Latest / The Bill Handel Show / Bill Handel is BACK! | U.S. Plans to ‘Run’ Venezuela

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Bill Handel is BACK! | U.S. Plans to ‘Run’ Venezuela · The Bill Handel Show

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: six forty.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, KFI AM six forty Bill Handle here as we
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: start the new year. It's Monday morning, January fifth, and
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: you figure, all right, it takes a couple of days
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: they get things moving.
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  Speaker 1: Huh man, what a way to start the new year.
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  Speaker 2: And of course I'm talking about what happened in Venezuela
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  Speaker 2: where United States States, the US Special Forces and military
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  Speaker 2: forces went into in a dazzling display of military prowess,
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  Speaker 2: went in to Caracas into a well fortified, very well
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  Speaker 2: fortified home on a military base in which Nicholas Maduro
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  Speaker 2: and his wife lived and grabbed him, just straight out
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  Speaker 2: grabbed him, threw him on a helicopter when they hadn't
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  Speaker 2: flew out to warship that was in the Caribbean off
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  Speaker 2: the Venezuela coast, and brought him to New York where
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  Speaker 2: he is right now sitting and on his way to
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  Speaker 2: be arraigned. And that's going to happen in a couple
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  Speaker 2: of hours. He's going to be arraigned in the United States. Now, boy,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: are there some moving pieces here. The thing that's really
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  Speaker 2: knocking everybody out on this one is what the President
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  Speaker 2: said during his press conference, and that is we the
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  Speaker 2: United States running Venezuela.
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  Speaker 1: We are running the country now.
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  Speaker 2: When he said that, I sort of looked and I thought,
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  Speaker 2: was that a throwaway line? And I think to some
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  Speaker 2: extent it must have been. Now, the planning militarily was
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  Speaker 2: over months and months, even to the point where the
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  Speaker 2: special forces that actually went in and extracted him or
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  Speaker 2: kidnapped him. According to the detractors, they had even built
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  Speaker 2: a model home of where he lived, anew room by room,
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  Speaker 2: where the family was, where he was, where his bedroom was,
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  Speaker 2: where he and his wife were sleeping one thirty in
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  Speaker 2: the morning when he was grabbed. Then the issue becomes,
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  Speaker 2: and this is a huge issue that is being asked
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  Speaker 2: like crazy, because now everybody's had a chance to sit
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  Speaker 2: back for a couple of days and look at this.
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  Speaker 2: At first, it was just looking at analyzing what happened,
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  Speaker 2: which was extraordinary. I mean, helicopters flying in off of
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  Speaker 2: the warships and you had special forces that actually went
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  Speaker 2: into his house grabbed him.
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  Speaker 1: It was an attack.
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  Speaker 2: No American lives were lost, probably about eighty Venezuelan lives
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  Speaker 2: were lost. You had, first of all, the aircraft go
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  Speaker 2: in one hundred and fifty of them, take out air defenses,
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  Speaker 2: take out communications networks, and then went in and grabbed them. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: so everybody talked about how extraordinary that was, and boy
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  Speaker 2: is it. You know, it was said by the administration.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think anybody disagreed. Only the United States could
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  Speaker 2: pull this off. No other country in the world could
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  Speaker 2: probably do this. And as Marco Rubio or Secretary of
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: State anothers said, only this president would can ever do this.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, to that extent, would any other president
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  Speaker 1: do this? I don't think so.
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  Speaker 2: The big issue is whether actually two issues here or
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  Speaker 2: three or four, But.
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  Speaker 1: One is who is running the country right now.
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  Speaker 2: The administration is saying we the administration, we are running
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  Speaker 2: the country.
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  Speaker 1: No one knows what that means. The person who was
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  Speaker 1: just sworn in as president.
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  Speaker 2: Is the vice president who the Supreme Court just swore
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  Speaker 2: in as interim president, who at first we were told
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  Speaker 2: by Donald Trump Marco Rubio that she had agreed to
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  Speaker 2: cooperate with the States is going to make the transition smooth. Well,
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: you look at her on TV and what she said,
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  Speaker 2: no chance this arrest was illegal. Demand of the immediate
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  Speaker 2: return of Maduro and said we will not let the
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  Speaker 2: United States take over the country. Which I don't know
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  Speaker 2: how the United States has taken over the country.
