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Join us on the Kim Monson Show as we delve into the significant stories shaping our world today. Alan Thomas leads a captivating discussion on the socialization of essential sectors such as transportation, education, and housing, shedding light on the increasing control exerted by government regulations. With a nod to Veterans Day, we honor the selfless contributions of our veterans and reflect on poignant quotes and tales of courage shared by leaders like James Wilson and Donald Trump.
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It’s the Kim Monson Show, analyzing the most important stories.
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The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water. What it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
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The latest in politics and world affairs.
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Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
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Today’s current opinions and ideas.
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On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
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Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
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Welcome to the Kim Monson Show. I’m Alan Thomas. I get to guest host the show today. Looking forward to it. Kim got to emcee an event for Veterans Day. As you know, she does lots of work for the veterans. It was going to go a little late, so she asked me to step in today. Thank you all for listening. You are each treasured and valued and have a purpose. Today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. You are made for this moment in history. Thank you, Producer Joe, and the rest of the team behind the scenes for all your good work. Were you able to catch some of the northern lights last night, Producer Joe? No, I was actually already asleep. Well, that’s pretty cool. I know we were here in the middle of the city, but were you still able to see some of that glow? So that was pretty cool to see that. That’s amazing. Yeah. Well, make sure and visit the website. The website is kimmonson.com. Sign up for Kim’s weekly email newsletter. You’ll get a first look at all the upcoming guests as well as the most recent essays. You can always email her at kim at kimmonson.com. Thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show, and thank you to Hooters Restaurant for their sponsorship. There are three locations, Aurora, Westminster, and Loveland. They each have great lunch specials Monday through Friday for dine-in or to-go. Wednesdays are wings days. Buy 20 wings, get an additional 10 for free. Offers to-go or dine-in. Hooters Restaurant’s a great place to get together with your friends to watch your favorite teams, which Avalanche won last night. We have college football in the midst of playoff hunts and then college basketball, too. So it’s a good time to jump in there for some games. Today’s word of the day, invidious, I-N-V-I-D-I-O-U-S, it’s an adjective, of an unpleasant or objectionable nature, of a kind to cause harm or resentment, tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy. Thought of this one just because of being a resident of Douglas County. We have an incoming school board that might be a little unfriendly, shall we say, towards parents and what they want to educate their kids with. So, labeling concerned parents as extremists is an invidious tactic that poisons debate. So, challenge today. Use invidious, an adjective, in a sentence. Moving over here to the quote of the day. Wanted to use a gentleman that I really haven’t quoted much of, but certainly has a plethora of very good quotes. James Wilson, he was a Scottish-born lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a major architect of the U.S. Constitution. One of the first six justices of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798 and author of the pioneering lectures on law from 1790 to 1791. He said this law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love unless they first become objects of our knowledge. So again, James Wilson says, And just like that one, because we talk a lot about the core civic virtues and we hit a lot on the self-reliance, self-restraint, self-assertion. But again, it’s the civic knowledge, the fourth civic virtue that we have to have. That is incredibly important to our republic, that we can’t keep it unless we truly become knowledgeable about what we have in the government. Unless law and liberty become objects of our knowledge, they cannot become objects of our love. We cannot appreciate what we have until we know what we were given. So again, study the founding, studying our government and the way it was set up and the reason why it was set up is incredibly important. So a couple headlines for the day. Just again, wanted to… Highlight a couple things. Of course, Veterans Day was yesterday. So Trump honors veterans at Arlington with tales of valor, courage and patriotism. And he had this quote and a little bit longer quote, but wanted to read it just to, again, honor our veterans, because one day is definitely not enough for all that they have given us. So Trump said the following at Arlington National Cemetery. Today, to every veteran we love, our veterans, we say the words too often left unsaid. Thank you for your service. Thank you very much. And