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Plummeting Latino Support for Republicans Could Swing the Midterms · The Bill Handel Show

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to KFI AM 640, the Bill Handel Show
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  Speaker 1: on demand on the iHeartRadio app. KFI AM 640, Bill
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  Speaker 1: Handel here. It is a Monday morning, October 19th. Some
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  Speaker 1: of the big stories we are looking at. France, the demonstration,
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  Speaker 1: the riots all across the country have not abated. To
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  Speaker 1: some extent they have, but it's gone completely crazy. Half
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  Speaker 1: a million people demonstrating and looters have come in and
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  Speaker 1: ignited riots. buildings and cars and some historic buildings even.
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  Speaker 1: One of the town halls in Limoges, I think, which
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  Speaker 1: has been around since the 1840s, 1850s, historic building gone,
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  Speaker 1: torched completely. Now, I want to go into politics for
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  Speaker 1: a moment. And as you all know, as we all know,
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  Speaker 1: that the Republicans are looking at an uphill battle The
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  Speaker 1: issue is, is how much are they going to lose
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  Speaker 1: by the House that they've already given up on? The
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  Speaker 1: Republicans realize that the House is gone. That is the
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  Speaker 1: Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives and
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  Speaker 1: Hakeem Jeffries will be the new speaker. And Mike Johnson
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  Speaker 1: will not be. He will be the minority head of
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  Speaker 1: his party. And. So now the issue is the Senate,
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  Speaker 1: and there's some very close Senate races. Texas, they're looking
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  Speaker 1: at one that hundreds of millions of dollars being poured
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  Speaker 1: into it. And Texas was one of those states where
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  Speaker 1: it was a given the Republican was going to be
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  Speaker 1: the senator. Not so much. Not so much. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of very close races. One of the big factors that
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  Speaker 1: is changing the political landscape is Latino vote. Latinos are
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  Speaker 1: the biggest single minority in the United States and at
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  Speaker 1: some point are going to be the majority. And the
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  Speaker 1: Democrats used to have the Latinos. It was a given.
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  Speaker 1: That's the problem. The Democrats were completely blind to the
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  Speaker 1: fact this was a changing demographic or it was not
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  Speaker 1: a monolithic demographic. See, blacks and Latinos just are Democrats
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  Speaker 1: by definition, aren't they? Just ask the Democratic Party. Well,
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  Speaker 1: guess what? Not so much. This last election, when Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump was elected, the Latino vote went in a great
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  Speaker 1: deal over to the Republicans, to Donald Trump. Why? Because
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  Speaker 1: I think the Democrats sort of take it for granted,
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  Speaker 1: did take it for granted, and ignored these groups, both
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  Speaker 1: the blacks and the Latinos. Under Joe Biden, it was
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats did not do a good job. Joe Biden
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  Speaker 1: is not going to be held up as one of
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  Speaker 1: the better presidents. Of course, Donald Trump is the greatest
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  Speaker 1: president we've ever had. If you put Abraham Lincoln and
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  Speaker 1: George Washington together. Just ask him. Just ask him. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: The greatest president that ever was or ever will be.
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  Speaker 1: So what is happening right now? Well, Republicans, the Latinos
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  Speaker 1: are going the other way in big numbers, and that's
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  Speaker 1: going to kill Republicans. The Latino the Latino community is
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  Speaker 1: huge and they've moved right back. Not so much moving
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  Speaker 1: back to the Democrats, but moved against the Republican Party.
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  Speaker 1: And why is that? Well, even immigration, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: Latinos were in favor of immigration reform because when the
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  Speaker 1: immigration crackdowns was started and Trump. was campaigning on that.
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  Speaker 1: It was the worst of the worst. All we want
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  Speaker 1: out are the horrible people, the illegal criminals. That's it. Well,
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  Speaker 1: guess what? The majority, the overwhelming majority of people that
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  Speaker 1: are being deported are not criminals. Or if they are criminals,
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  Speaker 1: their crime is traffic violations. And that has come back
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  Speaker 1: to bite the Republican Party, especially since Donald Trump has
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  Speaker 1: a way of never being wrong, doubles down on everything.