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  Speaker 1: It grabbed the president.
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  Speaker 2: Now, who's left everybody else, who's running Venezuela, everybody who
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  Speaker 2: was running Venezuela. I mean, the only person gone is
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  Speaker 2: the president. And let's say we lose a president. Well,
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  Speaker 2: the government is still there. The people that are running
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  Speaker 2: the various agencies are still there, the technocrats are still there.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the case here and so and what does
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  Speaker 2: Venezuela do now? The military in Venezuela saw a press
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  Speaker 2: conference of these military leaders all lined up on this table,
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  Speaker 2: not looking very happy on my dad, and they talked
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  Speaker 2: about how they were in solidarity with Maduro and how
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  Speaker 2: we think this is illegal and we will not let
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  Speaker 2: anybody invade our sovereignty even though it all happened. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what's the next step is the United States is saying
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  Speaker 2: we're going.
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  Speaker 1: To run you people. What are the people of Venezuela
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  Speaker 1: do And what does that mean again?
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  Speaker 2: In terms of running it, I mean you've got major
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  Speaker 2: let's say you have the fence industry who runs it.
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  Speaker 2: United States brings in somebody. I mean literally all that
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  Speaker 2: was taken out. Who was taken out was the president.
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  Speaker 2: The country still survives, and so the President has said
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  Speaker 2: we're going to run it now.
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  Speaker 1: Why Well, the big.
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  Speaker 2: Reason is he said is because of oil, is that
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  Speaker 2: we were there also because of drugs. Now, the drugs
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  Speaker 2: issue is kind of interesting because the President talked about
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  Speaker 2: how the hundreds of thousands of Americans have died because
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  Speaker 2: the fentanyl poisoning. Fentanyl does not come out out of Venezuela.
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  Speaker 2: Cocaine comes out of Venezuela. And I don't know how
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  Speaker 2: many hundreds of thousands of people have odd on cocaine.
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  Speaker 1: Having been.
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  Speaker 2: A light user of cocaine in my earlier years, okay,
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  Speaker 2: a moderate user of cocaine during my earlier years, Okay.
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  Speaker 1: I was stoned every single day on.
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  Speaker 2: Cocaine for four years before I went into drug rehab.
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  Speaker 2: But the thought of overdosing was simply not part of
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  Speaker 2: the conversation.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one issue. The other issue that.
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  Speaker 2: The President pointed out is that he is, in fact,
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  Speaker 2: or Moduro was head of this cartel, or he was
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  Speaker 2: part of this narco terrorism cartel, which I think is
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  Speaker 2: absolutely true. And we're going to see what happens when
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  Speaker 2: he will be tried, and he will be for all
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  Speaker 2: those counts, and I'll share with you some of the
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  Speaker 2: counts that he is being charged with and is being
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  Speaker 2: arraigned nine o'clock our time this morning. And the other
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  Speaker 2: issue is the oil. This is the big one, the oil.
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  Speaker 2: And the president mentioned oil. I don't know how many
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  Speaker 2: dozen times.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know?
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  Speaker 2: What he has not mentioned is returning the country to democracy.
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  Speaker 2: There hasn't been a democracy in Venezuela for twenty five years.
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  Speaker 2: Hugo Chavez was elected as the first communist socialist president
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  Speaker 2: of Venezuela. That was a legitimate election, and then it
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  Speaker 2: became a dictatorship and Hugo Chavez, having died of cancers,
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  Speaker 2: Maduro handpicks Madurea, who then helps to destroy the country
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  Speaker 2: which they have. And the oil industry, which used to
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  Speaker 2: be controlled by the United States. The major oil companies
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  Speaker 2: were invald and had almost unique abilities. And we're the
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  Speaker 2: only companies there that really had contracts with the Venezuela oil.
