Retrospect
Retrospect
Can We The People Fix Congress? - Stoney’s Throwback Episode | Retrospect Ep.209
We are going back to our roots with these Throwback Episodes. One of the hosts comes with a topic, and the other two have no idea what it is. We hope you enjoy it!
In this week’s episode we discussed the structural flaws, political dysfunction, and gridlock that define the U.S. legislative branch today. We unpack the forces paralyzing progress and explore real reform ideas that could restore accountability and functionality. Whether you're frustrated, curious, or cautiously hopeful, this episode breaks down what's wrong. Is Congress broken, and if so, can it be fixed?
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Keywords
Congressional reform, term limits, lobbying influence, single issue legislation, transparency, accountability, public statements, median state income, remote work, insider trading, health care, illegal immigrants, government shutdown, constitutional amendment, public trust.
Stoney 0:00
Hey, Did y'all know that you can bet on anything in Las Vegas? There's no rules. There's absolutely anything you can bet on in Las Vegas. You can call somebody up and make a bet,
Ian 0:15
I would imagine, of all places Las Vegas, that sounds about right,
Jason 0:18
Stoney, did you make a
Stoney 0:19
bet? Well, actually, I found out that there was a running bet on whether I was going to do a soft topic today or not. And the bookies, the bookies, actually gave it 100 to one odds that I was going to do a soft topic today. Okay, so that means, basically, if I did a soft topic and you
Ian 0:43
bet $1 you'd have won 100 Okay, good thing. I'm not a betting man.
Stoney 0:47
Now you get to find out if you won or lost money.
Jason 0:50
Okay, here we go. I'm looking forward to this.
Stoney 0:54
Congress isn't broken, it's misaligned. What does that really mean? It means the people we elect, the voices we trust to make decisions for our nation, are no longer working in stepped with the values, priorities and realities of the citizens they represent. When I was young, being a rebel meant marching for civil rights, challenging the establishment and often standing as a liberal Democrat. Today, being a rebel means standing up for the conservative principles in a world that tells you that's radical, the misalignment doesn't stop there. Our government now has the legal authority to deliver messaging, including propaganda, to US citizens, messages intended initially for foreign audiences due to changes in laws such as the Smith month act. Meanwhile, Congress is burdened with multi issue bills that are difficult to understand, perks and pay that are disconnected from the average American, and lobbying influence that distorts priorities away from the people. In this episode, we're cutting through the noise. We're exploring my term limits, pay tied to constituents, remote accountability, single issue, legislation, truthful public statements and transparency around lobbying aren't just reforms, they're fixes that realign Congress with the country it serves. This is about truth, accountability, reclaiming government for the people you're going to hear perspectives from Boomers, Gen X and millennials, because the story of misalignment affects every generation. If you care for our future as a constitutional republic, this episode is mandatory. Listening. Stay with us. This conversation is not just timely, it's essential. Welcome
Ian 3:15
to the retrospect podcast, a show where people come together from different walks of life. Walks of life and discuss a topic from their generation's perspective. My name is Ian, and as always, I'm joined by Jason. Hello, everyone. Stoney. Hello.
Stoney 3:30
So did anybody make a bet? Did anybody win or lose any money? Or was that just new information for everybody? I
Ian 3:36
lost my bet. Oh, really. Okay, I did, I didn't bet anything specific, but if I had to wager, I was gonna say it's got to be some sort of heavy political topic. I think.
Stoney 3:48
Okay, so you're the one. Just think about that. If you had bet $1,000 in Vegas, 100 to one,
Ian 3:55
that's okay. I'm not a betting man.
Stoney 3:59
Actually been the other way you lost your
Ian 4:01
money. That's okay. Yeah, hey, that's okay. So so as people have probably been following along with us for the past two episodes, we've kind of been returning back to form a little bit like we did once upon a time in the in the early days of this podcast, where one person comes to the table with a topic and the other two don't know what the topic is. And Jason has had his turn. I've had mine, and now it is Stoney. Stoney, it's my turn, and here we
Stoney 4:25
are. So I have six rules, okay, to fix Congress. All right? Number one, two, term limits, just like the president, right? What do y'all think about that?
Jason 4:37
Well, I go back and forth with term limits simply because at the state level, they've tried this.
Stoney 4:51
And we're not talking about state
Jason 4:55
level, I know, but I mean the principle still is the same. You. These guys, they basically leave the house and then they go run in the Senate. And there's all these brother in law deals that are cut on the political level about lining you up to run for this and run for that. In principle, I would agree with you. I do believe that there is a you. There is a we've kind of lost the, I believe, the original intent of being the citizen, kind of civil servant, you know, go back to those, you know, earliest times of the country, and the idea of making Congress a career that you know that's more of a modern yes thing
Stoney 5:48
they the founding fathers never intended for you to be a career politician, right? You're supposed to come represent your people and then go back to work and bring somebody else in with fresh ideas. And that's the intent of a two term limit, is to limit career politicians and encourage fresh perspectives within the Constitution. You can't have a fresh perspective that wants to change the constitution.
Jason 6:13
But this is the only, this is the only issue that I think, Well, I think the paradigm is so it's kind of we're out of kilter. And I think that we're not as a homogenous society that we once were, I think, in our early part of the country. And I've gotten into various, you know, arguments, for lack of better term arguments. Been more discussions heated on, on online, with, with this sort of, these type of issues of, you know, why can't we seem to make things work? And I just think, unfortunately, we're not the country that we used to be, I think,
Stoney 7:04
may I say, because of the career politicians?
Jason 7:07
Well, I think career politicians because society, and I would think that's more of a product of a post world war two world that came out, you know that, you know, that's basically when the military industrial complex took right the United States, you know, became kind of the top dog. I think just things, things got set in motion. And we are what we are now, and we are different. I mean, the country is different now, and part of that is the makeup of the of the United States now. It's, you know, I mean, if you come want to go back to the original 13 Colonies, or, you know how far you want to go back, if you want to go back to prior to the Civil War, or whatever the case may be, it was primarily dominated by white, by generally the Wasp, the Wasp contingent, in essence, which ran the United States. So it was white, Anglo, Saxon, Protestant, and preferably male. That's That was your, your power brokers. Okay, that's changed. That's no longer the dominant, you know, paradigm that exists in the United States anymore. There's a lot of different ethnic groups now, and they bring in their ideas and and I just think that we have too much change right now, so we don't have a bunch of people going to Congress. They're really on the same page. They're on completely different, different worlds, a lot of them. I mean, it's like, like ones from Mars and one's from, like, Jupiter or something. I mean, it's That's how far the divide is. But
Stoney 8:58
you see breaking the Constitution and bringing in things aside from the Constitution is why we are like that. Okay, so when the Obama administration brings in 80,000 Somali refugees, puts them in one area, gives them the ability to vote. Now you get somebody like ELAR Oman in office. That's the voice you're talking about, if you're talking about normal Americans, regardless of color, regardless of sex, they want the same things. They want crime to go down. They want to be safe. They want health care that they can afford to where a major medical crisis does not bankrupt the citizen. Okay, see, those people want the same. It's when you bring these other people in. And we'll get to that in a minute also. So what is the constitutional reality of a term limit? What would have to happen? Is it constitutional to impose term Well, I believe the Supreme Court has ruled. On that. Yes, it would take a constitutional amendment, Article Five, right, it can be done. But then again, you're asking the people that vote on that to vote themselves in term limits. And so that would never what we will have to do then is, is we would have to create a voluntary way for these people. We'd have to have the vote and then create a way for them to exit out, maybe some type of incentives, which I'm completely against, but you'd have to have some type of invented, you know, incentives. I don't believe that they should make $1 outside of service, but to get some of these people out, we might have to do that, and we'd have to maintain the Article Five amendment campaign to codify the limits officially.