we also want to say thank you for carrying America’s fate on your strong, very broad, and proud shoulders. Each of you has earned the respect and gratitude of our entire nation. We love you. We salute you. And we will never forget what you have done to keep America safe, sovereign, and free. Another quote that I really liked out of that one was, America stands tall because American veterans stood so strong. So thank you to all our veterans and also thank you to the families that that allowed them to serve and gave up a lot so that we could have our liberty and freedom. So another headline that that, again, is kind of an unfortunate one, but definitely need to highlight. Turning Point USA. event at University of Manchester’s Pro-Life Society. They spent weeks preparing for a gathering to honor Charlie Kirk. That quickly turned south. It was featuring a guest speaker, Lois Miller, a well-known pro-life advocate. They were hoping that the event would serve as a respectful tribute to Kirk’s legacy and an opportunity for open discussion about the value of human life and importance of free speech. As we well know, and we covered quite a bit last week or several weeks ago with my last article, the people that protest these like to call the right fascist and say that, and yet they exhibit fascist behavior by canceling free speech. So midway through the event, tensions escalated when protesters surrounded the attendees and Officers intervened about 10 minutes after mounting pressure. When the mob was almost on top of us, the police stepped in, said one of the event organizers. They formed a barrier between us and the protesters after someone pushed over a portrait of Charlie Kirk. So yet again, just a very interesting example that the left tries to set that when they don’t agree with who or what we want to talk about, they just decide to get violent. So very unfortunate example there of people trying to peacefully demonstrate and peacefully try to get their opinions across and not being allowed to. Another couple interesting things from our friends across the pond. One, a very interesting one, the BBC chairman has stepped down, or the director general and the news chief executive stepped down over their… documentary regarding January 6th, where, shall we say, there was some tasteful edits to make Trump appear a little bit more culpable than he actually was with January 6th. They’re being sued by Trump. I guess he threatened to file a $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC. And the way it was edited. Again, very interesting that state-run media has basically turned propagandist. There was also a… A 19-page memo that was put out by a top staffer at the BBC, Michael Prescott. He was an independent advisor to the BBC’s editorial guidelines and standards board. And basically, he kept receipts and pushed that the BBC has become a biased and ridiculous organization. As we well know with… State-run media with media that is corporatist with the government in power. Some of our mainstream media has definitely turned extraordinarily biased. He pushed a memo and basically stepped down and said, it’s no longer journalistic. There’s serious concerns about the oversight of the BBC. There were… He brought up several, several examples regarding LGBTQ, regarding how anti-Israel they were, about the Hamas-Israel war. So a lot of BBC staffers are losing their job now because of their culpability in that. Also, the UK is now refusing to share certain intelligence with the United States over drug boat strikes. So the Department of War has launched more than a dozen strikes on boats, killing 76 people. There’s a lot of, and this is one of those interesting areas of there are concerns that it might be anti-constitutional to just be blowing these boats out of the water. The UK is now wondering whether the strikes violate international law. It’s worried that its intelligence is helping the US locate the vessels before they are obliterated. So the U.K. has stopped sharing intelligence with the U.S. to try and locate these boats until they kind of figure out some of those issues. As we well know, the U.K. has quite a bit of territory down there in the Caribbean. So Treasury Secretary Scott Bush. Bassett also pointed out that air travel chaos may get a little bit worse before it gets better. So unfortunately, just because it looks like the government might be funded here soon, it may take a little while for the whole system to work itself out. So as we well know, in the post-COVID era, sometimes when you shake up the whole system, it takes a while for it to shake back out. Flight cancellations, he claimed, are based primarily on one criterion, safety. So it’s not political, it’s strictly safety. I’m doing what I can in a mess that Democrats have put on my lap. So in one of the odd, most odd government shutdowns I’ve seen, where it wasn’t shut down to restrict spending, it was actually shut down because… Democrats didn’t think we were spending enough. So certainly an odd, odd situation. But we’re able to have these fun conversations about politics and the happening ons going on in Congress because of great sponsors of the show. And one of those is Roger Mangan and his State Farm Insurance team. They want you to feel safe and well served to understand your insurance coverage and to know that their office will respond to your call or text message. 24 hours a day for that 24-hour peace of mind. Call Roger Mangan at 303-795-8855. Like a good neighbor, Roger Mangan’s team is there.
