Will Democrats support justice for Jocelyn?

This podcast edition of Kenny Webster's Pursuit of Happiness features journalist Michael Quinn Sullivan. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Jack ganon government sucks pursuit of happiness. Radio is DeLux. Liberty and freedom
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just as cheeseburgers and a libery friesat the food get another sign of Biden

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(01:08):
t shirts, sneakers, You're gonnalook amazing in Walton and Johnson swag.
All right, big show today.Brandon Darby for Breitbart Texas should be
stopping by. He said, he'srunning late, so we may get him
by the end of the hour.He's got something going on. But Michael
Quinn Sullivan will be here. He'sgoing to be calling in from the airport
shortly. I guess he's on hisway to Israel. And there's so much

(01:29):
happening right now, Interim Governor DanPatrick publicly feuding with Lena Hidalgo, the
latest from Center Point Energy, andeven news outside of Texas. In fact,
we'll start with this. If you'dhave told me three weeks ago that
George Clooney would be begging Joe Bidento drop out, it'd be hard to
believe, wouldn't it. I mean, three weeks ago, George Clooney was

(01:49):
hosting a fundraiser for Joe Biden.They raised thirty million dollars. Breitbart dot
Com today reporting on the George ClooneyJoe Biden Dude. Weird hearing that out
loud, isn't it. It wasthe day after George Clooney ran a New
York Times op ed cause you know, George Clooney writes op eds for The
New York Times, calling it's funnyright, calling on Joe Biden to step

(02:13):
down, and the Biden campaign claimedthe two hundred and eighty four year old
presidential candidate has more physical stamina thansixty three year old George Clooney. I
know, go ahead laugh, youknow I should have warned you ahead of
time to make sure you're not drinkingcoffee while I said that out loud,
or milk or whatever. But yes, another wheel came off of Biden's reelection

(02:34):
chances when Clooney and I'm sure BarackObama knew a little something about this,
too, brutalized and humiliated Biden onthe editorial page of the New York Times.
Have you actually read the article?It's not well written, like why
would it be? Why would GeorgeClooney be good at writing? But this
is what it says. I'll reada little to you. It says,
quote, it's devastating to say it. But the Joe Biden I was with

(02:58):
three weeks ago at the fundraiser wasnot the Joe big effing deal Biden of
twenty to ten. He wasn't eventhe Joe Biden of twenty twenty. He
was the same man we all witnessedat the debate. End quote. I'm
sorry you thought Joe Biden was abig deal in twenty ten. You did

(03:19):
what I think. In twenty tenwe knew Joe Biden's brain was broken.
Robin Williams has been dead for yearsand years ago, Robin Williams did a
stand up comedy bit about Joe Bidenbeing less articulate than a guy with Turette's
a little more from George Clooney's article. Quote. This is about age,

(03:40):
nothing more, but also nothing thatcan be reversed. We are not going
to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won't
win the House, and we're goingto lose the Senate. This isn't only
my opinion. This is the opinionof every Senator and congress member and governor
that I've spoken with, in everysingle one, irrespective of what he or

(04:02):
she is saying publicly. End quote. Okay, can we dismantle that for
a minute. Who do you thinkhe talks to privately? He's a California
Liberal. Well, I bet hetalks to Gavin Newsom. I'm sure Gavin
Newsom would like Joe Biden to dropout of the race because then he gets
to be the candidate, or atleast flirt with the idea. Who else

(04:24):
do you think he's talking to outthere on the West Coast? Probably Nancy
Pelosi, probably Eric Swawell. Bythe way, do you even know who
the two senators are from California?Nobody talks about them, Lafonza Butler and
Alex Padilla. Boy, you don'thear much about them, do you.