Ian 10:51
All right, I just have a hard time believing that they would ever fly. They would ever allow that. That's the hard part. I agree with it, but I just don't,
Stoney 10:57
but we, the people, can demand it, and it's time we started demanding these. I
Jason 11:03
mean, when was the last time that actually a constitutional amendment was, in essence, this is what, to me, is so frustrating. And I think what causes a lot of strife in our society is we attempt to basically settle law, not the way the Founders intended for our government. For that to work, you know, when was the last time we attempted to actually amend the
Ian 11:38
Constitution? At least from what I'm seeing here, it says, When was the last time that was done? 1992 amendment is the 27th Amendment, which was ratified in May 7 of 1992 the amendment prevents any law increasing or decreasing the salaries of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of representative. That was an
Stoney 12:03
actual constitutional we will be getting into that one soon. We will get into that next hold those thoughts.
Ian 12:09
That's what Google says. I'm not the 27th
Jason 12:11
I don't, because I don't remember that 92 actually going through the entire two thirds of the states, in, in, in, I think that was an attempt,
Stoney 12:21
I don't know, one section, and that we're going to go into that next because congressional pay tied to median state income is the next rule to reform Congress. So let's we will finish this one up, and then, please, I want to go right back to that one. Ian, because that I'm loving you say that because that's coming. Isn't it crazy
Ian 12:39
that just before you continue on, it says the amendment was first proposed by James Madison in 1789, it was left dormant for centuries, until it was revived, revived and ratified in early 1990s that's crazy,
Stoney 12:52
but remember JD Rockefeller started the federal school system, and it took till Nixon to get that going right. So the bureaucracy is, you know, the only thing that saves us from the evilness of our government.
Jason 13:05
Well, that's what I'm saying. There's so much of our that's what I'm saying. There's so much issues in our society today that they attempt to use the courts, you know, to set President, to do all these things, which I believe the use of the courts is not what the founders envisioned of how our democracy or our constitution was supposed to
Stoney 13:33
work. They can say we're not a democracy. We need Well, calling it a democracy,
Jason 13:38
but we have democratic principles. Democratic principles, the idea that people go and vote though, what I'm the point though, is, what you're trying what I'm trying to say is, if we were meant to have our government operate with the intent of doing it through the amendment process. So if we feel like, just for example, name any hot button issue, right? Name, any hot button issue, abortion or whatever the case may be, you just write it on a piece of paper if you really want to settle this, then you put it to you go through the amendment process if you want to enshrine that into the US Constitution. Then go through the amendment process. If you can get two thirds of the states to pass it, and go through that, it becomes added to the Constitution. Okay, then that's just the will of the people. That's just the way it works. But we don't do it that way. We through it through courts. We try to do things through statute.
Stoney 14:39
That's not what the court system is for the court is to ensure the Constitution is followed. That's what every bit of the court system is for. It's not for that. It's not for setting that type of precedent. It's not for restricting what the executive can do.
Jason 14:59
Well, no, I. I agree. I think there's just way too much. I think right now we're, you know, we've been seeing that since Trump got elected with, you know, every little federal judge, they're finding a federal judge that dislikes Trump and get him to to basically block everything he's trying to do. And luckily, the Supreme Court has, has basically come in.
Stoney 15:19
They're still trying it. There was another one today. The minute they do that, they need to be removed from office. That is what the Supreme Court needs to do, right? There they do it, they're out of bounds by
Jason 15:31
I think that that the district courts need to, they, they, I think that whole the way the judicial system works at the federal level. I think anything the President chooses to do, the only person that can countermand the President would be the Supreme Court, supreme and not an appeals court, or, God forbid, a district court, right judge? I just think that's that's way, in essence, you're having an unelected person who's a lifetime appointment, basically counter Manding, what the people elected the president to do exactly. I think there's, there's issues with that, and and I don't know what the fix is with that, because it doesn't seem to be stopping. Just saw the latest thing with the judge, it blocked Trump utilizing National Guard in Oregon. Meanwhile,
Stoney 16:27
it's not called the state guard. It's called the National Guard, right? I'll leave it right there, right? It?
Jason 16:32
Well, once again, it wasn't always the National Guard, it was the state guard at one time. It was changed during Eisenhower, during the Civil Rights with specifically what happened in Little Rock, Arkansas, if you recall the time, if you anybody remembers that when the the Supreme Court ruled in Brown versus Board of Education, which basically ended segregation in public schools. What happened was Orville Faubus, the governor of Arkansas at the time, basically, was saying, basically, hell no, you know, I'm not going to do that. And he activated the National Guard. Well, in essence, it was the Arkansas State Guard. So what happened? Eisenhower then did an unprecedented thing. He federalized, gosh. So what happens is now, instead of the commander reporting to the governor, he's now reporting to the president, yeah. So that's where the change occurred was, it was because of the issues down in the south and at the time so but yes, I mean, it is now the National Guard, and the President can activate that, in essence, federalize them, and then down they report to the President. That's how it works now, and unfortunately, it's being now utilized, and it's just such a screwed up thing the way we've got how things are just happening today, that you've got lawlessness and everything going on in Portland, Oregon, and crimes out of control.
Stoney 18:20
I'm glad you said that 44 years ago, Portland, Oregon passed a bill in their council that allowed for mail in votes. Hasn't been a Republican mayor of Portland in 40 years. Gee, are we just figuring this one out. All right, let's stay on track here. Number two, congressional pay tied to median state income. Okay? That means you represent the people, and you feel like the people so you can represent them, right? The intent is to align member incentives with constituents and remove elite perks. What do you think about that? Yeah. I agree. Yeah. Now what you said earlier, constitutional reality, Article One, Section six, prevents pay reduction. Midterm. You can't reduce their pay in
Ian 19:17
the middle of the term, increasing or decreasing,
Stoney 19:20
unless they vote themselves a raise, which we're going to get into in a few minutes, because that is one of the rules, one of the things they're trying to put on this can shoot what's the word I'm looking for? This crap. Hold on. This continuing resolution proposal to put the government back working again. What do you think about that one?
