

(01:09:11):
Girls starts out, Hey well, migo, Hey, well, hey well amigo.
No Bart, it doesn't Mandy Elton John, don't let the
sun go down on me. Don't don't discard me because
you think I mean you harm. I thought it was
just because you think I mean you or what, Well,

(01:09:39):
this is not true. I'm gonna call bs on this one.
I thought bring me a Higher Love was bring me
a fire hydrant. That is not true. Although what's the
song ooh, ooh, you're a rebel just for kicks? Now,
Lori Lynn our friend laur Lyn's that thought it was
ooh you're you're yes, you're the devil with a kickstand

(01:10:00):
so and now that can't hear. And now there's one
that's like because the ceiling fan told me, because I
think the actual words of the ceiling that won't hold
me or something. I don't know that song. These are
cues songs, and she gets so mad when I don't
get the lyrics. Right anyway, my daughter thought the song
every time you go away, you take a piece of

(01:10:21):
meat with you. Well you do in a way good advice. Yeah,
we'll be right back, And when we get back, I
do want to get into the dog story because it's
a good one and I'm happy about it. We're also
going to talk about the fallacy of modern monetary policy.
What is it? Oh, it's the dumbest economic idea you've
ever heard, and Washington loves it. We'll be right back.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
accident and injury lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
No, it's Mandy Connellnam god Way, Nice and Tonal keeping
sad base.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
All right, here we go, friends, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to
the third hour of the program. I promised to give
you the payoff on the Elon Musk and thevik Ramaswami thing,
and here I am to do it. I just want
to make sure I had enough time. So In a
column that the two budget cutters wrote for the Wall
Street Journal, they talked about two things. They talked about

(01:11:28):
the two legal decisions as of late, the one that
overturned the Chevron doctrine and one that clapped back on
the EPA and basically said that they were overreaching their
authority as it had been granted by Congress. These are
the two cases that Ramaswami and Musk are leading on

(01:11:49):
to get some of this stuff done. Now, I want
to read their strategy to you real quick. I'm not
gonna read the whole thing, but I'm just gonna read
this this kind of methodology. Point doage will work with
legal xp embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technologies,
to apply these rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies.
Dog will present this list of regulations to President Trump,

(01:12:11):
who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of
those regulations and initiate the process for review and recision.
This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never
passed by Congress and stimulate the US economy. When the
President nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach.

(01:12:36):
In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of
thousands of regulations propagated by administrative fiot that were never
authorized by Congress. The President owes lawmaking difference to Congress
not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of
executive orders to substitute for lawmakers by adding burdensome new

(01:12:58):
rules is a constitutional of front. But the use of
executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypass Congress
is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court's
recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a
future president couldn't simply flip the switch and revive them,
but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.

(01:13:20):
Now that's where I think this is one of those
things where you don't understand who you're messing with. And
I say this as someone who wants all of this
to succeed. Okay, I want to be clear about that.
I am hashtag team Doge. You know what, Hey, Grant,
we should make a T shirt that just says hashtag

(01:13:41):
team Doge or just Doge and people will know. But
the hashtag thing goes back to Twitter. So I'm given
elon like a little double day. You see what I'm saying,
Yeah to X whatever say. I'm trying to suck up,
and I can't even suck up right because I can't
call the platform the right name. Oh, by the way,
By the way, I went on Blue Sky yesterday. More
on that later. Is that the new replacement wow or

(01:14:06):
x wow wow grant just wow? Let me continue the
Wall Street Journal. A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides
sound industrial logic for a mass headcount reductions across the
federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in
agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at

(01:14:27):
an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and
statutorial mandated functions. The number of federal employees to cut
should be at least proportionate to the number of federal
regulations that are nullified. Not only are fewer employees required
to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer
regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited. Employees

(01:14:51):
whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect,
and doge's goal is to help support their transition into
the private sector, and it can use existing laws to
give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary
severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit. I love all
of this you guys. I love all of it, But