(04:46):
Well, what do you think they'retelling George Clooney? And I'm sure there
is nothing to infer from the factthat Clooney and Barack Obama are best buddies
and that Obama seemed to go outof his way to barris Biden at the
massive Hollywood fundraiser Clooney co hosted justa few weeks before the debate that blew
the lid off the sharpest attack hoax. Anyway, the embattled Biden campaign is

(05:12):
obviously flailing. That's the only explanationfor their absurd response to the Clooney op
ed where they claim that Biden ismore mue macho than Clooney. No,
really, about twenty four hours afterthe Clooney op ed ran, CNN's Kayla
Tausch, that's her name, saidquote in response to those comments from George

(05:34):
Clooney. Jake, a campaign officialwho attended that Los Angeles fundraiser, tells
me that George Clooney left three hoursbefore the president, So clearly the gloves
are off. Wow, CNN's basementrated Jack Jake Tappers he still work there,
says quote. What does that meanGeorge Clooney left three hours earlier.

(05:57):
What's the point? And the point, she explained, is to suggest that
Biden's stamina is better than Clooney,and Clooney didn't have eyes on the entire
event. That's the response to theClooney op ed end quote. That's what
she said. You guys having funyet? Come on? Are you not
entertained? Are you not entertained?Everyone on the left is finally finally getting

(06:18):
what they deserve, and that includesJoe and George and Jake and Kayla.
To protect the Democrat Party, Biden'sobvious mental decline, his alarming mental decline,
it was covered up. It wascovered up by Democrats, It was
covered up by celebrities, it wascovered up by journalists. And reporters.

(06:40):
They all knew. You know,who's the former host of Meet the Press.
Chuck Todd says, he's known foryears. Really, you've known for
years. Boy, it's too bad, Chuck Todd, you didn't have access
to a major news outlet or ajournalist or a reporter. You could have
shared that information with. These serialliars thought they could drag Biden across the

(07:03):
finish line. Now they have toforce him out. Meanwhile, the twenty
twenty four presidential election, which thecorporate media was trying to turn into a
referendum on Trump, is instead focusedsolely on the near corpse in the White
House, who has already sewn upthe nomination. Guys, there's no forcing

(07:28):
him. There's no open convention.The delegates are pledged to him per the
party's bylaws. If Joe doesn't wantto step down, nobody can make them.
It's gonna be real fun to watch. I don't know. There's a
part of me that wonders if hedrops out this weekend. Hell, it
could drop out any minute now.Time will tell. Has he dropped out

(07:49):
yet? Coming up more Kenny Webster'sPursuit of Happiness A safe space for those
who love liberty and try not totake them so too seriously. Even if
your name is Karen Well, youwere lied to a lot this week by

(08:11):
prominent, powerful politicians is a sentenceI could have told you any day of
the year it still would have beentrue. But this week there was a
lot of examples of it. Fromthe crisis at the border, which isn't
the top news story at the momentbecause of the hurricane that just happened,
But as a resident of Southeast Texas, I couldn't help but notice there have

(08:31):
been a lot of examples of rich, powerful Democrat politicians colliding with Republicans from
the state of Texas over a laundrylist of issues that affect your life,
and over and over again. Itturns out the Republicans were probably telling the
truth and the Democrats were probably lying. I don't even know where to start

(08:52):
with this. I mean, okay, we'll get to the thing about Centerpoint
Energy and Lena Hidalgo and Dan Patrickand Joe Biden in a second. Let's
start off with this. There's aheadline it is a great story today at
Texas scorecard dot com, a newssite I look at daily and I recommend
you guys do the same because youjust can't trust ABC thirteen or the Houston
Chronicle. Texas Scorecard has a storytoday about how House Republicans are calling for

(09:16):
action against countries refusing to repatriate illegalaliens. You came to our country illegally.
Immediately you're probably thinking, what isthis about? Wait, what Al
Salvador, Nicaragua, No, actuallyChina among other places. I mean those
places too. But here to explainit to us, my buddy Michael Quinnsullivan

(09:37):
of Texas scorecard dot com. Michael'ssuch a long walk from China to the
RGV, isn't it. I'll tellyou what. You would not believe what
you have to do to walk acrossthe Pacific Ocean. It is crazy.
And look, this is a problemthat's been going on almost kind of since
the beginning of the illegal immigration crisis, where you'll have these folks and this