Jason 19:46
Well, I was kind of doing some reading on what's going on with the I listened to a some, some, some news channels and some, some, some news clips of speaker Mike Johnson, you know. In, you know, in front of everybody talking about what's going on with that. Really, the heart of this issue is the is the tax credits associated with the Affordable Care Act.
Stoney 20:14
No, that's, that's something else. Stay on the stay on the congressional pay tied to the median state income. We're going to get to that other whole thing in just a few minutes, please. I want to kind of, I got six things we got to get through this. One, what do you think about tying the median pay to the
Ian 20:32
currently, not that way. No,
Stoney 20:34
they make a flat what? 178, 178,000 look it up now, plus all the perks, right?
Jason 20:42
I mean, at one time, we didn't elect Senators. Now, one time they were actually appointed states, actually appointed senators. So, um, do I think their pay should be tied to the median income of the state they represent? Is that, in essence, what you're saying? Yes, I think that's probably a good idea. Now, the argument can be made that they're, they're not only they're, they're a senator from a specific state, but then all of a sudden, they become a senator of the United States, and they're, they're acting upon and dealing with issues that extend, oftentimes, beyond what their state, they represent, right? I mean, they ratify treaties. That's the Senate does that.
Stoney 21:28
So, I mean, that's just part of the job. We all do things, right?
Jason 21:32
I get it. I understand what you're saying. That's part of the job.
Ian 21:37
I think it'd be heavily
Jason 21:40
I think unfortunately, would, you would would, I think ultimately, you're never going to get away from, generally, people that are running for office. Are you going to basically make people who are already kind of rich, they're the only ones gonna be able to run? Because, I mean, you know, the reality is, there's some of these states that, I mean, you tie their their median income to, that's what they're going to make. I don't know who you're going to get. I think there's pitfalls to it. I agree with it in principle. I think it ties it to the state that you're in.
Stoney 22:18
But members should also forfeit post service benefits, including pensions, and maintain their own health coverage, just like regular citizens. When the day you get elected to Congress, you make a lifetime that you get paid for the rest of your life. Yeah, you get the congressional plan, and you're on their health care system period. I think
Jason 22:42
it's, is it? I don't know if you have to be there for X amount of years. I don't think so qualifying. The first time, I thought it was 10 years. But maybe I may be wrong on that. I thought maybe look that up. But, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I I, as I said, I think it's good in principle, how that would play out in, you know, kind of rubber meets the road,
Stoney 23:07
and in this comes in that they cannot, nor their family, trade in stocks.
Jason 23:15
See, that's the biggie. Matter of fact, I just saw a news release that, if y'all saw that with the Cleo fields now, has been, has been accused of insider trading prior to the right before the Oracle, he bought like $200,000 worth of worth of stock right before that was announced. It's like, how does that happen? Sort of like what happened with Nancy Pelosi?
Stoney 23:46
Well, think about it like ELA R Oman. This woman, the day she took office, was 50 to $75,000 in debt and did not have a place to live or a car. Now she has a multi million dollar mansion and is worth over $35 million please tell me how she did that insider trading, yeah, well, unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi made the big statement. Oh, I don't see why that's illegal. Everybody does it. Why can't we do it? Because you're the one making decisions for this country and profiting off of those
Jason 24:25
decisions. They are, of course, they are, matter of fact, that's what drives a lot of their votes on some of these, you know, on some of these endeavors. That's why, I do believe, that's why so much money going overseas, because that's where they're making their money right now. It's overseas. They're not making it here. Comes back to
Ian 24:42
us. We like to think that we don't have royalty in this country. Like, we don't have like, a king and all that kind of stuff that we like, we have like, like, under like, like, nobility, like, like, back once upon a time in the Victorian age, you had the lower class people, and you had the Gilded Age. He's like, You had all this. Stuff, and we like, I feel like, for me, I like to think that we don't have that. And then you have discussions like this, where you have people that are so far removed from humanity that will make all these decisions and make all these money moves and make all these votes on things, and it's not they don't care about the
Jason 25:14
look at the end of the day, I think, well, they're in I believe there is a contingent of people in Congress that I think are probably there for the right reason. I think they try to work within a system that requires you to compromise on things that you normally would not do, and unfortunately, then that's used against you. It's just, I just think the system is set up that way. You know, you stay in line. You'll get you'll get your you'll get your stuff to bring back to your state. And guess what? People back home, all they concerned about, Hey, did you get funding for a hospital or, you know, a or interstate project or whatever? That's all they care about. They I mean, hate to say it, the blame really falls on us, yes, because we don't demand that kind of politician anymore, because we're not that way anymore. We just aren't, I mean, I mean, that sounds very cruel, and it's very, it's, kind of an unkind statement to say about the public, but you know, people blame politicians for a whole issue, and I'm not saying that they don't do their share of screwing up, but it's us. We are divided, we are factionalized. We don't there's no common endeavor that we all look toward to say, this is what we're going to do. They're just there's no concept of that anymore. So the politicians are just extensions of our own personal squabbles that we have. I
Stoney 27:00
don't believe that I disagree with you. I do. I got to disagree with you on that one just, just because we're complacent on things. If there are true leaders or representatives, they can do a better job. Okay? We elect the same stupid people in office right over and over and over exactly. So what does that say about us? It's up to us. We can change that. But they aren't an extension of that. They're being put there and taking advantage. There's a lot of them that started off right, right and got in and saw the money.
Stoney 27:38
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Jason 28:09
Well, I mean, I think it still goes back to my point. That's what I'm saying. We we elect them so, but that's what I'm saying. There's no, there's no overwhelming surge of saying, I really want something different and really hold these people accountable. We really don't do it. We we say a lot of bombastic language. We get online, we say a bunch of thing. But at the end of the day, I think, if you don't like what somebody does, are you going to lead the petition drive to go and try to recall them? Most people, I got no time for all that. You know, roll with
Ian 28:45
it. There's a lot of people that, if given that position, they would take advantage of it, just like the people that are currently in that position. Of course, you give I think that's also thing. People can sit here and say, Oh, I would never like this shouldn't happen. This is not fair. This is whatever. But,
Stoney 28:59
like and probably did say it until they got in that position, 100%
Ian 29:03
Yeah, any average person that probably lives in this area, if given the opportunity, will probably take advantage of that situation and make as much money as they can for them and their family Exactly. Everyone starts getting pissed
Jason 29:13
off at them. They'll probably be like and they wonder why that system is is plagued with the problems that it has. And that's what I'm saying. This is this is a issue with us as as people, what do we really want? What do we really want?