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john bosin and the attorneys at boson law know how overwhelmingly life can feel after an accident or injury that’s why boson law can help guide you there’s so much noise coming at us sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all how can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth the kim monson show is here to help kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force Force vs. Freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
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And welcome back to the Kim Monson Show. This is Alan Thomas, and I’m filling in for Kim today. Make sure and check out the website at kimmonson.com. Thank you all for contributing to support Kim’s independent voice in the exercise of our right to freedom of speech. Through all of Kim’s works with the veterans, she’s honored to highlight the USMC Memorial Foundation and all they are doing to raise the money for the remodel of the official USMC Memorial, which is located right here in Golden, Colorado at 6 in Colfax. Paula Sarles is the president of the foundation. She is a Marine veteran, a gold star wife. Paula and her team are working diligently to make the remodel a reality. So you can help by donating at usmcmemorialfoundation.org. That’s usmcmemorialfoundation.org. So we are very honored and get to have a concerned citizen and on the line with us today, Mike Rawluck. He’s also with the Ralston Valley Coalition. Welcome to the show, Mike. Hey, good morning. How are you? Doing pretty good. How’s everything going with this? I know you wanted to talk about House Bill 24-1107. Maybe you can give our listeners a quick rundown of what that House Bill is and then how it might be having some issues with the 11th Amendment. Sure.
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Yeah, absolutely. So two years ago, I kind of got introduced to the whole state legislative process with one of my local groups that I work with. They got invited to work with a coalition of different neighborhood groups. And the first bill that was up was HB 241107. And this wanted to change the award of attorney fees. if a citizen group lost a appeal against a land use decision. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Rule 106 , but it’s a way to have a citizen or group of citizens get a second look at a land use decision. Usually what will happen in a rezoning, you’ll have a city council or a county commission do a quasi-judicial process. However, for other types of decisions, it’ll be administrative at a city or a county. So you might have a planning and zoning director and his or her designee, a case manager, making a decision, and then they’ll take your comments and but you’re not really sure how that’s actually being heard or not. And we’ve seen a lot of interesting land use decisions. And this rule one Oh six is kind of the last exit on, on, on this, this highway of getting your, your voice heard. So what happened is they said, well, gosh, you know, to basically give consequences. I heard that word and, and, and, and they, uh, in the Capitol halls there for citizens who bring a frivolous, vexatious or groundless suit. And they kind of conflated that with a meritorious suit that just doesn’t win any given Sunday. Right. You know, you could have a great point and you might go to the judge that just doesn’t see it. And then you lose. So they wanted to say, if you lost the Rule 106, You pay the other side’s attorney’s fees and the city or county’s attorney’s fees as basically a penalty. Now, if the land developer or the applicant, whoever that would be, if they lost the 106, they do not have to then pay the citizen’s attorney’s fees. So it’s lopsided.
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So it seems like it’s one of those, if you lose, you’re in trouble and you pay everything. But if you actually win, great, but you still had to pay for the attorney. So it really limits the ability of citizens to have the judicial ability to bring this Rule 106 forward.
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Right, right. And we worked with several attorneys, both retired and just concerned citizens. And they looked at this as a form of a chilling effect on your First Amendment rights. Anything to keep you a little afraid, scared of exorbitant fees. And if that kept you from using your First Amendment to petition your government… well, then that would be what they call a chilling effect, and that was one of the arguments that we had. We got this to be changed through some efforts of the group, and it got passed as this would only affect – a decision on a housing project of five units or more per acre. Originally, it was going to affect anything. And that could affect a decision on where, say, a 5G cell phone tower went or a bat lab in Fort Collins if it was a rezoning or other type of land use decision, right? So there’s a really good reason to have this citizen voice. But We got it down to five dwelling unit or more per acre. The predominant theme in the state at the time is we have a housing crisis, and anything that gets in the way of creating more homes, especially high-density homes, which normally go as rentals, that’s a problem, and the citizens must be dissuaded.