(01:15:13):
how are they going to do that? Because as they continue.
Conventional wisdom holds that statutory civil service protections stop the
president or even his political appointees from firing federal workers.
The purpose of these protections is to protect employees from
political retaliation, but the statute allows for reductions in force

(01:15:36):
that don't target specific employees. The statute further empowers the
president to quote prescribe rules governing the competitive service. That
power is broad. Previous presidents have used it to amend
the civil service rules by executive order, and the Supreme
Court has held in Franklet versus Massachusetts in nineteen ninety

(01:15:56):
two and Collins versus Yellen in twenty twenty one they
weren't constrained by the Administration Procedures Act when they did so.
With this authority, mister Trump can implement any number of
rules governing the competitive service that would curtail administrative overgrowth,
from large scale firings to relocation of federal agencies out

(01:16:17):
of the Washington area. Requiring federal employees to come to
the office five days a week would result in a
wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome. If federal employees
don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay for them,
or shouldn't pay for the COVID era privilege of staying home. Finally,
and this is where it gets really good. We're focused

(01:16:39):
on delivering cost savings for taxpayers. Skeptics question how much
federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone. They
point to the nineteen seventy four Impoundment Control Act. You
remember that act grant the compoundment impoundment course. Just talking
about it the other day. It stops presidents from ceasing
expend authorized by Congress. Mister Trump has previously suggested this

(01:17:05):
statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court
would likely side with him on this question. But even
without relying on that view, dogs will help end federal
overspending by taking aim at five hundred billion plus in
annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being
used in ways that Congress never intended, from five hundred

(01:17:29):
and thirty five million dollars a year for the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting and one point five billion for grants
to international organizations to nearly three hundred million two progressive
groups like Planned Parenthood, and then they go on to
talk about the large scale audits that have failed in life.

(01:17:49):
I mean, you guys, do you realize that the Pentagon
has no idea how they spent eight hundred and fifty
five billion dollars? I mean, don't get me wrong. Like
I've gone out drinking and I went out with like
eighty bucks and I come home with an IOE you
to my friend for like thirty five and I have
no idea what just happened. But I think I'd be

(01:18:10):
able to keep track of eight hundred and sixty five billion,
Like don't they have quick books? It seems to me
like we need to update all of the accounting software
for the federal government. Start there, because if they can't,
if they have no clue where the money went, why
are we just giving them a blank check? And I
am pro military spending. What I'm not pro is just

(01:18:32):
people doing money grabs and no one holding them accountable.
That has got to stop now when we get back,
and you guys are cracking me up. Okay, you know what,
when we get back, I'm reading your mishurd song lyrics
forget cutting the federal government we're going we built this
city on sausage rolls. Next, Mandy, ACDC, Oh dang it,

(01:18:56):
that just rolled. No. ACDC thought dirty deeds done dirt
cheap was dirtty jeans and dungarees. That actually can see that? Yeah,
dirty jeans and a dungar RaSE, dart ditchings and dungar race.
That's actually very very good, Jack slap beaver, not not Nah,
You people are maniacs, Mandy. I thought the song doing

(01:19:18):
the butt all night long was do it in the
butt all night long. I mean, honestly, how different is that?
That's close enough? Yeah, oh, this poor soul. It's a squirrel,
my lord, in a flatbed Ford slowing down to take
a look at me. A squirrel driving a flatbed ford, yep,
slowing down to take a look at me. I'd like

(01:19:39):
to see a squirrel driving a truck. I mean, how
do they get their little feet down to the pedals.
You know that's going to be a team effort, like
little rascal, Yeah me exactly, like yeah, one kid on
one squirrel in the steering wheel running around like a
Gerbil wheel. You know what I mean? Anyway, Uh, hi, Mandy,
join late, what were you saying about the star lighting
you featured in. I'm not featured in the star lighting,

(01:20:00):
but they're having MC's at the various stages introducing the
community acts and events that are going on. I am
at stage four at fourth end. It's the street there.
I'll have to look it up, but I'm gonna be
there from three thirty to five introducing people, and then
we're gonna all watch the star Belt. That's Saturday from
two to six in Castle Rock. It's a big event.
Get their early. Traffic is tight, ivery parking is tight, Mandy.