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  Speaker 1: He still says it's the worst of the worst. In
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  Speaker 1: the meantime, look how many people are being picked up.
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  Speaker 1: Virtually every Latino knows our contractor, Polo, has half of
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  Speaker 1: his staff. Some of them are illegal and have been deported.
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  Speaker 1: The other ones just won't come to work. Even those
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  Speaker 1: that are illegal won't come to work because they're frightened
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  Speaker 1: of being picked up and harassed and dealt with. So immigration,
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  Speaker 1: which was a positive for the president, has gone the
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  Speaker 1: other way. And now it's one of his vulnerabilities. And
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  Speaker 1: he is blind by this. He does not see there's
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  Speaker 1: anything wrong with this. He does not get it. He
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  Speaker 1: still believes, I guess, somewhere in the deepest reaches of
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  Speaker 1: his mind that the Latinos are still on his side
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  Speaker 1: and they have not moved in the other direction. And
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  Speaker 1: then he point out, look at the polls. Well, when
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  Speaker 1: the polls go against you, two things happen. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: the polls are wrong, and you don't believe the polls.
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  Speaker 1: The polls are only legitimate when they're on your side.
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  Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, there are the polls. There's
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  Speaker 1: two kinds of polls, independent polls. You have Gallup. You
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  Speaker 1: have the Reuters poll. You have Pew that are looking
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  Speaker 1: at the political landscape with some objectivity, and then you
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  Speaker 1: have internal polls. where the campaigns themselves create the polls.
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  Speaker 1: And guess what happens with internal polls? They're always skewed
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  Speaker 1: towards the campaign. Always. No one believes polls, especially within
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  Speaker 1: the campaign. But the polls are so overwhelming now against
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  Speaker 1: the Republicans, against the president, against those who have backed
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  Speaker 1: up the Republicans. And you watch what's going to happen.
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  Speaker 1: If I had to guess, I mean, the House, it's
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  Speaker 1: a given just by how many numbers the Democrats are
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  Speaker 1: going to pick up and take over the House. That's
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  Speaker 1: that's already written in stone, basically. And I think the
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  Speaker 1: Senate has a good chance of flipping, too. So now
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  Speaker 1: the president for his last two years will have a Democratic,
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  Speaker 1: certainly Democratic House and a Democratic Senate, which is going
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  Speaker 1: to stop everything cold. And those congresspeople and senators who
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  Speaker 1: backed the president in lockstep. I backed the president. He
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  Speaker 1: is the greatest president who ever lived. I believe that
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  Speaker 1: America is far greater. As Donald Trump has said, prices
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  Speaker 1: are down. For those of you that believe the prices
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  Speaker 1: are up, you're wrong. It's not true. Don't believe your
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  Speaker 1: lying eyes. Believe me when I tell you prices are down.
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  Speaker 1: We've won the war. The Strait of Hormuz is open.
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  Speaker 1: Tariffs have helped the economy. You have not lost your job.
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  Speaker 1: You are not paying more. Well, guess what? It's how
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  Speaker 1: long can you go with that? And it's going to hurt.
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  Speaker 1: And then assuming that that happens, assuming that the Republicans
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  Speaker 1: get plastered, I mean, their clock cleaned, then you're going
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  Speaker 1: to see these very Republicans when they run during the
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  Speaker 1: presidential coming up in two years. Then you're not going
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  Speaker 1: to see them say anymore. Yes, the president was the
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  Speaker 1: greatest president that ever lived. It's fascinating what's going on.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot wait. Okay, there's a story that I want
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  Speaker 1: to share with you, and it's something that I've always advocated,
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  Speaker 1: and that is that taxpayers chip in to fund political campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: Makes a lot of sense as far as I'm concerned,
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  Speaker 1: and there's one way it works, but it's not going
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  Speaker 1: to work. Unfortunately, it's not going to work, and I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell you why. And there's some very Good reasons, at
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  Speaker 1: least legally, there are some good reasons, not necessarily sociologically
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  Speaker 1: and politically. We'll be back.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel On Demand from KFI AM 640.