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Which, due to this law, they definitely will be because they’ll be on the hook for quite a bit of attorney’s fees, I’m assuming.
SPEAKER 03 :
Correct. And the other part that we were able to change was now we would just be responsible for the city or county’s attorney’s fees, not the opposing side. However, they didn’t provide for how that was going to be done if they were going to you know, um, contract out with a really high power, high dollar per hour, uh, attorney firm, or, or if you’re just going to look at the County attorney’s wages for the year and break up how many hours that they, they worked, it’s kind of nebulous. So our group had some folks that, that were retired federal litigators and, and they brought suit and it got dismissed on the 11th amendment. They brought a suit to a federal district court and, uh, it got dismissed on a sovereign immunity claim. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the 11th Amendment, but back in the day, there was a lawsuit, Chisholm v. George, I believe it was, that someone during the Civil War, sorry, Revolutionary War, had decided that they were going to help out, but some debts were outstanding from a state, after the war, and they sued in one for their monies that were outstanding. Then comes the 11th Amendment, and that would say that a citizen from a different state could not sue a state. And then that got changed in a decision at the Supreme Court. It was Hans versus Louisiana that would say citizens of their own state also can’t sue their own state. And that was just a SCOTUS decision that just kind of became law. I mean, not law law, but you know what I mean, case precedent. And so now you can’t sue your own state unless they decide they want to be sued because they have to give up their sovereign immunity. Otherwise, the federal district court can’t hear it. Very strange.
SPEAKER 19 :
Very strange indeed, but not something unheard of. I believe qualified immunity is very similar, invented whole cloth from the judicial branch. But where does it go from here, Mike? Is this something that you’re going to appeal as a group, or is there any chance that it can continue to go forward?
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At this point… It’s dismissed without prejudice. So if someone wanted to try this again, they could or take it to a state court, I suppose. But it just generally seems like this is going to be fixed in the legislative process, i.e. voting in people who would see this as an affront to the First Amendment and then having it actually changed. So it’s going to be a long road for sure. And then the other side of it, too, is. making sure that you keep up with your city or county because the first decision has to be the best decision because we don’t have a whole lot of room for error on these. So making sure people are involved in their city or county election processes and vetting candidates and also with staff. You know, there’s a lot of a lot of issues we see with staff having more power than I believe an employee of a government should have. I think the elected representatives really have abdicated a lot of their power, maybe because their meetings are too long or they go too late or, you know, government needs to run efficiently. And these are the things that we hear. And I would say the folks I work with both, you know, it’s a multipartisan effort, but they’d rather see the government constrained and following its own rules than to relieve its own rules and then constrain us more.
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And so for most citizens, would this mostly affect land use cases? I know you mentioned five dwelling units or more per acre. Is this something that they should be watching and getting involved with before it goes to things like the planning commission? How do they get involved and watch all of this from day one?
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Absolutely. So the free market wins. And one of my groups, the Ralph and Dolly Coalition, we have now gotten to the point where developers will come to us in the area if they’re looking to do something and say, Basically, what’s going to work? What’s not going to work? How do we work together and get the citizens on board or at least have a happy medium? Right. Hey, we bought the land. We have land rights. Great. But you guys also are going to be dealing with the traffic, the power, the school impacts and on and on and on. So there are some great developers who will come and say, we’re thinking about doing this before we spend a lot of money. Does this work? Does it modify? And one notable example would be where the old Amazon was going to be in Arvada. And the new developer is doing a multitude of different styles of homes. And they’re actually doing a light retail, including connections to the park. They’re leaving the floodplain alone and making it. Kind of just like a baseball field, not even really an activated park, just because it’s on a floodplain. But they’re just saying also, hey, we just need room for kids to run and just be outside and not be so concerned with every blade of grass being manicured. So you’re just going to leave some stuff alone. And from looking at this project, it’s just basically everything that we could ask for. So there are ways to do this from the beginning, and then obviously in the community meetings and planning commissions as well, making sure that citizens have a voice. And land rights are important, but also to think about when a developer comes in from a different state, makes a new vision for your neighborhood and says what’s going to be good for you regarding traffic studies regarding the physical limits of how much a school can handle water things like that so the good thing is this law does not apply to a thing like a data center say you know so that was coming into town you still have your full 406 rights but when it comes to high density development which could have tax implications on the citizens then yeah you’re kind of constrained
SPEAKER 19 :
I guess maybe the last question I have before we wrap up here, have you studied the data to see if there has been a chilling effect on Rule 106 actions in the past year? Have we seen a decrease in those being brought forward?