(01:20:24):
I watched the Gavin Newsom video. Did he hire the
DNC handjester guru that taught Kamala. If so, he should
fire immediately. It adds to his fakiness. That is the
Bill Clinton original. Okay, don't like mock the og hand sign,
but he had his little thumb on there and he
would punctuate that. You got to see the Gavin Newsom

(01:20:44):
video today on the blog. It's so smarmy is the word?
Smar me. Uh feel the beat on the tangerine, of course.
The real one is feel the beat on the tambourine, Ello, Mandy.
When these layoffs start happening, the liberals will accuse him

(01:21:04):
of racism and sexism if blacks and females are removed
from their jobs, and sadly, these people who believe it
will create problems possibly in the streets. We shall see.
I can see clearly now Lorraine is gone. I don't
know why you hate Lorraine. That's not nice. Let's pay
Dogeball hard Will in Colorado springs a guy a new thought,

(01:21:29):
Polase Nobby Dodd was there's a deer in my car.
That would be exciting, tidy dancer. I'm trying to dance here. Yeah,
radioactive by imagine dragons ready to whack you. Okay, Mandy,
Woa black Betty family down. I love this song. Wo
Black Betty, but I have no Woa black man rhyme

(01:21:50):
lim wow anyway, Uh, Mandy, don't forget CCR's badmon rising.
There's a bathroom on the right. Brass spherical bed the
kind you find in a second hand store. That is
the that is the most bastardized version of raspberry beret.
I could possibly imagine brass spiracle bed grant, the kind

(01:22:14):
you find in the secondhand store. Yeah, be a heck
of a find. The first time I heard the new
Mandy Condall theme song instead of Mandy Connell keeping ignorance
at Bay. I heard it, say, Mandy Condle, drying to
an inside straight. I'll take it whatever. It's fine, it's
all good.

Speaker 10 (01:22:30):
I will say I was a little skeptical of your
theme song the first.

Speaker 4 (01:22:36):
Time. It's catchy as hell. I love it so much,
so much, I thought Beast of Burden was I don't
want to be your pizza burden. I mean, nobody wants
to be your burn pizza nobody, Mandy, I texted earlier.
Don't know if you read this misheard song lyric to
this day, pour some sugar on me. Love is like
a bomb, baby, come and get it on, living like

(01:22:56):
a lover with a radar phone. That's honey. I'm not
saying I thought the same thing for a while, but
maybe I did. Maybe Dirty Deeds and the Thundrt Chief.
There you go, obvious a song about Native Americans. My
daughter thought the Journey song take It on the Run
started with chickens on the run, baby running from the

(01:23:19):
fry lady kidness heard lyrics are the best. So you're like,
where is your mind going with this? Well, obviously she's
a fan of chickens. Yeah. The heart of rock and
roll is Tibetan. Oh, I'm driving my life away. My

(01:23:45):
son heard, is I'm driving my microwave. Yeah, yep, yep.
One wing Dove Stevie Nicks, just like the one wing
dove just flew around the little circles. I guess all right,
I gotta move on from this because we get back.
Alexander Salter joins me. He wrote a great column in
The Hill dot com about modern monetary policy. When you

(01:24:08):
hear what this claptrap is, you are going to understand
why we are thirty six trillion dollars in debt and
no one seems to be concerned about it. This is
a scourge that must be stopped. We're going to talk
to him next, all right after this on KOA. Joining
me now is a guy who wrote a great column
about something that is so insidious and so incredibly mindnumbingly

(01:24:32):
stupid at the same time that it almost sounds like
it's something made up, but it's not so. Joining me
now is Alexander Salter, who happens to be the Georgie G.
Snyder Professor of Economics in the Royles College of Business
at Texas Tech. He is one of the co authors
of this article from The Hill dot Com. Alexander, Welcome

(01:24:53):
to the show.