Stoney 29:32
And I think it varies. I'm hoping that today, on this episode, we can offer something for the people to get behind and do it. And that's what this is about right now, six things that can fix Congress. And if we do those things, if we the people, demand that excellence, and that's what's going to have to happen. We're going to have to come together as a people, no matter what our race is, no matter what our sex is, no matter what our religion is. And demand excellence from our representatives, not our leaders. These people have never been our leaders, but our leaders is like them, using democracy, okay? Because it's easier to say and it's easier for people to understand that you're not our leader, you're a representative, and this is a constitutional republic. It's time to get back to that. So because we're in this section, I'm going to swap three and four, because you you said some things, single issue legislation, no more 14 or $1,500 bills with 15 different things hidden, tucked away, buried, language changed. Basically, one idea, one bill, one core issue. That's it. If you want something for your hospital, you present it, if it makes it great, if it doesn't know,
Jason 30:52
I would agree that. I think that's that's needed badly, and that's for transparency. I believe there's too many writers on that
Stoney 31:02
way, just normal citizen can clearly understand the legislation and then call your representative and say, we like that idea or we don't. You're our representative. You need to be hearing from us whether we like that and we want to spend $4.5 million on this transvestite Sesame Street play in Uganda, right? How about a hard No?
Jason 31:28
I believe, believe that Doge is that's what Doge was trying to do, was to expose where our tax dollars were, were going to and, you know, unfortunately, I think a lot of people got upset or had to miss that, that Elon Musk was gonna be cutting all these things, and that wasn't what that whole thing was about. It was basically just exposing where all these all our tax dollars, because he had no authority to cut anything. Yeah, I
Stoney 31:58
mean, he did no but he gave the information. He's got to give
Jason 32:01
it to Congress. And say, are y'all aware of this? And I think a lot of Congress were like, you know, they didn't want to know about that, because some of them were complicit in that. Of course,
Stoney 32:11
some of them were making the kickbacks on that
Jason 32:13
Marseille war, or ideologically, they agreed with what, yeah, is being done, which is even worse. I can I can understand more, so I'm a little bit less, I should say little more lenient to people that are doing things because, just simply because they're greedy. Okay, I get that, but when you're ideologically driven to accomplish a goal, I think that's something completely that's on a different level.
Stoney 32:40
I really do turn America into a whole different
Jason 32:44
philosophical view of the world, and I think that's more dangerous.
Stoney 32:51
But, yeah, no, I agree. What do you think? You think we can do that or not? Yeah,
Ian 32:56
it's another situation. Of like, I I like, you'd have to have, like, some pretty rigid regulations on that sort of stuff that I feel like people would just try to I feel like a lot of these things are great concepts. I think they're they could really be done well. But just like with making certain things illegal, or prohibition all these things, like, I feel like those kind of people will find a way to game the system, and that's the thing I'm just making sure, like I I agree with it would
Stoney 33:28
turn into more of if you vote for mine, I'll vote for yours, but at least, at least then it would be more transparent, right? Your vote was for this. Well, my vote was for that hidden part over there. I just kind of got to let this other thing go. And right now, the constitutional reality of this one is there's no rule that prohibits multi issue bills. Okay, so all we got to do is put that rule in place, and then there's transparency on what the bill was, what it entailed, and who voted yes and no for it, okay, so if you didn't like what your representative did, you mail them, you email them, or you call them, yeah, and you say you lost my vote because you voted for that, right? You see what I'm saying. That gives the American public a more controlled knowledge of who's doing what and why. Yeah, if you want to bill for 400 for $4.5 million to go to Uganda for the Sesame Street, Sesame Street transgender play, and you vote yes, your your constituents have a voice on whether they like that or not. So even if you got a backdoor deal with somebody else, when you cast that button, they gonna know what you did. Well,
Jason 34:45
that's what I'm saying. But unfortunately, with these bills, these bills are hundreds of pages, 1000s. You know, it's just 16, 1700 pages. It's incredible. It's it's almost next in popped up for anybody. To be able to understand what they're voting for, yeah, because they really know they got staffers that read that stuff, and I don't know how thorough they look at it, because it's just a lot of just legalese that are in these bills. So you know, as I'm saying, if you get it down to one, item per bill, that's it. Then that's very, very easy. Then the bills are maybe, you know, 2025, maybe 30 pages long. And then, okay, that's reasonable.
Stoney 35:32
See, I like where you went with that. That leads me to rule number four. Rule number four, remote work via secure video. No more traveling, no more spending three quarters of your time in Washington, DC. You stay in the state you represent. Reduce cost, keep members closer to constituents, and improve efficiency. Now you got time to look at that bill. Now you got time to look at all of these bills. Yeah, stay where you are. We don't need to be paying all like we what do we do? We spent how much money sending 250 legislatures to Israel two weeks ago? Uh, why do we do that? These people don't need to be traveling. They don't need to be. They need to be staying they asses at home with the people they represent in an office where people can actually engage with them and tell them what they want their representation to be. And you're gonna tell me, in today's society, we can't do secure videoing.
Ian 36:37
Now we can, but no one would allow that, quote, unquote breach of privacy, I would imagine,
Stoney 36:43
on what on a bill, I want to know what's being passed. And
Ian 36:47
I'm just saying that's what's gonna be you're right, though you're right. But that's that
Jason 36:52
generally, that when it comes to, like, you know, people kind of getting all it up in an uproar over a particular bill, it's usually one little part, oh, yeah, that that that's emotionally or it's a special interest group. And that's unfortunate, because as soon as you start giving money, yeah, name the group, yes, the minute you cut it all, it's, it's the end of the world. It's the end of the world. And that's what's unfortunate. I think what they're, they're uncovering, is all these NGOs, yeah, what? What was being done through these NGOs that, I think a lot of that would Musk
Stoney 37:26
10 million coming back to what was, who's the daughter Chelsea Clinton's mansion, and $3 million for her wedding, really, that went through USAID, for two sub corporations, past here, past here, and then back to America for her, really, yeah,
Jason 37:47
US AID has now come. It's now been revealed that it's been funding Antifa and some of these other the Black Lives Matter movement.
Stoney 37:58
Definitely. Soros got $250 million that proved he got it, funneled it through his corporations back to America. That's who was buying the bricks for Antifa and all of the the riots. Yeah, we paid him as tax dollar, dollar taxpayers. We gave him the money to riot our own country. That's crazy. How about this one number five? Tell me what y'all think about this. Hold members of Congress accountable for lies in public. When they are in Congress, they are under oath, 24 hours, seven days a week. If you make a statement to the people and it's proven to be a lie, you will be, you know, held accountable and possibly even go to jail, but lose your seat.