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  Speaker 1: KFI AM 640. Bill Handel here. On a Monday morning,
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  Speaker 1: October 19th, two weeks and one day, two weeks from tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: the midterms. Some of the big stories that we are
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  Speaker 1: looking at internationally. France. The demonstrations have exploded in France,
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  Speaker 1: students primarily, and students have a way of making things
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  Speaker 1: happen in France. 1968 basically toppled the government in France.
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  Speaker 1: And this time around, the demonstrations are the cost of
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  Speaker 1: living and the schools, not only the quality of the education,
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  Speaker 1: but the infrastructure of the schools, not enough money being spent,
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  Speaker 1: and the corruption and the cost of living. So no
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  Speaker 1: surprise there. And, oh, this is an interesting one. California
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  Speaker 1: has designated its first tribal champion marine protected areas, underwater parks.
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  Speaker 1: And that's what California does. It's very pro-environmental. Now, here
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  Speaker 1: is something. This is a little bit of politics, but
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  Speaker 1: in a different way. One of the propositions, Prop 4
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  Speaker 1: that's coming up, prohibit state and most local candidates from
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  Speaker 1: using public funding for political campaigns. Now, that gets kind
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  Speaker 1: of interesting. How do they get public funding? How do
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  Speaker 1: the taxpayers pay? Well, even today, you can go on
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  Speaker 1: your federal tax return, and no one does this that
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  Speaker 1: I know of, but you can designate $ 3 of your
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  Speaker 1: tax refund money And it goes to– no, $ 3 of
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  Speaker 1: your tax bill goes to a committee or goes into
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  Speaker 1: a fund that pays for campaigns across the country. And
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  Speaker 1: there are certain rules that attach to it. You have
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  Speaker 1: to have a certain number of small donors there. has
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  Speaker 1: to be a percentage in the most recent polls, an
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  Speaker 1: average of the three of the biggest polls in which
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  Speaker 1: you get a 5% or 8% or more, and you
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  Speaker 1: are eligible, a candidate is eligible for it. Now, here
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  Speaker 1: is the problem. I'm in favor of the funded By
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  Speaker 1: the citizenry, state-funded campaigns. And I'll tell you why. All
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  Speaker 1: things being equal, everybody is at the same place. Big
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  Speaker 1: money does not influence. Everybody gets the same amount of money,
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  Speaker 1: assuming that you've made those minimum criteria. The problem is,
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  Speaker 1: is not only does this exist, but at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: the Supreme Court has ruled that anybody can pay any
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  Speaker 1: amount of money for their own campaign or and or
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  Speaker 1: pay any amount of money under any circumstances for a
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  Speaker 1: political action committee. Somehow not connected to the campaign, although
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  Speaker 1: give me a break. Of course, they're connected to the campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: And so what you have is taxpayer funded campaigns, which
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  Speaker 1: makes sense. because it's all on an even keel. Everybody's
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  Speaker 1: on the same playing field. And then you have people
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  Speaker 1: like Elon Musk. Look at the Senate race in Texas,
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  Speaker 1: Paxton and Tallarico. Elon Musk has put in $ 127 million
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  Speaker 1: into the Paxton campaign. Not directly, but into the PAC,
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  Speaker 1: Political Action Committee that's backing Paxton. If it weren't for
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  Speaker 1: that money, Paxton wouldn't have a chance because there's so
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  Speaker 1: much garbage he has. I mean he has– you talk
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  Speaker 1: about baggage that he brings. I mean sex and financial stuff.
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  Speaker 1: It's just– I think financial misdeeds is what the accusation is.