Speaker 6 (01:24:56):
Thanks Maddy.

Speaker 4 (01:24:57):
Let's talk about modern monetary theory. What is it?

Speaker 2 (01:25:03):
Oh boy?

Speaker 6 (01:25:04):
So modir monetary theory is a complete topsy turvy approach
to public finance. Basically, it says the government should finance
itself entirely by printing money, and the only thing that
we would do with taxes is raise taxes if eventually
we need to control inflation. Now, many people who back
modern monetary theory claim that that's a very rare thing

(01:25:27):
that would ever have to happen, because if there's any
quote unquote slack anywhere in the economy, if there's any
idle resources, prices won't go up when you print money.
So it's really impressive is that we had a pretty
clean test of this theory over the past couple of years,
and whilile we saw skyrocketing inflation. So it's actually amazing
that you had anybody who identified as an economist who

(01:25:48):
is willing to sign on with this paradigm, and yet
they did, and it's caused a lot of problems for
millions and millions of Americans.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
But in my view, and you can correct me if
I'm wrong. I think that too much of our monetary
policy is simply designed to enable more government spending. And
this is like a government spender's dream. I mean, you
can spend and spend and spend and not have any
negative replication repercussions. This is like big government's you know

(01:26:16):
nirvana here. And how did this become so accepted? Who
started this nonsense and how did it gain steam mainstream wise?

Speaker 6 (01:26:29):
It is absolutely a recipe for fiscal qualities and money mischief.
If you look back at what happened during and just
after COVID, you had blowout government spending, deficit spending. Now
that by itself would not have causedlation. What ultimately made
it inflationary was all those new bonds that appeared on
the market, all the money that the government had to
borrow to finance that spending. Our central bank, the Federal

(01:26:51):
Reserve and stepped in created money at US in air
to buy up all those new bonds. So it was
an indirect process, but nonetheless it was printing press finance. Again,
the usual way we think about these things is we
should use money. Monetary policy control the money supply to
dampen down inflation, and the government gets revenue via taxes.

(01:27:12):
Modern monetary theory turns that on its head. We only
use taxes to control inflation, and we print money to
fund the government. Well, with politicians and bureaucrats at the helm,
that's a recipe for printing too much money too fast,
and of so, of course prices go through the roof. Now,
there are many economists who are close to Democratic policy makers,
policy makers and politicians and the Democratic Party who advocated

(01:27:35):
these ideas. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two, it
became de facto policy and governed our COVID response, and
as a result, household were hit with crippling inflation. So
this was every bit as tragic as it was predictable.

Speaker 4 (01:27:49):
Dig what sort of responsibility do you think the FED
has in terms of putting a fiscal policy in place
that is good for the American people, versus is putting
fiscal policy in place that allows for a larger government
through the sale of government bonds.

Speaker 6 (01:28:07):
Well, it's a difficult question to really pin down exactly
how we want fiscal policy and monetary policy to work.
So usually the way that we think about these things
is that the government, the treasury elected officials decide how
much to spend. That's fiscal policy, and then in the
background you have the FED the central bank conducting monetary policy. Ultimately,
inflation is the federal reserves problem. The central bank, in

(01:28:32):
the long run, determines the cost of living by controlling
how much money is in circulation. The reason that things
can get a little bit dicey is that when the
government needs to borrow a lot of money to finance
what it perceives to be emergency policy, that's going to
put upward pressure on interest rates. And the FED often
doesn't like seeing upward pressure on interest rates, so they

(01:28:54):
create new money to buy up government debt to keep
yields and hence interest rates down. So the problem here
is that irresponsible fiscal policy by politicians puts pressure on
the central banking bureaucrats to conduct monetary policy too loosely,
and again, the predictable result of that is that prices
for everything are going to go up.