Jason 39:01
Well, I guess the question would be, how do you define the lie? I mean, is it, yeah, can it be interpreted as a different opinion or different take on something I could just I can see a room full of lawyers. Well, you say you lie, but did I really lie? I mean, you know how that
Stoney 39:26
speech come into that, but we need to hold our representatives accountable for what they say. So I'm just throwing that out there. You know, we can get through the minutia or the weeds. You know, another day, maybe, if the people like this, this episode or not, they can tell us, but we they need to be held accountable for what they say. Oh, I'm sorry if I lie to Congress. What happens to my formerly fat ass? My fat ass goes to jail. So why can't they be held? To the same accountability that they would hold me to. Yeah, man, I think,
Jason 40:06
I believe, what's his name got sent to prison because he refused to honor a congressional subpoena. Was a Steve Bannon,
Stoney 40:12
thank you. Yeah, so why can't we? I'm sorry. The Constitution says that they cannot pass a law that separates them from the citizen. They can't pass a law that's that puts them they they got to be held to the same thing as we do. If we can go to jail for lying to Congress, Congress should go to jail for lying to us.
Jason 40:34
Well, in a perfect world, I would say yes, but
Stoney 40:37
no, I agree. I agree. But these
Ian 40:41
are or was it just withholding the truth?
Jason 40:44
That's how you define the
Stoney 40:46
isn't that a lie? You're right. What is the opposite of the truth?
Jason 40:53
I'm waiting for a moment. Oh, yeah. Like in that show was it was a joke with Jack Nicholson. He was the marine with Tom Cruise you can't handle. I truly believe I'm actually I want the truth. I want the I'm really waiting for that moment when someone in Congress basically has that kind of to be 100%
Ian 41:21
honest, it was a few good men. By the way, is a few good
Jason 41:25
and but just have that kind of moment. No, if I really told you the truth, you're not gonna like it. Yeah, that you know that. That's the gist I'm trying to get at here. Do we really want to know the truth? Hey,
Stoney 41:40
I'm saying the truth right now, and y'all aren't liking it very much. I'm still saying the truth right now.
Jason 41:45
I'm just, I'm just thinking, No, I agree that, that I think there's a degree, I think there's some there's an unrealistic view of what can actually be done. Sure, I think fundamentally, we're at a crisis point, what is going to be handled by the government and or what's going to be handled by the free market, and we have this fight with everything, because this, ultimately, is this, this nexus that, that we're always there's friction, yeah, and I just think there's just more and more people that it's just easier for the government to give it to me. And why is that? I don't know. I think maybe to a degree that people have lost hope. They don't feel like they can get out there and by the sweat of their own brow, actually make a living and support themselves anymore in today's world, I think there's some, there's definitely some signs there that I that are pointing in that direction. I mean, we've all talked about, I believe the AI with it, with the reduction in jobs that are going to be out there. So what would how is that going to play out long term? How does that affect the workforce? I mean, right now, we're already trying to import our, what I call menial labor workforce, because either people are getting too old, they can't do those jobs anymore, or nobody wants to do them anymore. And then where are we at with that? How does that play into the whole immigration issue and everything else? I think there's a we're in this just kind of, I'd say it, I'm gonna harken back to a previous episode. I believe we're in our fourth turning. We all. We're in our fourth turning here. I I think there's just either something's gonna win, yeah, and there's gonna be a new paradigm, or something else, and I but I think right now, we're in this kind of, this strife to kind of figure out, who are we, what? What does it mean to be an American in 2025 and America's place in the world, you know, exercising the leadership that it's, it's, it's had, you know, it's done now, since the end of World War Two.
Stoney 44:25
But how many times have they said, Don't poke the dragon? Americans have proven time and time again what they're capable of, they have to have something to get behind. And the dragon was poked, and now the people are demanding, we the people are demanding transparency and accountability. Yeah, I believe that. So definitely, what is, you know, what's going to happen here, because the American people, and that's why I've said a number. Number of times, many times on this show and in conversations outside of this show. That's why there's been such a horrible attack on the American family, because the American family is the strongest, most amazing thing on this planet, and you've poked that dragon.
Jason 45:20
Well, definitely the family is under attack. Has been under attack now for at least the last, I would venture say 25 years
Stoney 45:28
more than that. Well, I really, it's really since 1905 when JD Rockefeller started his stuff with
Jason 45:37
Rockefeller and what would gold Vanderbilt, Vanderbilt Carnegie. Yeah, you know all of the big barons at the time. Yeah, industrial barons. Yeah.
Stoney 45:49
I mean, who basically is now your black rock, your State Street and your Vanguard. And what's that? What's that group starts with a B, that they meet once a year in secret and wear the secret little hats, and that the Brandenburg group, Bilderberg, Bilderberg Group building. It's the same damn people. Yeah.
Jason 46:12
I mean, okay, council foreign relations, yeah. I heard all, yeah, definitely.
Stoney 46:16
They're the head of the Federal Reserve, which has nothing to do with the federal government whatsoever. It's a private banking system to control the banks and the people, right and now, oh, wait, did we hear the chairman of Blackrock? Guess what? He started last week. He's the new director of what, the World Health organ, I mean, the world, World Economic Forum,
Jason 46:42
sounds about right. So those people get recycled. That's it. In those same groups, they get recycled. Those are your, those are you know, Ian, you mentioned it. Those are your, your kings and queens today, oligarchy,
Ian 46:57
yeah, I was gonna say it feels like even people like the the big tech billionaires, it's like, you have all this, like, there is just this huge gap between average people and these, like elites that, like, they don't, well,
Stoney 47:13
it's less than 1% over 99%
Ian 47:17
and it's all like, I said, it's all it's all like this, again, if you Like, I've been, I think it's on the forefront of my mind. Has been reading a lot about it, and it's been interested in history and kind of looking back into it, about, like nobility and people in that kind of space, about how it's a lot of the same conversations. Like, you help your family out, you have close relation, you got friends, you have to know somebody to get in the group, and then the second you get in the group, you it's just the same thing. It's just a different skin. We just call it something different. Sure, it's a, you know, I feel like in when you look at like, the political sphere, it's all this kind of, like, it gets this messy, kind of incestuous thing, where they're all kind of like, you know, pat each other on the backs and, you know, all kind of helping each other out. And they don't care about any of us. They say they do, but they feel like they have to, but they don't, they don't.
Jason 48:00
I think I listened to a was a podcast. I think today was very interesting. It was the person who took over, who got elected in Wyoming, who took over for Liz Cheney. She gave a very good interview about just kind of some things of how we have, when did we, kind of the people, kind of abdicate the responsibility of kind of governing themselves, so to speak, and I may be paraphrasing and maybe just trying to get pieces here, but
Stoney 48:37
they convinced us this was a democracy, and there are leaders and not our representatives. Believe she
Ian 48:42
Harriet hedgeman.