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  Speaker 2: And when the president says this is our oil, there
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  Speaker 2: is some truth that to that, depending on how you
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  Speaker 2: view it. Well, he said we're going to bring back
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  Speaker 2: the oil industry. We want the oil. It's our oil.
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  Speaker 2: We want it all back, and that's one of the
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  Speaker 2: big reasons we went. And where's this going to go?
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  Speaker 2: Where's it going to go? So when we come back,
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  Speaker 2: I want to follow that up a little bit and
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  Speaker 2: talk about the future of what's going to happen in
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  Speaker 2: this country of Venezuela, and it actually has a chance
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  Speaker 2: to return to where it was now. Probably the most
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  Speaker 2: controversial part of what is going on with this is
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  Speaker 2: everybody knows that he is, that is Maduro, part of
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  Speaker 2: this narco terrorists organization we embedded and actually part of
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  Speaker 2: the cartel. Where As president can you imagine the power
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  Speaker 2: he has. He was issuing diplomatic passports, he was helping
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  Speaker 2: the drug trade, he was being responsible for so much
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  Speaker 2: of the money and the drugs being diverted and the
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  Speaker 2: drugs being brought to the United States. I mean, the
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  Speaker 2: power that a president has is extraordinary. And so we've
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  Speaker 2: known for a long time. And President Trump, to his credit,
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  Speaker 2: said this guy is not going to stay in he
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  Speaker 2: is a threat to the United States, which I buy now.
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  Speaker 2: Very few presidents would then order what happened on the
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  Speaker 2: argument that Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, said the United
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  Speaker 2: States is the only country could pull this off, and
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  Speaker 2: we sort of agree with that. And certainly Donald Trump
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  Speaker 2: is the only president who could do this, while the
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  Speaker 2: only president who would do this, and it was wildly
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  Speaker 2: successful this rescue attempt. Now, Jimmy Carter tried in the
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  Speaker 2: seventies to rescue the hostages in Tehran, which failed miserably.
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  Speaker 2: American lives were lost. So a lot of the success
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  Speaker 2: is really important, and this one was hugely successful. Now
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  Speaker 2: the president, our president has said this is all about oil,
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  Speaker 2: and I think the drug part is sort of minimal
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  Speaker 2: compared to the oil. Our president is a businessman. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of oil in Venezuela and the biggest oil
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  Speaker 2: reserves on the planet, and the infrastructure of oil has
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  Speaker 2: disappeared at the pumping and refining oil has literally disappeared
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  Speaker 2: in Venezuela, especially when Chaves came into power and the
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  Speaker 2: entire oil industry was nationalized. Up to that point, it
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  Speaker 2: was the major oil companies in the United States, Chevron
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  Speaker 2: I think, being the biggest that actually ran the oil industry,
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  Speaker 2: extracted the oil and then shipped it all over the world,
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  Speaker 2: primarily to the United States. That ability to function and
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  Speaker 2: deal with the oil is complicated stuff, and it takes
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  Speaker 2: a lot of money to do that, and it takes
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  Speaker 2: a lot of expertise.
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  Speaker 1: Well.
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  Speaker 2: With the nationalization, oil companies are gone, the hierarchy is gone,
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  Speaker 2: the technocrats are gone, the ability to maintain the oil
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  Speaker 2: infrastructure is gone, and it went into the toilet. No
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  Speaker 2: money is being spent or was being spent. And whatever
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  Speaker 2: income that comes off the oil was used for the Venezuela,
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  Speaker 2: Venezuelan economy, and that was the major revenue that Venezuela
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  Speaker 2: had and it decreases, decreases, decreases, and today the oil
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  Speaker 2: sale and the oil production in Venezuela is twenty percent
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  Speaker 2: of what it was prior to Chavez, which is why
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  Speaker 2: we saw very little movement in the price of oil
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  Speaker 2: when it can you imagine Saudi Arabia all of a
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  Speaker 2: sudden being cut off and no oil is being sold
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  Speaker 2: are distributed.
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  Speaker 1: What would that do to the world market.