SPEAKER 03 :
I do not know. But basically, any attorney that you talk to now about a high-density residential will let you know about this law. All the land use attorneys are definitely aware of the fact that you could have an extra $100,000 bill just for losing. So it’s part of their advice to say, hey, before you do this. And any group I’ve ever talked with, it’s kind of off the table as a consideration. So We are doing more stuff up front than ever before. Not that we shouldn’t have been doing more stuff up front because no one wants to get to the point of having to actually go to court. That’s just a drag on the whole system, us and them, society. But now it’s imperative. It’s like, oh, gosh, you know, you better be involved from the beginning. And I think it’s making us more involved in the election process as well. Just to say as citizens who’s getting in there in general, you know, whether it’s and also land development code amendments. So, yeah, no, it’s been a big change in general about how these things happen. But I do not know the data on 106 suits before and after. They’re pretty rare in general. So, I mean, I don’t know if you’re going to have a good data point because there’s only a few that go through per year. You know, maybe eight or ten. We studied about 12 as examples when we were at the capital. So, yeah. It’s not like there’s 100 or 200 of these 106s and then you can see only 50 next year. So the data might be skewed just by the minuscule amount of these in the first place.
SPEAKER 19 :
Right, right. So basically the legislature was addressing something that wasn’t extraordinarily popular anyway, which is not atypical for a legislative group.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, and there was a lot of intimation during that time of, why don’t you trust the government decisions? And we could go on for an hour about why we might not trust a government decision. So the philosophy behind that is kind of alarming, where you’re like, well, gosh, you know, in good faith, you should just trust us. And, you know, the developer has a good idea. The government likes the developer and the citizens don’t. I heard at one point the citizens just getting away. And I’m like, wow, that’s what really kind of piqued my interest in this whole thing. This is just the looking down of the noses at the average citizen as just an impediment when something’s going on right on their land border.
SPEAKER 19 :
Definitely. It’s definitely antithetical to how we were founded as a country. So, again, Mike Rolick, thank you for all that you do as an active citizen. And how do you want to button this up before we go to break?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I button it up with thank you. This brought a lot of people together from left, right, center, and the fringes because basically – We all like the fact that we can have a voice. Losing your voice, whether we agree or disagree, is pretty much a tragedy. Anyone who feels like their First Amendment has been extinguished, even if I disagree with them, I’m going to make sure that I do what I can to try to bring that back. So hopefully through a legislative process, this can change. It might take five years. Who knows?
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, we thank you for your efforts and continue to keep us up to date with everything you’re doing so we can help however we can. So, again, thank you, Mike Rolick, for coming on the show. And we’re able to have these conversations because of great sponsors such as Karen Levine.
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SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back. This is Alan Thomas. I’m filling in for Kim today. Make sure and check out the weekly email newsletter. You can find out about our awesome guests throughout the week. You can also email Kim at Kim at Kim Monson dot com. Thank you all for contributing to support our independent voice and exercise our right to the freedom of speech. If you are ready for financial freedom, call our friends at Mint Financial Strategies. As an independent firm and an accredited investment fiduciary, they always put your interests first. Mint means more than money. It stands for a meaningful relationship, information sharing, a network of smart strategies, and thoughtful advisor who puts you in control. No cookie cutter plans. Everything is tailored to you. So call Mint Financial Strategies today at 303-285-3080. And we get to continue having some good conversations here on the line with us. We have Phil Kirpin, the president of American Commitment. Welcome to the show, Phil.