Jason 48:43
She traced it back to, actually, when Woodrow Wilson was president, she was very critical. And some people are very critical of Woodrow Wilson, that he introduced this concept of the academic elites. And I think we've kind of, we've kind of giving these people, this kind of, you know, respect and pedestal that somehow they they know what's best for us, and that's kind of what's driven the US now since that time, but it's been very destructive. It really
Ian 49:19
has, you can, you can establish something so long ago, and then it just veers off.
Jason 49:24
Well, you'd have to read about Woodrow Wilson and what his views of the US government and all that, he was quite hit shock you about Woodrow Wilson. It really would. But, yeah, I mean, I, I just think that we were no longer the country we used to be as a people, we're just not we don't demand it, as long as I got mine, you know, I'm fine. I mean, you know, people complacency. I'm talking about moaning, complaint, as long as my represent. Of brings home the bacon. I don't care, because I got what I wanted. That's just what it is. I mean, even though it may be bad and it may be a
Stoney 50:09
waste, but I still got what I wanted. I got what I
Jason 50:13
wanted, and I and I've took care of my people. Okay, well, you know, how do you is there? How do you reconcile that? Is
Stoney 50:22
there any one person or group that we can blame for this number six? End lobbying?
Jason 50:31
Well, I would say lobbyists have way too much infamy that's
Stoney 50:35
on secret deals, no more handshakes in the shadows. And the public deserves to know who's influencing what, how,
Ian 50:43
how would they ever do that? That's like trying to close on the black
Jason 50:47
market. Well, because the fact of the matter is, they can make the argument, hey, I represent whatever trade group I represent, if it's, you know, oil, or whatever the case may be, you just name the industry. I mean, they'll say, we have a right to be to, you know, petition our representatives about, you know, the interest,
Stoney 51:07
can I go and see my representative? No, I can't. Why should a lobbyist? Oh, that's right, because there's gifts, there's campaign contributions, there's, oh, I'm sorry, our little governor. He just went through a little something where, if it would have been me, I'd have spent 10 years in jail. Oh, he got a little slap on the hand for $900 okay, with all of his infractions on ethics, he got him a little slap for $900 had I done it 10 years in prison? Right? Okay? Because you're not nobility, because I'm not no bill. Well, he thinks he wants to be the emperor of Louisiana. Oh, hey, so he's trying to pull us some more Huey P long stuff here, but you know, so we need to full disclosure of all lobbyist interactions, gifts, campaign contributions, and impose a cooling off period of 10 years. But when leaving Congress before a congressman can become a lobbyist, because that's normal. What happens? You're talking about? What crap? What was the word turning some I don't remember what it was, but yeah, that's what they do. They leave Congress and they become a lobbyist, because they know these people, and yeah, they do and strict limits on gifts, trips and favors. And I'm sorry I'm gonna say this. Ian, please do not edit this. I'm calling bullshit if the IRS can tell that I owe $651.19 damn cents, they can find out what these people got too. They can find everything out. And they need to be starting to be held accountable well, and we need the transparency and the accountability without violating constitutional protections.
Jason 53:08
I don't know how you get around that. I really don't, because I think it has more to do with the money game. Now it's all the money game. What do we keep saying? Follow the money just. Just look at what this last presidential election, I mean, I mean, Kamala Harris and their campaign went, you know, over a billion and a half dollars to be elected to a position that pays 400,000 a year Exactly. And that's what I'm saying. It's I, you know, of course, the the idealistic side of me, I agree with all those things, the cynical side of me, I don't trust any of it because I don't believe it matters. I think we've kind of crossed a Rubicon and to some regard, and I don't think you can claw it back. I think there are too many people that expect a lot of things, and you have less people putting money into the pot, because you have all, you have a sizable portion of the population. And somebody can fact check me on this, but I do remember talking to a state legislature, legislator in this state, when I was working, you know, the Capitol a lot at the time. And he told me, he said this state has a lot of indigent people, and indigent people, basically people can't do anything. They can't contribute to the economy at all, and on some of them can, but they literally have this new skills and they have no ability. Country to actually show up at a job at eight o'clock and actually work. They just can't do it. And you project that out over the old the entire United States we've got now a lot of people who contribute zilch. Yeah, they do. They just contribute zilch. And we want more and more. So you have fewer and fewer people putting into the pot, but we want all these things. And I don't know how you get around this fundamental problem we have now. It's, you know, like the big thing right now. It's the the whole thing. Well, all the government shut down. It's the arguments over, over health care and what's the proper what? How much money should be dumped into the pot? And I'm not saying I'm against health care. I do believe we have a health care issue in this country that needs to get resolved in some way.
Stoney 55:58
Well, I'll, I'll say this on that I'm against health care for illegal immigrants. When we have people in this country that are citizens that don't have that benefit, right? We're fixing to go into that one too, a little sub section on that, if the government shuts down for more than a week, all the politicians are fired, and we hold new elections. They don't get paid.
Jason 56:28
It'll never happen.
Stoney 56:30
Well, we have to make that happen. Okay? It will never happen as long as they're sitting in power thinking we're their servants. We are not their servants. They are our servants. Happened two times. Australia 75 and Moldavia, 219, okay. Government shut down. They fired everybody, including the Prime Minister.
Jason 56:55
Yeah. Can't find solutions, so
Stoney 56:59
find solutions. We need to put people in who can do it. Need to do it, because there are solutions. But you want to keep playing these little games. And I actually, I don't know if you know, I actually read the continuing resolution proposal from the Democrats
Jason 57:18
okay from the demo for the one they countered the what
Stoney 57:23
they want, first off, they want a half a billion dollars to go to PBS in three days, Public Broadcasting. How does that align? Cut all that out. Okay. How does that align with what's going on?
Jason 57:42
All their propaganda arms, yeah, pizza, yeah. I mean,
Stoney 57:48
all of them, they want $150 million set aside for Congress itself. For what? Why? Additional securities for members of Congress, residential security systems and 10 million in upgrading the security of the state offices, okay, $174,000 in death gratuities for members of Congress that have passed this year, for their families. Now, here's my favorite, 130 7 billion to European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Ian 58:38
Okay, okay,
Stoney 58:40
for a grand total, and this is some of the basics. There's more, but that's $1.8 billion right there? Yeah, that's a lot of money. Now, there's some other numbers, because they want, I forgot, maybe y'all could look it up for how much they want for illegal immigrants to have health care and to extend Obamacare, because doesn't Obamacare stop somewhere here in 2025
Jason 59:06
well, it the, what it is is, I did a little reading on this, and what it is is these, he's health credits that expire at the end of the end of December and As part of the the Affordable Care Act and
Stoney 59:24
well, they're insisting on a permanent
Jason 59:27
extension it's important to people to get health care and
Stoney 59:32
1.5 trillion over a decade.