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  Speaker 2: Even the Emirates create any of those countries, it will
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  Speaker 2: be massive. With Venezuela, it's no big deal because there's
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  Speaker 2: so little oil being produced right now out of Venezuela
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  Speaker 2: and being sold and the president has enormous power because
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  Speaker 2: not only is Maduro gone, the president can shut down
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  Speaker 2: the sale of oil. President Trump and the American military
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  Speaker 2: can literally shut down all sale of oil.
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  Speaker 1: And it looks like he has.
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  Speaker 2: There's some minor, minor sales still being allowed, strangely enough
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  Speaker 2: to China. So here's the big issue that everybody is spinning.
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  Speaker 2: President Trump says, we in the United States, we're running
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  Speaker 2: Venezuela and we will continue to run Venezuela. And no
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  Speaker 2: one has any idea what that means. Nobody has any idea.
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  Speaker 2: No one has any idea who the president of Venezuela is.
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  Speaker 1: Now in Venezuela.
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  Speaker 2: The vice president, Dulce Rodriguez, was by the Supreme Court
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  Speaker 2: of Venezuela sworn in as the interim president. You have
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  Speaker 2: the woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize who ran
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  Speaker 2: for president, and she in the primaries won overwhelmingly, and
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  Speaker 2: then she had to I mean, the government went after
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  Speaker 2: her and she had to go into hiding.
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  Speaker 1: And that was the primary.
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  Speaker 2: And so what happened is her party runs a proxy
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  Speaker 2: for president who.
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  Speaker 1: Wins with seventy percent.
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  Speaker 2: Of the vote, which Maduro immediately said, I won. Set
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  Speaker 2: aside the vote and it declared himself a dictator, which
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  Speaker 2: he had been anyway. Venezuela was the wealthiest country in
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  Speaker 2: South America. Now it is among the poorest countries in
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  Speaker 2: South America. Thirty million Venezuelans, twenty five percent walked out
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  Speaker 2: the door. They just couldn't take it anymore. Inflation is rampant.
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  Speaker 2: Very few people are happy campers and have good income. Well,
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  Speaker 2: if you're a government official, yeah, if you're running an agency,
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  Speaker 2: because the corruption is so great. In Venezuela and Caracas,
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  Speaker 2: the capital used to be one of the most gorgeous
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  Speaker 2: cities in the world. Broad avenues, beautiful home homes, architecture,
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  Speaker 2: just gorgeous. And it's all fallen to hell in a handbasket.
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  Speaker 2: So we at this point no idea who the president is.
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  Speaker 2: You have a military. The leadership in the military is arguing,
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: well we are. You have the vice president saying nope,
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  Speaker 2: I am. You have the winner of the lab selection
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  Speaker 2: saying nope, I am.
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  Speaker 1: And at this point no one knows.
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  Speaker 2: The only thing we do know is that it's Maduro
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  Speaker 2: that's been taken out and that's it. Everybody else is
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  Speaker 2: still in place, and it is his regime that is still.
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  Speaker 1: Running the country.
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  Speaker 2: The now president, who has just been sworn in, has
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  Speaker 2: said Maduro is still the president. We demand the immediate
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: return of President Maduro, which please give me a break.
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  Speaker 2: So how much power does the United States have because remember,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: once the capture of Maduro happened, all military forces were
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: taken out. We don't have any boots on the ground,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: although the president said he's not adverse to that, which
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: again there is the political issue too. Didn't President Trump
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: run on no foreign wars that we are not going
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: to get involved in any foreign either wars or international relations.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: We just want out. Well, it's changed. And then my
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: favorite interview that happened over the weekend, and this was
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Jim Jordan, who was the think as head of the
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Armed Services Committee of House of Representatives. He was interviewed
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  Speaker 2: and was asked this question. We understand that the president
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  Speaker 2: of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, was captured and is now waiting trial.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: You the president of the United States pardoned the president
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  Speaker 2: of Honduras who was convicted of exactly the same charges
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  Speaker 2: that Maduro is facing. Why was he pardoned? And you
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: know what the answer was, I trust the President. I
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: trust him? Okay, you trust him? How about the fact
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: that the former president of Honduras was part I trust
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  Speaker 2: what the President says and does.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Oh, there's gonna be.