SPEAKER 21 :
Hey, my pleasure, Alan.
SPEAKER 19 :
And today we’re going to be talking about the AARP’s role in the push for massive insurance bailouts. So where do you want to start?
SPEAKER 21 :
Well, I think we should start at the beginning when AARP changed itself from what it used to be, the American Association of Retired Persons, into a collection of four letters that officially stands for nothing in the 1990s. And they did a series of very lucrative deals with health insurance companies, originally with Prudential, who was their exclusive health insurance provider. And I remember back when the New York Times said, oh, now they’re going to be in the insurance business. They’re not going to represent seniors. And it was actually very prophetic at the time. And then sometime in the mid-’90s, they actually changed their insurance partner from Prudential to UnitedHealth. And this was such a big blow to Prudential’s health insurance business that they actually exited the health insurance business when they lost the AARP business. So you can think about the amount of money that’s involved in that. And then, you know, we’ve been tracking, you know, until 2019, they actually disclosed the amount of money they got from UnitedHealth, and they stopped. They started to sort of conceal it, but you could still estimate it. because they said the total amount of corporate royalties they got and that was it hit a billion dollars a few years ago and we figured about eighty percent of that things from united health because every united health branded uh… medicare plan a r p branded medicare plan uh… they get a skim off the top they take a percentage uh… which is a huge conflict of interest if you think about it because they are p makes more money when the plans for the members are more expensive they’re taking a scam of the monthly premiums and when they first started doing that scam It was 3.95%, then they raised it to 4.95%, then they raised it to 5.95%. I don’t know why. They don’t just do round numbers, but they seem to like this .95. But basically, 6% of every premium dollar in an AARP-branded UnitedHealth product gets skimmed right off the top and goes to AARP. And that, of course, dwarfs their membership dues, so it’s become their primary source of revenue. But even we were shocked by what happened last year. And we’ve been tracking this for a number of years because it’s really corrupted a lot of the health policy debates in Washington because the biggest, most powerful health insurance company is hand-in-glove with the organization that most people still identify as the voice of seniors and has massive political influence. And so it’s been a huge problem. It’s a problem in Obamacare. It’s a problem, again, in the Inflation Reduction Act, just the lobbying power. of AARP. So we’ve been tracking this pretty closely, Alan. I know I’m rambling a little, but I’ll get to the payoff here. Literally, we’ve been tracking this pretty closely. And then a few weeks ago, the notes to their 2024 financials came out, and it said, buried on page 15, it said that they restructured their deal with UnitedHealth around a one-time payment, essentially an advance against some of that 6% skim, an advance against their next 12 years, in fact, of skim. They took a one-time payment last year of $9.62 billion, so $9.062 billion. Billion dollars in a one-time payment, and in the advocacy world and the nonprofit world, it’s hard to even explain how much money that is. It’s completely incomprehensible. If I made $9 million, it would be a good year. This is 1,000 times that. This is $9,062,000,000 in a one-time payment. I don’t even know how you manage something like that. You don’t just put it in the bank, I assume. You get a whole fleet of bankers to design some sort of an investment structure, and it throws off some huge amount of income. But the bottom line is they’ve now become far and away the largest advocacy organization. They’re sitting on this gigantic pile of cash from this one-time payment, and they’re very active in this debate that’s going on right now on extending Obamacare subsidies. And people say to me, well, you know, why do they care about that if they’re getting all their money from the Medicare products? And I say, well, because they basically function at this point as a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, and UnitedHealth is the number two recipient of Obamacare subsidies. They want the money to keep flowing to their corporate partner because if their corporate partner is fat and happy, then there’s more money for them, and they’re in business with them. And so I think it’s a very disturbing situation, especially because, Alan, I can go tell every member of Congress, hey, ignore these guys. They’re corrupt. They’re on the take. They got $9 billion. But you know what they hear? They hear I better not cross them. They have $9 billion. They still have the money, whether I shine a light on it or not. So that’s basically the situation, and I’ll stop rambling.