Jason 59:34
Yeah, it's about 7% of the US population. But the people who rely on these plans are influential group includes small business owners, farmers and ranchers. Now this this, I'm reading a deal off of NPR, which I take that with a grain of salt, because this is a, obviously, a site that probably it's been kind of proven that they're pretty much on the side of the Democrat So, but regardless, they've got. Some stuff here, it's, uh, says, on average, we're expecting premium payments by enrollees to increase by 114% basically means going to double their monthly premiums. Says, but unfortunately, by extending the policy so if, in essence, if the if the subsidies would would be extended where they're looking at an increase about 350 billion over 10 years. See, this is, this is where I have a problem with the amount of money going into Ukraine and some of these foreign countries. Is, why can't we take care of our own people here? This is what this would aggravates me more than anything. America first, we get all wrapped up in all these other things. At the heart of that movement is we've got to start taking care of the American people.
Stoney 1:00:54
But you see, and that's the problem if we're constitutional republic, only the American citizen matters. When you're a democracy, everybody can say, we're going to take half of your money and we're going to go send it somewhere else, because that's what the mob wants. That's what the mass wants. But in a constitutional republic, your individualism is protected. If you want to go dress as a you're a man and you want to dress as a lady. Go do it, right? You don't shove it down my throat, right? You can't force me to do anything. I don't even have to participate in your your delusions in life. You just go do it. You're protected to do that. I think a lot that's what most people don't realize. That's what's so great about a constitutional republic is your life is guaranteed as long as you don't hurt somebody else. A democracy can say, We don't like that. You can't do that anymore. Your bicycle is no longer yours. Sorry.
Jason 1:01:59
Here it says, When the ACA with the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 that Congress created a sliding scale to give people a break on their premiums based on income. But they say premiums were still too high for a lot of people, and those with incomes above 400% of the federal poverty level had to pay full price, according to Sabrina Corlett, she's the project director at the Center of health insurance reforms at Georgetown University, and she goes on further. So it was a basically, was a chunk of folks that were still really struggling to afford their premium. So what happens in 2021 Congress stepped in with a lot more federal funding, which made premiums more affordable. It's, according to her, it was incredibly successful. And I know a lot of people that basically didn't have insurance, and because of that, they were able to get health coverage. I mean, I do know what some of these premiums that people have to pay. That's why I'm saying the the system is broke. And this is where I sometimes I veer off my my conservative and, you know, the generally, this is not kind of generally, these kind of issues fall within the Democratic side of the political aisle, but, and this is where I have crossover, you know, I don't, I'm not all monolithic on one side of the other, because there are some things that we need to do we could afford 350 billion if we were not spending it overseas. Yes, that's the problem. Is we're not taking care of our own people here.
Stoney 1:03:35
I mean something simple, 75% of the bridges in America should, be condemned and rebuilt, but yet we can go build other countries. How about we rebuild our country?
Jason 1:03:47
We're literally paying for schools for I mean, it would shock the American citizens. They knew how much money is being spent in that war over there between Russia and Ukraine, about what is being funded. It's unbelievable that we can't afford to do stuff here. They all, well, there's no money to do it. Yeah, there is money. Yeah, there is which way you want to spend,
Stoney 1:04:15
because there's no see that money. And it's been proven. And if Putin was smart, he would, he would make, he would get out of Ukraine, and he would show how the Biden crime family wasted that money and brought it back to America in kickbacks, because that's all that is. And he can make Donald Trump strong, which we need, a strong Russia, strong America and a strong China if they're going to stop this Muslim population and growth from going on. But all he needs to do is prove it, and he could be a hero, because it's right there. He has the information. You know, you. Get out. Save face. Get out and prove how that money was negligently. Our tax dollars were spent crazily, crazily.
Jason 1:05:11
Now, right now, I'm seeing like, just in premiums, is it you're seeing increases in premiums, so from 800 to $3,000 a
Ian 1:05:22
month. That's an exponential amount.
Jason 1:05:24
You're looking at a family that maybe was paying 800 a month for their health insurance, and that jumps to $30,000 man, I mean, that's And, look, I'm not saying that. Unfortunately, it's not all clean. You got to be careful how these articles are written because there's a reason why the Democrats want all this other stuff. If all they wanted was just this, I think they would have a stronger a stronger argument, yeah, but they don't. They add in all the other stuff, because they got to cater to all the other interest groups that are lined up at the trough, yeah, to get there, get get their little shovel full of cash. You know that that's that's the issue here. That's why you have to look at these things and not necessarily be beholden to both, because sometimes the truth generally kind of weaves in the middle a little bit now, I would agree with the Republicans on this that they did offer, in this regard, they did offer the Democrats a clean continuing resolution to at least keep the government open for I think what is being missed here to allow the discussion over this very important issue to continue. What's the problem is is the Democrats, and I think this really goes back to politics. This is where I think really was driving this. Poll numbers for the Democrats are terrible right now. Their approval rating is the worst it's ever been in a time when with a sitting Republican president and a sitting Republican administration that in essence is the Democrats should be riding high right now. Traditionally, the sitting President loses in the midterms. Right now, their numbers, the Democratic numbers are terrible. Matter of fact, Schumer got chewed out by the far left part of his party when he agreed to a compromise in March. People have forgotten that he caught a lot of flack. Matter of fact, AOC had threatened to primary him in the Senate if he didn't fight more so when, essence, I think if left alone, Schumer has voted for these continuing resolutions three or four times now in a row, it's never been an issue. But because he's threatened his own parties threaten him to basically fight Trump on everything, he's basically throwing a tantrum him and Hakeem Jeffries are throwing a tantrum over this, and they're using this, hoping that it gains some traction to maybe say because if you look at polling numbers and go, Where are Democrats, the strongest health care generally, is where they do better than Republicans. In this case, they're not,
Stoney 1:08:23
but they're drawing the line on health care for illegal immigrants that well, it costs them.
Jason 1:08:29
I think when the term illegal immigrants is used, I think when, well, the Democrats will turn around and say, well, by law, they illegal immigrants can't get, you know, Medicare and stuff like that. That's not necessarily all true.
Stoney 1:08:45
No, that's not true at all. That's why they give them social security numbers
Jason 1:08:49
in groups claiming asylum or some other category that may be undocumented or not, citizens can apply for Medicare,
Stoney 1:09:01
the guy who killed the three people in that accident turning the truck in a U turn, right? He had, how did he have a social security number. He had a driver's license. It wasn't valid. It said place name here on his driver's license. Okay, where did he get that? Somebody's giving him this, and it comes from these sanctuary cities and places like that. So interesting.