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  Speaker 2: Plenty more as we go through the next few days,
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  Speaker 2: to say the least.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, now there's something else going on.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: I want to switch to another topic, and that is
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: once again California taxes and money. A few years ago
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: I interviewed a couple of times Richard Branson, who is
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: head of all the Virgin companies, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Virgin Radio.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: He had for a while Virgin Records, where he started
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: and he's British, and we talked about how when he
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: started his business, being a millionaire at nineteen, by the way,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: extraordinary story. He started with a rock and roll magazine
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: and his office was a phone box, you know those
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: tetra looking phone booths that they have in England that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: are read.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: Down at the corner of the street.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Because he grew up in an era where phones at
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: home were not particularly in massive numbers.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: So that's where he started.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: And we talked about the British philosophy of wealth, and
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: that is, for some reason, the super wealthy in Britain
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: there's something morally wrong without having.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: That kind of money.
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  Speaker 2: Anybody who has that kind of money, who has made
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: that kind of money, is somehow morally just not at
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: the same level of people who've inherited or inherited titles, etc.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: The United States has taken a different path. There is
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: nothing morally wrong with being a billionaire. What's morally wrong
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: is not taxing those billionaires. In other words, let's say
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: you have a socialist government like in New York is
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: now going has now a socialist mayor a democratic socialist
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: some mom, donnie.
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  Speaker 1: The issue is not stopping.
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  Speaker 2: These billionaires from having money, Oh no, No, the issue
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: is looking them, looking at them as a bank to
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: fund the public services. And that's exactly what's happening here
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: in California. There is a proposed tax coming up. It's
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: a going to be an initiative that's theoretically going to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: be on November's ballot that there will be a one
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: time five percent wealth tax on billionaires and that could
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: raise one hundred billion dollars for healthcare. And the argument is,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: is this going to drive billionaires out of the state.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: We're only talking a couple hundred people, but a couple
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: hundred people who are billionaires. And we're not talking about
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: people that are you know, one point one billion dollars
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: or one point two billion dollars. We're talking about billionaires
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  Speaker 2: that have lots of billions of doll Let's tax them
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  Speaker 2: to pay for health care. And why would we do that?
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  Speaker 2: Is it because we just don't like billionaires? No, this
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  Speaker 2: is all about health care. Health Care is for the
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: most part disappearing under the big beautiful Bill. The money
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: that went to went to health care programs has been decimated,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: has been ripped out of the system. If you look
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: at Well for example, not Medicare, but Medicare, it's the
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: money is simply not there anymore. Services to the poor
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: don't exist anymore. They have been decimated. So here's what
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: California does. Because California receives a ton of federal money.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Keep in mind, the President of the United States hates
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: California and anything he can do to slash any money
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: federal money going into California is going to do. And
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: so across the board though it's across the board and
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: across the country, money is simply not there anymore.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Where's it going.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to the military, it's going to enforcement of
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: the border. It certainly isn't going to healthcare.
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  Speaker 1: Or certainly education.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: So here is the ballot that says there will be
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  Speaker 2: a five percent wealth attax on billionaires. Even Democrats are
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: split on this one. Of course Senator Bernie Sanders, who
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: is the closest Senator to a communist that we have,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: not that he is, but he's touching it.