(10:03):
is this is not a disparately thisis what they're called otms. Other than
Mexicans who know Mexico. For allthe things about Mexico, they're actually pretty
good about taking back the illegals whenyou send it back, you know.
But the these other countries and younamed a couple of them, and particularly
China to say we don't want toback. They're your problem, our problem,

(10:24):
which means that the whole deport themthing becomes they become our our cost.
And so with China, you've gotthis country. They're just saying,
oh, yeah, you know,they're they're sending fighting age men over here,
and then when they're caught, they'renot taking back, meaning we just
kind of let them roam the streetsof the United States. Yeah, my
question for you is this, howmany of these Chinese nationals walking over our

(10:46):
border are not Chinese agents? BecauseI got to assume most of them are.
You have to assume most of themare in one way or another related
to the geopolitical aspirations of China.And look, when when it's the age
you don't have the very young,you don't have the very old. These
are what are traditionally called fighting agemales too. You have to think about

(11:09):
the costs it. You know,while it doesn't take much to go,
you know, to cross from Warsinto Texas, you know, that's just
literally you know the price of aof a cheeseburger, right to get up
your energy to walk across the border. You know, coming coming from China
requires not only massive coordination of thepaperwork necessary to move from one province to

(11:31):
another province to another province, butthen to get onto a ship leaving China.
And they're not doing you know,a passage straight through to some you
know port near the hard GV.I know they are going, you know,
down to South America. They're takingtrains and planes and automobiles, all
these things to get up into northernMexico. So you know, there's a
lot of coordination. And to saythat, oh, the Chinese government's not

(11:54):
involved, baker's the imagination. Yeah. A while back, Tucker Carlson did
an interview I forgot to was with, but it was not somebody you would
think would be an expert on immigration. Some data scientists went down to the
Darien Gap and one of the thingsthat he found down in Central America is
way out in the middle of thejungle, there's a community out there of
Chinese nationals and they're not out therelike their refugees. That it's a base

(12:18):
almost and it's been documented by otherjournalists. And it was years before anybody
acknowledged that Epstein Island was real orthat Kyle Rittenhouse was innocent, or that
Joe Biden's brain was broken. AndI just wonder how many more years it'll
be before people finally say, yeah, okay, the Chinese communists have a
base down in Central America. Becausehere's two things we can tell you for

(12:41):
sure right now. Both Russia andChina have military operations on the island of
Cuba, and they didn't during thetrumpet that all happened under Joe Biden's watch.
Michael, Yep, yep, yep, yep, absolutely right, Yeah,
none of this was happening under JoeBiden. I mean under Donald Trump's
watch, right, all of happeningunder Joe Biden's watch. And you say

(13:03):
what you will about the bad OrangeMan. Although I just saw that.
I guess Joe Biden's gotten some tanningstuff too, so he's a bad Orange
Man too. Whatever whatever you wantto say about Donald Trump. At the
end of the day, the othercountries were just skiddish enough. They didn't
do these weird things when he wasin power. He said what he said,
and he did what he said hewas going to do. With Joe

(13:24):
Biden, they see a guy whoif they give hunter enough cash in a
briefcase, Joe Biden's going to playalong with them, and I'm pretty sure
that Putin is probably kicking himself thathe didn't, you know, get on
the hunter Biden, you know,gravy train early enough. But I think
that's the real sticking point here isall these countries have been doing these games

(13:46):
because of Joe Biden being in office, not despite it. I have been
a Trump Republican ever since Ted Cruzdropped out of the twenty sixteen primary.
But I will say this as aTrump Republican, I don't dislike the Scantis
Republicans. I wish they'd get alongbetter. And Chip Roy is actually the
guy that's leading the charge on this. We've got to do something about the