Speaker 4 (01:29:17):
So during the go go years of COVID, when we
were coming up with one giant stimulus program after another,
how much was the money supply expanded during that timeframe,
meaning how much more money did they throw into the
circulating money in the economy.

Speaker 6 (01:29:34):
It grew really fast, really quick. Before COVID, the Federal
Reserve's balance sheet, which is a narrow measure of the
money supply. We sometimes call that the monetary base. The
total assets on by the Federal Reserve system that was
about four trillion. It's sent shot up to around eight trillion,
although it's falling now. It's slightly smaller than that now.
And that actually compounded to larger measures than the money

(01:29:55):
supply that grew even more. So. This was a lot
of liquidity, a lot of new money created very quickly
and spent very quickly. Again, think about the COVID stimulus checks.
Right when everybody opened the mail one day and found
a seven hundred and fifty one thousand dollars check from
the Treasury Department. How is that financed indirectly? It was

(01:30:15):
financed by the Fed creating money and distributing it to
the financial system. And so it's not really a surprise
that when American households get all this new money, they
needed to spend it on stuff. So as soon as
they could they did. They spent it on everything, and
as a result, everything got more expensive What makes this
truly tragic is that the prices of goods and services

(01:30:37):
that households need, food, clothing, shelter that rose much faster
than wages is did. So if the things that you
need to buy to maintain your standard of riving are
getting more expensive faster than your income, you're basically taking
a pay cut. And that's why I think Americans were
so hopping mad about this when they went to the
ballot box for the most recent election.

Speaker 4 (01:30:58):
So I agree with you on that. By the way,
I do think inflation was one of the main drivers
that drove Trump back into the White House. But I
want to ask you a question about that election, because
before you came on the show, we were talking about
the efforts by Elon Muskin to bank Ramaswami to shape
five hundred billion dollars off of the budget. And what

(01:31:20):
would you think a contraction. Let's just say for the
sake of this conversation, they pull it off, right, and
they shrink the size of the federal workforce, they shrink
the size of some of these departments, and that five
hundred billion comes out of the deficit spending. What does
that do to the economy overall? Does it force us
into recession in the short term. What would be the

(01:31:42):
most likely outcome of that kind of of contraction, Well.

Speaker 6 (01:31:47):
I don't think that there would actually be a recession.
When you shrink government spending, that frees up resources for
private parties who can then spend that money elsewhere. So
what that sort of a project would do, if they
actually accomplished it, it would transfer resources resources that were
previously being spent by the government. Money that was previously
being spent by the government would then be back in

(01:32:08):
private hands where there are much stronger incentives to use
that funding, to use that money more efficiently, And so,
if anything, you might even see a very small optic
in productivity, which would of course mean that the economy
is able to produce new goods and services easier than
it was before. Now, I think that that effect would
actually be very slight. You'd probably get a much more

(01:32:31):
radical reduction and federal expenditure and the size of the
bureaucracy to get a real big boost of productivity. It's
worth remembering that five hundred billion in the grand scheme
of things really isn't that much. Yeah, right now, the
national debt stands at roughly thirty trillion dollars, larger than
the size of the overall US economy, and it's just

(01:32:51):
on a course to grow and grow and grow. We
need to get serious about this now and be thinking
about even more cuts.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
What does a crisis look like if we do get
to the point where we don't get serious about this,
and then we get to the point where no one
wants to buy our debt and they either have to
print money, which creates a hyperinflation situation. What would be
the outcome of US getting to that point.