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  Speaker 1: He was impeached although he wasn't convicted and he has
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  Speaker 1: not been charged with a crime. The point is, is
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  Speaker 1: that Elon Musk can put in $ 127 million. That can
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  Speaker 1: really trend to move the needle here. Now, does that
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  Speaker 1: necessarily mean that it's going to move the needle? It
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  Speaker 1: moves the needle somewhat. Does that mean it's going to
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  Speaker 1: guarantee a Paxson win? Absolutely not. I mean, we have
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  Speaker 1: people— Huffington spent over $ 100 million on, I think, her campaign.
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  Speaker 1: Meg Whitman spent over $ 100 million. You've got— was it Bob
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  Speaker 1: Steyer who spent hundreds of millions of dollars on his—
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Tom Steyer. Tom Steyer, thank you. Paul Caruso spent his
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  Speaker 1: own money to the tune of over a hundred million dollars.
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  Speaker 1: So you don't necessarily, you don't necessarily win with big money,
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  Speaker 1: but it sure helps. And big money skews everything. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if you have big money not involved and you only
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  Speaker 1: have governmental money being spent for the campaign. Now, of
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  Speaker 1: course the argument is how can we take our tax
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  Speaker 1: dollars and spend it for campaigns? Well, Let me put
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  Speaker 1: it this way. You spend our tax dollars. Everybody gets
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  Speaker 1: the same amount. And all of a sudden, you now
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  Speaker 1: have a true level political playing field, which the court, well,
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court has ruled that ain't going to happen. It's
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  Speaker 1: a First Amendment issue. No one can stop you from
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  Speaker 1: spending your money on your campaign. You absolutely have the
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  Speaker 1: right to do that. And as I said, it even
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  Speaker 1: increased that to the Citizens United campaign. decision that opened
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  Speaker 1: it wide up that PAC money can be raised by anybody.
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  Speaker 1: So you have trillionaires. Well, in one case, a trillionaire.
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  Speaker 1: But you have billionaires who throw money into these campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: And usually it's Republican campaigns because billionaires tend to run
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  Speaker 1: pretty conservatively. You don't see that many billionaires funding Democratic campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll see what Prop 4 has to do and
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  Speaker 1: how it works. It prohibits the state and local candidates
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  Speaker 1: from using public funding for political campaigns. So it's gone
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  Speaker 1: the other way. What it says is only money from
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  Speaker 1: donors and or big donors, small donors or big donors,
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  Speaker 1: can be used. Or you can't stop, of course, people
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  Speaker 1: using their own funds. And you can't stop them from
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  Speaker 1: putting money into the PACs either. So the Elon Musk
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  Speaker 1: will continue to fund... campaigns, and the small guys won't
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  Speaker 1: be able to get much traction. Now, how far do
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  Speaker 1: you go in the small guys if there's governmental funding? Well,
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  Speaker 1: there's formulas there. You have to get 5%, for example,
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  Speaker 1: of the registered voters. So that makes some serious players there,
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  Speaker 1: and it knocks out you, me, from running for office. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: now here's a question. There is a guy who was arrested,
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  Speaker 1: and what did he do? Well, he painted and still
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  Speaker 1: continues to paint crosswalks on his own on the street.
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  Speaker 1: He just goes, okay, I think I'll paint a crosswalk
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  Speaker 1: over there. And there's two sides to that coin, let
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  Speaker 1: me tell you, and I'll share that with you when
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  Speaker 1: we come back.
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  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel On Demand from KFI AM 640.
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  Speaker 1: KFI AM 640, as you just heard. Bill Handel here
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  Speaker 1: on a Monday morning, October 19th, as we're a couple
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  Speaker 1: weeks away from the election. Got a story I want
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  Speaker 1: to share with you about a guy named Jonathan Hale. Now,
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  Speaker 1: it has to do with crosswalks in the City of
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  Speaker 1: the Angels. One of the things about walking on the
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  Speaker 1: streets is the fact that you're nuts if you do,
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  Speaker 1: especially if you're trying to cross the street. Why is that?