(14:07):
fact that, getting back to thearticle here, these illegal aliens keep coming
over the border and the countries theycame from won't even take them. I
don't know what we could do aboutthis, but I guess Chip Roy as
a plan. Yeah, mister TipRoy's planning. And look, this is
a long list. You go tothe go to the article that Ella Madero's
posted here at Texas score Card.It's a long list. A lot of

(14:28):
companies that you'll countries that you'll recognize. And I would suggest that you know,
what Chip Roy is saying is,you know, let's start hitting these
countries where it hurts. If you'renot taking your people back, then we're
going to start hitting you in fourand aid. We're going to start hitting
you in access to US markets.We're gonna start you know, hurting you
in in financial ways. And that'sthe least. You know, all these

(14:48):
countries want cash United States, theywant access into our markets, they want
uh, you know, favored nationstatus and other things. You know,
they're looking for those deals. Andso that's where we're going to have to
demand that they either either play byour rules or they you know, go
take a hike. All right,I can't help but notice just scanning over

(15:09):
the article or the list of countriesincludes well, among other things, Hong
Kong, Iraq, Ukraine, Vietnam. Some of these are countries we give
money to. Why won't they taketheir migrants back? Well, for some
of them, they they what theywill say as well, you know,

(15:30):
these are people who are criminals inour country, and we're sure don't want
them back here. Others just youknow, you think of you know,
for example, Cambodia. You know, they're sending thinking, oh, well,
you know, gosh, you know, I kind of I kind of
like the idea of sending you ouryou know, our problem children. And
then then otherwise some of these SouthAmerican countries and American countries, they're sitting

(15:52):
there with the idea that you know, these people who've been sent over have
been sorted by the cartels, andthose governments sure don't want to upset the
cartoon. Those governments in Central andSouth America are in power because they have
played nice with the cartels. Theydon't want to, you know, the
cartels won't be expensive sneaking someone backacross the board. Do they want to
leave them in the United States.So if for each of these countries there's

(16:12):
a slightly different story, But atthe end of the day, the United
States has to make these countries fearus more than they fear whatever it is
that is driving their policy. Andall governments operate off of fear. They
operate off of fear. I meanswe need to make them fear us rather
than fear whatever other thing that ispushing this bad policy. I forget sometimes

(16:34):
how many features are buried on yourwebsite, like, for example, here
at the bottom of the article,you guys list some of the people that
are pushing this plan that CHAPROI hasand one of them is Dan Crenshaw.
So I had to know, soI clicked Dan Crenshaw's name, and it
shows me his score among different conservativeaction groups like the Heritage Action or Freedom

(16:56):
Works. Freedom Works is a smallgovernment organization. They give Dan krench Shaw
is zero. Heritage Action gives hima ninety four. How could two right
wing conservative have such a different opinionof this guy. I would assume they
both give him the same score.What's the difference there? You know?
I mean I don't speak for eitherone of those organizations, right but generally

(17:19):
what you find is that, youknow, freedom Works looks at, you
know, a certain set of issues, and hairtajections looking at different set of
issues. Same for Club for Growthand American Conservative Union. They're all looking
at different sets of issues. Andthat's where you in order to understand the
rating any politician gets from any particulargroup, you really have to make sure
you understand, you know what youknow, what's the agenda of the group,

(17:41):
which I don't use agenda in abad way, I just need it
in kind of the agenda for themeeting. Right, So it's a neutral
term, but what are the issuesthey're focusing on? Hairt dejection tends to
be you know, they're part ofthe Heritage Foundation and all shoot from the
Heritage Foundation. They tend to bethe group that wants to be raw raw
elephant team or so that new forthem. Ninety four is kind of a

(18:02):
low score because you know, generallyspeaking, Republicans good good, they get
you know, high nineties, Democratsbad bad, they get low zeros,
you know. So, so Ithink that's which you find there was.
On the hand, Freedom works,which is a little more kind of libertarian
esque. They really couldn't give arip less if they're invited to cocktail parties
in Washington, d c. Andso they will rip apart whoever need dripped