Speaker 6 (01:33:14):
It's going to be ugly. What you really have to
worry about is investors no longer willing to buy US bonds,
like you just said, And in fact, if it becomes
if we ever get to the point where the US
is not able to meet it's that obligations, we're actually
looking at a default that would be truly catastrophic. Remember,
the global financial system basically treats US treasury securities, government

(01:33:38):
debt as a quote unquote risk free asset. It's the
asset upon which all other assets and transactions and the
global financial system are built. If the value of those
things becomes comes called in the question, you're basically pulling
out the bottom layer of a house of cards. The
whole thing is going to come crumbling down. Well, but
we really need to make sure that Sam's fiscal houses

(01:34:01):
in order. Otherwise we could be looking at something nasty.

Speaker 4 (01:34:04):
Alexander Salter, I wish I disagreed with you. I wish
that I could say no, I don't think that will happen.
I think my issue with the United States of America
right now is that we have this attitude of hey,
we're the USA, We're good for it. You know, we're
not going to run out of them, who's going to
stop buying our bonds? But the reality is is that
when they're perceived to be a bad investment, people will

(01:34:24):
stop buying our bonds, and then we get to the
point where we can't pay benefits. It's just the cascade
effect is something that I don't think Americans can even
imagine happening here.

Speaker 6 (01:34:36):
What is frightening. But there is a silver lining. The
silver lining is that we don't actually need to shrink
the national debt in order to get this problem under control.
All we need to do is mop the rate at
which federal spending grows. As long as we can get
government spending growth at or below the rate of overall
economic growth. Catch revenues to Uncle Sam are naturally going

(01:35:01):
to grow faster than the debt, and so we're actually
going to pay pay down the debt on its own
without having to actively try and reduce it. And so
really this is a sustainability question. If the economy in
terms of actual goods and services that we produce, is
growing at say three percent per year, it's okay for
federal spending to grow, but it should grow at no

(01:35:21):
more than two point nine percent per year. Keep real
economic growth a heap of a head of government spending growth,
and after five, ten, fifteen years, our net fiscal position
is actually going to look stronger than it is now.

Speaker 4 (01:35:35):
But is that kind of like paying the minimum payments
on your credit card? So it would take us seventy
k jillion years to actually pay off enough of that
debt to where we can maybe take a breath. Because
you know as well as I do, even if there's
great economic policy put in by one president, the next
president can come in and undo.

Speaker 6 (01:35:51):
All of that. Yes, that's the scary thing, right. You
need continuity across several policy regimes, across several residential administrations
and legislators right our congresses. So as long as you
don't have a bipartisan consensus to keep federal spending growth
below overall economic growth, right of the more profligate party

(01:36:12):
comes back into power and just floods things with spending,
then we're back off to the races. We haven't solved
the fundamental problem. And so that's silver lining, I think
is our best politically feasible hope for getting our fiscal
house in order. But there really does need to be
a consensus between the two parties that this is something
that we have to take seriously.

Speaker 4 (01:36:32):
Ah, from your lips to God's ears. But I've been
watching politics long enough to know that will never happen.
Alflexander Salter is the Georgie E. Snyder Professor of Economics
in the Roles College of Business at Texas Tech. The
mouthful's worth it, great, Colum, Alexander. I hope we can
talk about it again in the future.

Speaker 6 (01:36:53):
It's my pleasure.

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
Thanks for having all right, thank you, And you know
I hate running around like being a Cassandra. Okay, there
are very few people in this listening audience that just
got that reference. Did you get that reference Grant being
a Cassandra. Cassandra was in Greek mythology. She was the
one that kept telling everybody all this bad stuff that
was going to happen, and everybody was like, whatever, don't

(01:37:15):
be such a Cassandra, and then all the bad stuff happened,
and she was like em to tell Yeah, just letting
you know what's up. But you know, we're in a serious,
serious way, and we have a bunch of unseerious politicians
in charge. And that is what's incredibly incredibly frustrating for me. Okay,

(01:37:36):
you guys are still sending in song lyric, so I'm
gonna do some of these to help the people who
are now depressed. And I feel you. I'm sorry, but
that was important. It was a really good column. You
should read the rest of it. Up until I was
about four years old, this text said, I thought every
song with the word baby in it was about an
actual baby love. I thought Linda Ronstadt's song baby You're
No Good was being sung to a baby by a

(01:37:57):
very critical mother. Now, just to take you sta over,
I'm not saying I sang that to the queue when
she was little, but you know, maybe you ever hear
a misheard song lyric there ryan all the time. Really,
there's only even a few. And now with my daughter's music,
which is like super poppy music. Although now we had
Meghan the Stallion this morning and I was like, where

(01:38:18):
did that come from? But when I get a song
lyric wrong, she gets so mad, really so mad.