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  Speaker 1: Because I think crosswalks not only do nothing, I think
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  Speaker 1: they actually help put you in more danger. Oh, here's
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  Speaker 1: a crosswalk. Let's go through that at speed. People don't
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  Speaker 1: pay attention. The number of people that are hit pedestrians
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  Speaker 1: that are hit has increased dramatically, and why is that? Well,
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  Speaker 1: look at how many people text and drive, and no
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  Speaker 1: one pays attention. And look how many people who cross
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  Speaker 1: crosswalks are walking when texting and not paying attention to
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  Speaker 1: cars coming down the street, and they walk right into cars,
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  Speaker 1: where it's no fault of the cars. But in any
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  Speaker 1: way you put it, it is fairly dangerous to cross streets.
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  Speaker 1: And there are a lot of places where there should
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  Speaker 1: be crosswalks painted on the street, and there aren't. So
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan Hale, a UCLA law student and about 150 volunteers,
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  Speaker 1: what they're doing is they're painting unauthorized crosswalks at dangerous
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  Speaker 1: LA intersections, saying, you know, we can't wait for the
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  Speaker 1: city anymore. Advocates say that traffic deaths, and this is true,
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  Speaker 1: rose 56%. From 2015 to 2025, in the last 10 years,
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  Speaker 1: they've gone up 50%, over 50%. The city's Vision Zero effort.
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  Speaker 1: Guess what didn't happen? It didn't make it close to zero.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what officials are saying. We maintain, we add
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  Speaker 1: more than 1,000 crosswalks every year. So Hale, who is
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  Speaker 1: painting crosswalks, on his own or with a group of volunteers,
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  Speaker 1: was arrested for doing exactly that. It is a crime.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot paint your own crosswalks. Only the city may
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  Speaker 1: do so. And he was arrested. But the backlash was
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  Speaker 1: so enormous that the case was dropped. So, for example,
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  Speaker 1: intersection of Hyde Park. And this is days before this
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  Speaker 1: story had been written. You had a young girl on
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  Speaker 1: the ground. result of a car crash. A car with
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  Speaker 1: a teenage boy on the windshield, another accident. A mother screaming,
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  Speaker 1: another accident. And here comes Jonathan Hale and his rebels,
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  Speaker 1: armed with paint rollers in holsters, which the paint drops down,
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  Speaker 1: drips down your leg, but that's, so be it. And
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  Speaker 1: there has been this huge outcry in his defense. And
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many people were against this thing. Now,
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  Speaker 1: his group is known as the People's Vision Zero instead
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  Speaker 1: of just Vision Zero. And this is an improvement long overdue,
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  Speaker 1: they say, because pedestrians are getting hit way too often
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  Speaker 1: and we need crosswalks. He's portrayed by local and national
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  Speaker 1: media as a vigilante, a guerrilla activist, a street safety activist.
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  Speaker 1: And his bottom line, he simply sees his work as necessary.
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  Speaker 1: And he really is an advocate. And I think very
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  Speaker 1: few people think that his heart is in the right
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  Speaker 1: place or the paint roller is in the right place.
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  Speaker 1: The city, the city's Department of Transportation says it's tried
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  Speaker 1: to work with him. They've met with him. They've delivered
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  Speaker 1: on all commitments to street repainting. Now, he continues on.
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  Speaker 1: Are authorities going to try to stop him? No one
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  Speaker 1: knows at this point. Interesting guy, by the way. He
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  Speaker 1: graduated from UC Berkeley three years ago with a degree.
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  Speaker 1: in philosophy and psychology. He has an interest in journalism,
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  Speaker 1: so he is not your run-of-the-mill hippie. When he was
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: in Berkeley, he shared a large Victorian home with a
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: bunch of dudes who But the dudes were not partying dudes,
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: partying dudes. They were sort of like-minded, ecology-friendly, let's help
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  Speaker 1: society kind of people. And so what happened in October 2022,
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  Speaker 1: where he turned around and he became an advocate, he
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  Speaker 1: was involved in a hit and run. A driver made
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  Speaker 1: a sudden and unexpected left turn at a green light,
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  Speaker 1: slammed into him. He was riding his motorcycle. He went
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  Speaker 1: flying over the hood of the car. The bike was totaled,
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  Speaker 1: but he only suffered minor injuries, and that's where he
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  Speaker 1: got his epiphany. He was going to become an advocate
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  Speaker 1: of safe intersections. He's a law student now, and he's
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  Speaker 1: a legal intern at the Inner City Law Center advocating
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  Speaker 1: for more housing, better transit, better infrastructure. So he has also,
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  Speaker 1: and I think legitimately, been described as a communist. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you don't get much more left-wing than what he's doing.