(18:25):
apart. So it's kind of aquestion of who you know, where is
your where's your political sensibilities? Ithink, hey, before we run out
of time here on the topic ofthe immigration crisis, a couple other Republicans
from Texas who I do trust,Trinel's and Ted Cruz, a Congressman and
senator respectively, have introduced the Justicefor Joscelyn Act. Now, I know

(18:47):
people in my city are mad aboutwhat happened to that sweet little girl.
And the second that news story surfaced, a lot of us wondered, I
bet it was illegal and immigrants whodid something to her, And I bet
what they did to her was veryun whole and everything that we thought and
suspected turned out to be true.So now Representative Tryinels and Senator Ted Cruz
have introduced legislation to enhance the detentionand tracking of illegal aliens entering the country.

(19:11):
How does this differ from other similarbills? Look right now, the
process for the federal government is it'slike getting a speeding ticket. You know,
when when you are heading down Iten going one hundred and seventy five
miles Now, were in the kinneymobile. You know, you're police offic can
pull it over. You're going togive you a ticket and to now go

(19:33):
about your merry way and maybe followthe speed on it. Maybe you don't,
but at the end of the day, they're counting on you to contact
the City of Houston whoever and dealingwith the ticket. That's fundamentally what we're
doing with Philly gal aliens. Theyget caught, they get handed a ticket
that says, hey, contact anice courthouse on you know, some date

(19:55):
in you know, six years fromnow, and we'll deal with your problem.
There's very little in the way beingdone with the background checks. I'm
very little done to make sure knowwhat kind of people these are. And
what Nells and crews are trying todo is say, now we need we
need to take a much more proactiveresponse with these people. These people are
lawbreakers. Many of them are peoplewho are wanted in their own countries for

(20:15):
doing horrible, horrible things. Uhso you know, we need to take
a stronger view there. And ifthat means you know, you're you're locking
up some of these people, sobe it. I think that, you
know, so much of the waywe're legal aliens is based around that kind
of soft on crime movement over thepast couple of years that even Republicans embraced
of oh let's let's be gentle onthe criminals and maybe logged along. And

(20:38):
what you know, this case inhuman proves is now, criminals are criminals
and you have to treat them assuch because they will do bad things.
And here's just a horrible, horrible, horrific example of the escalation when we
tolerate criminal behavior. I always thinkit's interesting when politicians, particularly liberal Democrat
politicians, have a lot of opinionsabout policy issues that they have no authority

(21:02):
over. And I can't think ofa better example of this than Lena Hidalgo.
Lena Hidalgo has almost no influence orauthority over immigration laws. She's a
local municipal leader, and yet shehas a lot to say about why the
borders need to remain open, whyRepublicans are so hateful to immigrants. Lena
Hidalgo actually blames Donald Trump for thedeath of Joscelyn, which I mean,

(21:22):
I don't even we can't even beginto point out how disgusting and misguided that
is. But at the same time, Lena Hidalgo, our Harris County judge,
left town last weekend, right beforethe hurricane hit. Not surprisingly,
dan Patrick offered aid multiple times.He claims she rejected it over and over
again. I believe him, nother. She's known to lie, He's

(21:45):
not. He just caught Biden lying. Biden administration claimed what was it that
Dan Patrick never reached out for help? And then he provided call logs proving
that wasn't true. So just youknow this week, I mean, you
and I could both think of thingsto criticize Dan Patrick about, but would
lying be one of them? Now, look, Dan Patrick over the years

(22:07):
of you know, but it hasa number of things. But lutenk vun
Or Patrick has never told a lie. I can honestly he is the man
has never lied to me. Hehas sometimes told the truth I didn't like.
He's maybe uh, you know,taken a position based on honest facts
that I didn't like. But that'sokay. You know, reasonable people can
have a differing view of how tointerpret facts. That's okay, that's that's