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  Speaker 1: He supports it, and you know it's against it.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Against it is Governor Gavin Newsom who is warning us
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: that if you look at the rest of the country
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: and you look at California and you're taxing billionaires to
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: this extent.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: People are going to leave.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Now we've said that over and over again. People are
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: going to leave, and companies have left. There are major
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: corporations that have left our population. The same. The income
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: coming in the state, well, it is so volatile that
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: there's really no way to even anticipate or prepare at
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: all for income coming in. I'll explain that when we
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: come back and talk about who's in favor, who's against,
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: and whether it makes any sense or not, and is
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: it even fair because the word always is used by
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: those who love taxes as your fair share and this
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: is only a modest tax. You know, they could tax
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: you with eighty percent and that would be a modest tax.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: As I have said before.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: And most people know that a huge amount of services
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: are paid for by the Feds. I mean the massive Well,
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: the way the government works, our government is income tax
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: goes into the federal government and the money to pay
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: for state and county governments and in a major part
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: is then filtered down from the from the Feds.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: To the states.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: So this proposed one time five percent well tax on
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: billionaires that has a lot of political implications having to
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: do with California. Now do we have a whole lot
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: of billionaires. We have about two hundred of them. Although
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: the proponents of this, of this bill, of this attempt
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: to earn or to get a whole lot of money.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: They're saying they could raise one hundred billion dollars.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: And the problem is is you've got even Democrats who
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: love taxing people are saying this may be the last straw.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, how many people are going to leave? And
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: when billionaires leave, that is a big hit problem with California.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Why this would make so much sense is California is
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: a state that gets its revenue from the most part
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: by income tax. The top twenty percent of Californians pay
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: eighty percent of the entire budget, if not more. Why
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: because our taxes are the highest in the country and
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: California relies on people who make money, and there are
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: a lot of people who make money in California. The
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: problem is when money is being derived from income taxes
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: and it's the wealthy who pay the most of those
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: income taxes.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: You, well, is really volatile.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: I mean it depends on the stock market that goes up,
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: that goes down, depends on property values that goes up,
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: that goes down. It depends on the wealth of companies
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: and investments. Those move around, which is why some wealthy,
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: wealthy people don't pay any taxes at all, because they've
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: lost money in the previous years.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: And the bottom line is, I don't care how rich
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: you are.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: If you've lost money, do you pay income tax on
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: money that you have lost?
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Well, the answer in our tax system is no.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: So what this bill does is say We're going to
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: put charge five percent on top of the income tax
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: on any billionaire all your assets, five percent, which is
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: a ton of money. So here is the problem is
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: that does California keep on taxing. You bet it does, because,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: as proponents of taxes say, you have to pay your
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: fair share. You know, for example, the people that make
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: north of a million dollars a year and that's you know,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: that's really healthy money. Although a lot of Californians do
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: you know, what's your fair share? How about this fifty
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: two percent of your income? Is that your fair share?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Most people think that a reasonable amount of income tax
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: should be about a third thirty five percent. Very few
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: people will say half of your money goes to the government.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: In other words, you're working for the government to write
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: up until July first, and people are going to leave.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: We think so far they haven't left.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: As taxes have gone up up up, and we talk
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: about businesses leaving, a lot of them have. But when
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: you look at the reality, when you look at the numbers,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: not so many. And who is who wants all of
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: this money? Well, how about the union, the Service Employees
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: International Union and United Healthcare Workers. They want the money
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: to go to the state because they rely on money
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: through the healthcare system. So they now are going to
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: put this proposal on the ballot.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: But before they do.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: They need eight hundred and seventy five thousand registered voters
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: submitted before June twenty four. Now to get eight hundred
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: and seventy five thousand registered voters, you have to rease
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: about a third more. So it's going to be pretty
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: much north of a million registered voters. It's happened before
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: on taxes, but it was shut down either. Governor Gavin
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Newsom vetoed the bills, which by the way, he is
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: not in favor of this at all. Imagine this a
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: liberal Democratic governor saying no to taxes, and the voters
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: have shut this down because it's a simple premise. Do
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: we keep on taxing people that have money? And do
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: we tax them up and up and up? Is there
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: a point? Is there a point of critical mass where Okay,
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: I've had it, can't take it anymore. And billionaires produce
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: a fair chunk of money. How do we know because
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: the proponents of this bill, this initiative are saying that
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: this five percent one time tax can raise one hundred
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: billion dollars. That's how much billionaires pay in taxes or
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: how much money comes into the state from billionaires.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, this is KFI AM six forty. You've been listening
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: to the Bill Handle Show.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Catch My Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app