Speaker 11 (01:38:26):
She's like, God, mom, mommy, are you doing like a
dad joke kind of way?

Speaker 4 (01:38:31):
Like I'm a devil with the kicks stand?

Speaker 5 (01:38:36):
And she's just like, stop thinking that. Well, so that's
like a very dad joke kind of way of doing it.
You're going to get groan.

Speaker 4 (01:38:42):
Yeah, you asked my daughter and my husband. I am
the dad joke deliver of the house. And then she
looks at me and goes, why do you tell more
dad jokes than Dad? But it's because I'm a gift.
It's it's fun. It's a gift. And then I say, uh,
you know, I get paid to the entertaining on the radio,
and she fires back, he had a forty year olds
and I don't really that. Yeah, this is what happens

(01:39:03):
when you have a child. Yeah, people fell straight down
from the tree, you know, no in between. Yeah, it's remarkable.

Speaker 11 (01:39:10):
It's remarkable when you see sort of yourself in your kids,
and especially in those because like my youngest she's got
a very sharp tongue and I was a very sharp
tongue kid.

Speaker 4 (01:39:21):
And now it's all the chickens have come home to rust.
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 11 (01:39:25):
Yeah, like when she when she claps back, it like
goes straight into the center.

Speaker 4 (01:39:30):
But do you ever, like secretly inside, do you ever
just go God, that was good, was really good. You
can't ever let them see it. I'm gonna front like that,
ye like I'm.

Speaker 11 (01:39:40):
Upset about that, But God, Brad, you're just like, yeah,
I might call my parents after this and let them know.

Speaker 7 (01:39:46):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
I called my mom one time after I married Chuck,
because I am married into two teenage boys. Right, So
I've been married about a year and a half, and
one day I called my mom and I'm like, Mom,
I just want to let you know I am so
sorry that I never put the sys back because I
know what that's like now. I know what it's like to
go to the junk drawer for the scissors that do
everything and not be able to find them for like

(01:40:07):
five hours. Yep. Because somebody used him on their model
car and I just call. I was like, I'm so sorry.
She's like, yeah, I know, I know, I get it.
I figured it would all come around. It always does
very quickly.

Speaker 11 (01:40:19):
The best was and I was notoriously never cleaning my room,
and my mom would always be really.

Speaker 4 (01:40:23):
Upset about it would always bother her. And I was like,
I know where everything is. I don't need to clean
it because I have this whole pile and everything.

Speaker 11 (01:40:30):
Yeah, and so my oldest I went and said, hey,
you know, the room could be picked. She's like, I
got exactly where I want it. I'm like, you know what,
I can't even I can't.

Speaker 5 (01:40:39):
I can't even fight lit Mini me can't even fight
that because I know exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (01:40:44):
Yep, we all have our things clean room. And now
it's time for the most exciting segment on the radio
on its guy the World of the day. All right,
what is our dad joke of the day? Please Mark
m for you with Q. What did the jander roll? Well,
I heard as I roll, So there you go. That

(01:41:07):
is your misheard.

Speaker 10 (01:41:09):
What did the janitor say when he jumped out of
the closet.

Speaker 4 (01:41:15):
I don't know supplies.

Speaker 5 (01:41:17):
Oh god, that's a good one.

Speaker 4 (01:41:23):
Okay, what is the what's the word of the day, please,
word of the day today?