(22:29):
not a lie. Right other hand, you know, your your your your
walking disaster area of a county judgeseems to not know, you know,
fantasy from from truth on any givenmoment of the day. It might have
something to do with a number ofpills she's popping. It might have some
to do she's just crazy as afreaking june bug. But you know,
the people of Harris County need somethingbetter than Lena Hill Dalgo And you know,

(22:55):
I mean, look, you know, on the one hand, I
think it's it's very fair to criticizeher for going out of town Hurricane on
do the handle I can think is, you know, do you really want
her doing anything in Harris Kenny.It might be a good idea to get
her out of town during hurricane season. The best thing, Prayers Kenny,
might be for her to go findsomewhere else to live, you know,
for thirteen months out of the yearor something. Okay, So what is
your take on this whole thing before? We only have a couple minutes left,

(23:18):
But I would just love to know. I don't think there's anybody that
understands more about how Texas government worksthan Michael quinn Sullivan. Not surprisingly,
he's not a politician because usually thepeople that are the most qualified don't hold
elected office. And you watched whathappened. Centerpoint Energy had their tracking software
down for two months. None ofit worked when this hurricane hit. Everybody's

(23:40):
criticizing Abbot for going off to thefar East, and I get it,
but nobody's criticizing Hidalgo for leaving town. Meanwhile, all over the city a
catwe hurricane, that's the kind ofhurricane you normally just stay home and make
a brisket. We have people inthis city, millions of people that haven't
had power for days. And oh, by the way, it's one hundred
degrees out and it's human people aredying. The local democrats can't pass pass

(24:03):
the buck fast enough. Mqs,My brother, what do you think of
this? Yeah, you know,at some point we're going to have to
have a real serious, grown upconversation about these power about the power companies
that we've given something like monopoly powerover. I've never been real big on
this whole. You know, goout and blame politicians because they're not in
town. Ted Cruz going to Imean, what did you think that Ted

(24:26):
Cruz during the winter storm was wantto be up you know, climbing electric
Polendio Center does same thing with thegovernor. Mean, what was Abbot supposed
to do? Is he want tobe you know, directing traffic at you
know, all on the off ofthe highway. Right he's in a wheelchair.
I mean, what's he going todo? You know? Yeah.
On the other hand, what weshould be criticizing Lena Hildalgo and you know

(24:47):
Greg Gabbitt and everyone else were iswhy were you guys not putting pressure on
Center Point about about these things.You know, we we all know hurricane
season comes every year. You know, it's going to be hot in New
Slash, it's going to be hotin all Go, it's going to be
humid in Houston, well three hundredand six days a year. You know,
So maybe you guys should be takingaction now on this stuff. Maybe

(25:07):
should be taking action when there's nota storm coming through. We don't have
millions of people without electricity. Accountabilitysomething politicians don't like to exercise against those
who give them big campaign donations.And you know, we're I think this
is where all the very nice peoplein Houston who are sweltering without power in

(25:29):
the afternoon heat of Houston need tokind of be thinking about this when it
comes to their communication of politicians.You know, don't hold you know,
your state rep accountable because you don'thave electricity right now, Hold them accountable
because they didn't hold Center Point accountable. Hold them accountable because they weren't asking
these hard questions, these very noblequestions, the very noble answers months ago,

(25:51):
and instead they were, you know, cashing their campaign donations and singing
Kumbai Yah. We've got to stopthe kumbay ya, and we've got to
start getting results. Boy, thatis a fantastic point. I always try
to remind people to go to TexasScorecard dot com and subscribe to that email
list. But you know, notfor nothing here. If people do want
to donate to a worthy cause,I think Texas Scorecard is a great Texas

(26:11):
Scorecard is a nonprofit media outlet.It's a nonprofit news organization. And I
noticed when you go to the donationpage you can make a monthly donation of
eighteen dollars and thirty six cents.Why would you choose those specific numbers,
Michael? That is the year ofour independence. Every one of us can