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  Speaker 1: All right, maybe I'm pushing it a little too hard.
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  Speaker 1: But let's just say he's on the left-wing part of life.
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  Speaker 1: And in May of 2025, he joined with this group,
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  Speaker 1: Crosswalk Collectives, to paint faded crosswalks. I don't think anybody
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  Speaker 1: had a problem with that. He was taking crosswalks that
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  Speaker 1: were faded, legitimate crosswalks, and painting them so they can
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  Speaker 1: be seen. Uh, it's that's illegal too, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, what's the city going to do about that?
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  Speaker 1: And then he morphed into, there's an intersection that needs painting.
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  Speaker 1: There's another intersection that needs painting.
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  Speaker 3: You know, what's stupid about all this though, Bill is, uh,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: the city has, it doesn't have the money or time
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: to make a crosswalk. However, it has the money and
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: time to remove the crosswalks that he puts up.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Well, attempting to. How the hell is that? Well, they're
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: attempting to do that. They have a hard time removing
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: all of them. And how much more time does it
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: take to remove a crosswalk than to paint a crosswalk?
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Just put one up. Well, that's the whole point. The
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: city says it's our job, but they've arrested him and
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: they're not pressing charges. They dismissed the charges. And now
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: here's your pissing match between the two of them. And
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: just an interesting fight with the city. And the city
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: doesn't do jack. There ain't no money for the city.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: The city just runs out of funds. And why is that?
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Because we have very democratically elected or Democrats who are
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: elected city council and the mayor's office. And, you know,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: we just program after program after program. There's never met
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: every single one of these Democrats. Their tombstone is going
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: to read. I never met a tax I didn't like.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: And when revenues are good, well, we've got the money.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: The problem is they don't recognize that sometimes revenues are bad,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: but the programs are still in place. Yeah, just doesn't
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: work very well. Okay, I want to finish up the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: hour with the divide between those haves and have-nots. There
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: are a couple of issues. that really divide us. And
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it's not political at all. It's just living in America.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And I'll explain.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: You're listening to Bill Handel on demand from KFI AM 640.
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: KFI AM 640. Bill Handel. It is a Monday morning,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: October 19th, two weeks out or two weeks from tomorrow
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: for the midterms. And one of the big issues about
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the midterm, probably the biggest issue is affordability. affordability is
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: real simple. What is it? It's you can afford or
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: not afford. See, I want to go through that because
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that's very deep. Okay. The definition of affordability is what
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you can afford. See, this is why I get paid
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the big bucks to explain these complex theories to you.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: So affordability is a huge issue. And we talk about
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: the cost of living. and the cost of housing, and
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the cost of gasoline, and income relative to the cost
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of living, and wages are not keeping up with inflation,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people are suffering. I mean, most
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Americans are suffering to some extent. Farmers are getting nailed.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Of course, the truck industry, which means all of us
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: are going to be paying more because everything, everything is...