Speaker 10 (01:41:27):
Paroxysm, lericism, key p A r O A r o
x y x y m s m, peroxism.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
Erxism is that a noun? Is that a paradox of
some kind? I feel like confusing? Yeah, like I like maybe,
you know, in the multiverse, there's I feel like there's
a multiverse thing there somehow. Well, you're wrong, and he
guesses confusing. That was where I went.

Speaker 10 (01:41:53):
Okay, It's a sudden, strong feeling or uncontrollable expression of emotions.

Speaker 4 (01:41:59):
Your teenagers at home. There you go, or you in
response to your teenagers at home. Whatever, it's fine. What
is the technical tier for a fear of term? What
is the technical term for a fear of hunts? Oh?
That's uh, oh my god. I should know this. I
should not. I should know it, but I didn't know it.
But I saw it and I'm like, oh, yeah, I

(01:42:20):
did it. It's acrophobia. Oka Acrophobiaiah for sure love it,
like but I would hate it, you know, just kind
of not my favorite.

Speaker 3 (01:42:32):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:42:33):
What is our jeopardy category? Jeopardy category for today.

Speaker 10 (01:42:38):
Other names for the city okay, the Athens of the
South and.

Speaker 4 (01:42:44):
The music Mandy, What is Athens Georgia? Incorrect?

Speaker 6 (01:42:48):
Dang it?

Speaker 4 (01:42:49):
The Athens of the South. And music City? Oh, Dad,
nat it? Music city?

Speaker 3 (01:42:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:42:58):
I know, music City. What is Austin? No, it's Nashville.
Were at one minus one? There we go.

Speaker 10 (01:43:07):
George Carlin called this capital of Delaware the city that means, well,
what is the capitol of Delaware?

Speaker 4 (01:43:14):
I can't think of a city in Delaware. Another hint.
It starts with the same letter as the state. Ryan,
what is Dover? God? God, I had no idea the reason.
The dairy cow on that where people had called my
seventh grade civic teacher is screaming at me. If you

(01:43:36):
can't hear me now, I don't remember that one.

Speaker 10 (01:43:37):
In the song of Capitol, you can't miss out on
the Big oh Aka, this city just north of the Platte.

Speaker 4 (01:43:44):
River, the big oh Man. What is Omaha? Correct? Yes,
all right?

Speaker 10 (01:43:50):
Zero plays in a trail Ryan in Michigan.

Speaker 4 (01:43:54):
It's a squared Michigan, a square oh Manny? What is
ann Arbor? Correct?

Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
Good, good job? One zero Mandy, and putting into the
last one.

Speaker 10 (01:44:08):
This city on Florida's West Coast, the Big Guava and
Cigar City.

Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
Mandy, what is Tampa correct? It's just going to be
you know, I almost just guessed it, but.

Speaker 7 (01:44:17):
I was.

Speaker 4 (01:44:19):
Coming up there on a sports Ryan, I'll.

Speaker 5 (01:44:22):
Put the Friday where I'm just going to get into
uh Broncos Raiders with you and Nick.

Speaker 4 (01:44:27):
Yesterday you were so cranky, both of you. Cranky. Rod
Smith was even calling you out. We were franky. We
were getting called out on sex line. I don't know.
He was in a mood. I was actually fine. I
think it was more Nick than me. Of course it was.
Nick's not here right now, but you are. I'm gonna
let that go. A great movie, obviously, Ryan, what was

(01:44:47):
wrong with Nick yesterday? I meant to say, don't know.
I think it's a cake thing.

Speaker 11 (01:44:51):
It might be.

Speaker 4 (01:44:51):
Yeah, they're returning. A cake puts people in a bad mood. Well,
I mean returning it makes them happy getting a bad cake.

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:44:58):
Apparently they had to return. We're going to turn it
in a We'll be back on Monday for a short
week next week as we lead up to the holiday.
Expect lots of Turkey talk next week and keep it
right here on KOA