Jason 1:09:28
Yeah. So I just, I just think in this particular case, it, course, is presented as one thing. The reality is, there's a lot of nuance behind the scenes on this. But I do believe it was stupid for them to fight the Republicans, because at least if you do the continuing resolution, then you can continue the political debate of how these subsidies, whether they're going to be extended, whether some other form will come in and take it. Place, because there's a lot of people have been against the Obamacare. It was a lot of issues with it. Some people like it. Some people
Stoney 1:10:09
don't. Well, basically, do you know what it is? Do you know what Obamacare is? Did you know that the last bill that the Biden crime family was trying to pass was that everyone in America must buy a snow blower.
Ian 1:10:29
Yeah, I think you told me about this before. Did
Stoney 1:10:31
you know that everyone in America, and this is where your lobbyists come into play, right? They needed to sell some snow blowers. So they were going to say that everybody in America needed a snow blower. Explain that one to me. Do you need a snow blower? How long you been in Louisiana? Ian, 31 years now. How about you? Jason, how many times have you needed a snow blower? Once? Can you even afford a snow blower? Whether you can afford it or not, you had to buy a snow blower.
Jason 1:11:05
Well, I haven't got any directives forcing me to buy a snow blower. Okay, it's
Stoney 1:11:09
a joke, I know, but it's the same philosophy of Obamacare. Not everyone can afford it, and now it's fixing to quadruple, and people are going to even before and what did they do? They said, you're going to go to jail. If you don't get Obamacare, you're going to go to jail. There was a lot of okay, you see what I'm saying. They were going to put good, working class Americans in jail, but yet, hey, we're going to give the illegal immigrants free health care to become a citizen. My beautiful, hottie Doctor wife, spent over $47,000 over 10 years to become a US citizen. Had she known? She could have just said, I want an asylum and got free phone, free health care. What they're they're given $4,800 stipends every month.
Jason 1:12:04
Yeah, what, what? Well, I think what people saw, I mean, especially during the Biden years, was, you know, all these, these immigrants coming in, they're putting them up in five star hotels. And, I mean, it's just, I mean, it was just crazy about, what was the point of all this, and I do believe it is votes. They were bought here. They were brought here to vote. That's it. Because what's happening is, I believe, especially what I've seen with the stats and Gen Z, I think Gen Z is, I think the Democrats have lost a lot of the lost the youth vote, and that's the future.
Stoney 1:12:40
The last election proved that how many Gen Z voted for Donald Trump? Right again, and I'll say this, I sound like a broken record. That's the first generation since George Washington that will not do better than their parents. Yeah, and people are tired. We the People are tired.
Jason 1:12:57
Well, hopefully they will, they'll figure it out. I just, I just, I think ultimately we've got to, it got to fundamentally change how we do business. And look, I'm not saying you got to be an isolationist. You got to
Stoney 1:13:12
hide from the rescue, follow the Constitution. Yes, you're in isolation.
Jason 1:13:16
Well, you are, but the United States is the UN wouldn't be here. Well, the United States chose to be this. After World War Two, we became the world power, and it was the United States poked the dragon. We rebuilt Europe with the Marshall Plan. We rebuilt Japan. We have assumed a role that America never was originally envisioned to be. Exactly you get into the Monroe Doctrine, and we stay on our hemisphere, and you late, stay out of our business and and you would think vice versa. But as we know, the world changed, and unfortunately, we're more integrated now, because now we have weapons that can reach everywhere on the globe and do tremendous damage. So we can't necessarily be isolationists. I would say we need to always it's how does, how can America benefit from this? For that should be the first thing before I start worrying about how, how the British people, Germans, Chinese, Africa, whatever you want to name it, it should always be, does this benefit my people here first and then, if somehow we can extend it beyond that, I'm all for it, but we got to take care of this country first. We really do, because we are, eventually, we're going to get to a point where we're not we're going to be useless. Yes, unfortunately, I worry about our debt. I worry about us losing the holder of the reserve currency. What that would mean? I don't think people are ready for that. I really don't you think people can't afford stuff. Now, let that happen. We're in trouble, and we gotta. We just got to figure out
Stoney 1:15:10
time to take a stand and take our country back. We the People need to take our country back. This country started over a half cent tax on a breakfast beverage, and now look at our taxes. If you can, if you can be in two wars at the same time, you're over taxing your people, and it's time to stop that.
Jason 1:15:34
Just unfortunately, I think the only time things really change is when people are pressed, Oh, yeah. I don't think, I don't think we're at a point where I think the changes that Stoney, you outlined in your your six points that will be addressed when you have to change, yes, and we're at a point where, right now We're at that cusp where we don't have to change, because until the elites feel pain and lose, that's when you will see a change. Until then, it's going to be all talk. It's going to be showmanship, and look at me and pat me on the back look at a great job I'm doing. It's never going to change until you do without then you change. We're human beings. We gravitate to the easiest path of least resistance, and it applies to everything in life. It's just what it is. No one's going to do the hard thing. They're not going to do the hard thing. We're always going to take the easy road, until we can't take the easy road. Yeah, so,
Ian 1:16:51
well, I'm interested to hear what everyone has to say about this, because this is a definitely, a pretty big topic that I feel like there are hopefully a point there's a non zero amount of people, I feel like an audience did have some very strong opinions on this. Well,
Stoney 1:17:07
I think our email will come into play. Yes, get offended together together@gmail.com I bet a few people are offended with me today. Yeah.
Ian 1:17:17
Or you can also with comment sections on Spotify and YouTube, where you can leave some comments there if you want, be sure to be sure to like and subscribe on all the platforms you listen to, because we really appreciate all that we have. The website, retrospect. Pod, is that what it is retrospect? Pod.com, retrospect. Podcast.com retrospect podcast.com and until next week, thank you so much for listening. Bye, bye,
Jason 1:17:37
goodbye everyone, and God bless
Stoney 1:17:40
Congress. Isn't broken. It's misaligned. Every day that misalignment continues, we see the consequences, bills stuffed with hidden agendas, taxpayer dollars wasted and voices ignored. Boomers, Gen X, millennials, Gen Z, Gen alpha. This isn't just politics. This is our lives. We need to remind every so called representative in Washington, you work for us. You answer to We The People. You answer to the people that voted for you to be in office. You answer to the people who did not vote for you to be in office, and let me pucker your butt hole right now. You answer to the people who did not vote because they feel like their vote doesn't count any more. You don't answer to your lobbyists, you don't answer to your donors, and you don't answer to your own ambition. So we, the people, pick up the phone, send the email, show up, make your voice impossible to ignore. We the People, expect more and we will not accept less. The time to act is now. This is retrospect. Keep looking back so that we all can demand a future that truly represents us. Thanks for joining us today. You're the best. Peace.