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: brought in by truck, is transported by truck across the country,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: and what do trucks rely on? What's their fuel? Diesel.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And then the politics of President Trump and Russia and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: all that, which we'll cover certainly between now and the election.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what isn't counted when you talk
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: about or when the government talks about affordability. Student loans
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: and auto loans. If you look at student loans and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: auto loans... The numbers are astronomical, and they are not counted.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: And when you put student loans and auto loans together,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: and we're talking about people who have both, and a
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: whole lot of people have both, student loans over a
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: trillion dollars, tens of millions of Americans have borrowed student loans.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And student loans today, well, they're ridiculous in how much
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: it costs to go to school. The outcome of the
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: guarantee of the great job is not there anymore. Does
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: it pay off? Yeah, in the long, long run it does,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: but that doesn't make it any easier to pay the
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: rent today. And so when you combine student loans and
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: auto loans, that puts, what, 36% of Americans just out
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of the retirement demographic that is saving for other than
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Social Security. We are screwed today. No pensions anymore. Very
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: few companies have pensions. You know, this company, our company,
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: before it was iHeart, it was Cox. It was a pension.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: And it was a pretty good pension. Our union, AFTRA,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: the American Federation of Television, Radio, RT, SAG-AFTRA, we have
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: a decent pension. But how many people are in SAG-AFTRA?
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: The problem is we are not saving up And when
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you talk about auto loans and student loans on top
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: of affordability, well, let me give you a stat. The
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: average cost for a car today is a monthly payment
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: of $ 716 a month. The average cost of student loan
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: debt is $ 316 a month. Put those together and what
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: do you have? You got $ 1, 000 a month. Outside of
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: everything else, Outside of food, outside of gasoline, outside of clothing,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: outside of your utility bills. So the disparity is, well,
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: it's getting worse and worse. The wealthy are doing just
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: fine with the administration and its tax philosophy. The great, big,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: beautiful tax bill. So the wealthy are doing well. A
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: couple of things that I think are bonehead that the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: president has put into place, for example, no taxes on tips, which,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: of course, anybody who earns tips thinks that's tremendous. But
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I have a question to ask you. I get taxed
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: for every single dime I earn. You get taxed for
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: every single dime you earn. Now, those people who live
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: on tips tax free on those tips and the only
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: thing people live on tips, what how much money do
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: they earn? Minimum wage. So you have someone at a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: good restaurant making, let's say, $ 50, 000 a year or $ 70, 000
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: a year, let's say. Good restaurants can pay pretty good money. Well,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: you're taxed on minimum wage. You're taxed on $ 20, 000 a year,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: which is zero tax. Boy, that's fair. So the bottom
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: line is, just kill yourself. I think that's the answer. Seriously? Yeah,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: just jump off. That's what we're doing? Yeah, just jump
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: off a building. Give yourself a break. Neil and I
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: did that. Yeah, we jumped off a building. You did
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: not jump off a building. You repelled off a building.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: How do you know? You chickened out and didn't go.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Because I'm already repelling people. I don't have to. Every
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: single day. That's correct. I don't have to repel off
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: a building to prove my point.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: This guy beat up his entire body just trying to
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: get out of his house.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: The other day.
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: The last thing he needs to do is add actual.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, I think. Is that on? And do we have
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: on Instagram at Bill Handel show the picture of? Yeah.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Of me being banged up. I took a spill. Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: I'm all bandaged up. What did you do? I was
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: being evacuated. from our house. And we were rushing the
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: evacuation because it was mandatory and the fire was a
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: quarter of a mile away. And it had gotten pretty serious.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: The wind had shifted and the fire was going in
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: our direction at a tremendous speed. So as we're scrambling around,
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I got caught up. On the side of the house,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: going through my gate with some stuff, and I got
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: caught up in some of the plants and just went down.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: You fell into the bushes. Yeah, well, no, I fell
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: on the concrete. Oh. If I had fallen into the bushes,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: that would have been much better. So anyway, at Bill
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Handel Show, you'll see how banged up I am. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I have the stye in my eye because I'm half
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: blind right now. There's that, too.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: It's been a weekend, hasn't it? It has been a weekend.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: For you. Yeah.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Socializing at parties. I'm talking about fraternity parties, sorority parties,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: and some of the new bills or new rules that
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: are kicking in, and I'll share that with you when
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: we come back. KFI AM 640. You've been listening to
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: The Bill Handel Show. Catch my show Monday through Friday,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., and anytime on demand on
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app.