(26:32):
that, and I appreciate your littleplug air force. Look, if you're
someone who doesn't know about Texas independence, why that's so important to the ethos
of Texas, then hey, comeon over to Sexist Scorecard and we're happy,
too heady to help you out.Yeah, get educated. Look,
it's one of the first websites Ilook at every morning when I come into
work at five am and start preparingfor our morning show. Texas Scorecard dot

(26:55):
Com get your news from the sameplace I do. Hey, it's me
the Donald. You're listening to thePursuit of Happiness radio voice from the Radio
Games. I'd like to pause forjust a moment from talking about corrupt politicians,
so we could talk about corrupt departmentsof your federal government. I know

(27:17):
it sounds like it's the same thing, but technically this is different. The
IRS, Boo boo IRS. TheIRS recently did this massive crackdown to try
to bring in more revenue, asixty billion dollar expansion of the IRS.
How much money do you think thatbrought? In Reason dot Com reporting today

(27:41):
on the Biden administration's expensive efforts tobeef up the IRS. They wanted the
IRS to have the ability to targetwealthier Americans with unpaid federal taxes. They
spent sixty billion dollars on this project. How much do you think it made
them. I'll give you a hint. They brought in one sixtieth of what

(28:03):
they spent. Yeah, a billiondollars in additional revenue. To put this
another way, the year long campaignhas generated enough cash to fund the government
for about ninety minutes. The governmentspends a billion dollars every time your watch
tells you that an hour and ahalf has passed. Do the math the

(28:25):
United States spent six point one trilliondollars last year. Ooof that numbers so
big it's painful to hear, isn'tit? That translates to roughly sixteen point
seven billion dollars per day. It'sabout seven hundred million dollars per hour.
Oh God, it's so painful hearingthese numbers out loud. Oh can I

(28:47):
I can't breathe now. Against thefederal government's insatiable appetite for spending even unfed
fathom of blee, that's all afun word to say, unfathomably thank you.
Large figures like one billion dollars arereduced to mere rounding errors. It's

(29:10):
true, isn't it? That onebillion dollars was the result of what the
IRS calls quote stepped up activity targetsabout sixteen hundred individuals with incomes of over
a million dollars who owed over twohundred and fifty thousand dollars in known tax
debt. Sounds like a lot ofmoney, but actually, considering how much

(29:32):
more money we're spending, it's nothing. It's a billion bucks in new revenue,
and it comes from payments made byabout twelve hundred individuals. According to
the IRS. Oh, and theywere very proud of this too. IRS
Commissioner to Any Werfel said in apress release, quote, our increased work
in this area means these past duetax bills from high end taxpayers are no

(29:53):
longer being left on the table.Of course, everyone should pay the amount
of tax exit they legally. Oh, I don't disagree with that, but
you shouldn't have to pay one pennymore. And yeah, billion dollars in
additional revenue brings the federal books marginallycloser to balancing. The problem is we
spend sixty billion dollars on this.This announcement mostly just serves to underscore the

(30:21):
size of America's fiscal problems the utterinability to solve them by closing the so
called tax gap. Do you knowthat the federal government is on pace to
run a deficit of two trillion dollarsthis year a cumulative deficit of over twenty
trillion dollars in the next decade.Oh God, it hurts to hear it

(30:42):
out loud. So what can wedo to close that gap? Well,
closing that gap would require a completeoverhaul the federal government and rethinking the role
of government altogether. But that's exactlywhat they're not going to do. Yeah,
that this one billion dollars came fromwealthy taxpayers with known tax debts means

(31:03):
that it was the lowest of lowhanging fruit, and the government will chew
through all of it, and lessthan it takes to watch the movie Jaws.
Seriously, you could spend more timewatching the Back to the Future trilogy
and the government would have spent allthe money by the time you were done
with those films, and you'd stillhave two more movies to go. Harvesting

(31:26):
that extra revenue was not cheap.We pony you and me, taxpayers.
We ponied up sixty billion dollars innew revenue for the IRS in recent years,
of which about five point seven billionhas already been spent. The agency
was given eighty billion dollars in newfunding, but Congress later clawed back twenty

(31:48):
billion dollars as part of the debtsealing deal. We were, as fiscal
conservatives, were supposed to feel goodabout that. No, you don't feel
reassured by that now, I reallyit didn't make you feel better. Me
neither. So Biden and his team, you could trust them, right,
They originally said the additional enforcement fundingfor the IRS would pay itself off.

(32:12):
It's going to pay for itself.It's going to squeeze three hundred and sixteen
billion dollars in additional revenue out ofAmerican taxpayers. How could that even be
true. There's three hundred and fortymillion Americans. How you think we're going
to get three hundred and sixteen billiondollars that we didn't already have. Seems
a little unlikely, doesn't it.The Congressional Budget Office estimated that increased IRS

(32:38):
enforcement would generate two hundred billion,not quite as generous as what the Biden
administration said. But okay, it'sprobably right to be skeptical of both of
these claims because they're both wrong.You really got to wonder if the country
would be better off if that moneyremained in the hands of the productive people
rather than being swallowed up by thefederal government. Do you think that one

(33:00):
billion dollars would have been spent inninety minutes if it remained in the hands
of the taxpayers, the so calledmillionaires who didn't pay it up in the
first place. You get my point, right, I think sending the IRS
to dig through the proverbial couch cushionsof the wealthy and probably a lot of

(33:22):
less than wealthy people too. Itis only going to create a lot of
headaches for Americans who almost certainly didn'tintend to underpay their tax bills, probably
didn't give the IRS the occasional opportunityto issue press releases bragging about how well
it is doing its job, becausethey sure ain't. What have we learned

(33:45):
from any of this? What wasaccomplished? How is your life better because
of this? Your life is notbetter. This is exactly what most of
us predicted. It would be reallyinteresting to see the political affiliations of those
who were caught, because we hearabout this all the time, Liberal Democrat

(34:07):
politicians, people and prominent media figurestoo, people like Al Sharpton. Al
Sharpton had millions of dollars in unpaidtaxes, went on for years. Guy
kept making money, didn't pay histaxes. One billion dollars in additional revenue
brings the federal books just a littlecloser to balancing, but not if it

(34:27):
costs sixty billion dollars to get thatone billion. The books would be more
balanced if they'd cut their losses andmoved on. These people aren't qualified to
run a lemonade stand. I wondertoo, if that while they're out collecting
money from unpaid taxpayers, if theCongress critters and their families owe any back
taxes. Kind of funny too,comparing apples to apples. Don't compare the

(35:00):
total to the amount recovered. Gonna, if we're gonna be honest citizens,
compare the amount spent year versus theamount recovered per year. Spend a lot
more than we recovered, didn't weWe are failing as a society. This
is how Rome. This is howthe Roman Empire came to an end.

(35:27):
It's weird to live in the eyeof the hurricane, isn't it. It's
strange to exist at the end ofa great empire and watch your community,
your civilization, your country fall apart. But that's what we're doing. Is
there still time to save it?Sometimes it feels like it. But sometimes

(35:50):
if I were you, I'd stayput Kenny. You'll be right back with
more of what you came for.For jokes, Hey, folks, we
went a little long on the lastcouple segments there, so I don't have
any time left with you this afternoon, but I will say this. This
evening, I will be at theWoodlands Pavilion for the Cage the Elephant concert.

(36:13):
If you see me, come sayhi. I'd love to have a
beer with you. In the meantime, Walton and Johnson dot com or I
Love WJ dot com has our allnew online store chock full of Walton and
Johnson goodness, really cool conservative andlibertarian merchandise. Funny, cool stuff you're
gonna love wearing and showing off.Go there, check it out to everybody
else, I love you. Havea great weekend. We'll be back on

(36:34):
Monday morning for more of what youbought a radio for. You are listening
to the Pursuit of Happy this radio. Tell the government to kiss you're ass
when you listen to this show.