SPEAKER 19 :
No, no, that’s disturbing and fascinating all at once because, again, it’s couched as a retired person’s advocacy group, right?
SPEAKER 21 :
How can you be— They do get a lot of money. They do get a lot of money from their members. Don’t get me wrong. They get a little over $200 million from their membership dues, but— When you’re getting 30 times that in a one-time payment last year from your insurance company partner, it’s pretty clear, I think, who you represent and what your real interests are. And the other thing that I find amazing, that it’s even legal, is if you’re skimming 6% off the top of all the premiums in Medicare products, your incentive is for that premium to be as high as possible. And I think they went up 27% this year. Well, you’re not going to fight for a lower premium for the members that you supposedly represent if you make more money when they pay more because you’re taking a skim off the top. So that’s, I think, the worst part of this.
SPEAKER 19 :
And I suppose to that end, Phil, is this something that can be corrected by members leaving AARP, or is there just they realize that they are kind of the preeminent place for these health insurance plans, and so since there’s no other solution, 27% increase year over year, kind of the members have to eat it.
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, it’s tricky because if you want to be in a UnitedHealth AARP Medicare Advantage plan or Medicare Supplemental plan, you have to be an ARP member. They require that you pay the membership dues. And so if you want to leave, you’ve got to find a different plan. And frankly, I would recommend that people shop around. And one of the things about them having this exclusive deal with UnitedHealth is if you’re somebody who searches, who shops for your Medicare plan on the ARP website, you only see UnitedHealth because they have an exclusive deal. And I would encourage people, when you’re considering what Medicare plan to go into, Make sure you’re on Medicare.gov and you’re looking at the official site with all the choices, not on the AARP site where they’re only going to show you UnitedHealth plans.
SPEAKER 19 :
Right. Well, they’re only going to show you United Health plans because they got a nine billion reasons to only show those.
SPEAKER 21 :
Right. Exactly. And, you know, here’s the and here’s why everybody, whether you’re involved with AARP or not, should care about this. We keep losing health care policy debates in Washington because the amount of money they can bring to bear. I mean, I remember a couple of years ago during the Inflation Reduction Act. they did event all over the country i think they did about ninety five of these events all over the country and you know they’re smart they have lawyers they don’t they vote for this person vote against this person is there a non-profit they don’t want to imperil their tax status which the whole other thing it’s crazy i think they can you know book these massive profits and still be a non-profit but they go they go right up to the line they say so-and-so is a hero of the of seniors who protected social security is a wonderful person that we should strongly support all this kind of everything up to You know, they don’t say vote for this person, but they give the full loving treatment, if you will. And I remember during Inflation Reduction Act, they did this for about 95 members of Congress, House and Senate. And guess how many of the 95 were Republican? One. One. One was a Republican. And it was Mike Crapo, who was Senator from Idaho, barely had an opponent, if any, and he was the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. So they did one Republican who was going to win by 50 points anyway, so they could say, I guess, so they could say, oh, this was bipartisan. But they were overwhelmingly promoting one political party, which promotes the agenda of the insurance industry, essentially, which enriches them in turn. I mean, if you look at what’s happened… To insurance company stocks, including and especially UnitedHealth stocks since Obamacare was passed, it’s almost vertical. I mean, the benefit to them has been massive. The benefit for the American people has not. And when our health policy debates are distorted because the largest, most influential advocacy group is in the pocket of the biggest health insurance company, we keep getting outcomes like Obamacare, like Inflation Reduction Act that advance the corporate interest of the insurance industry. but certainly not the interests of taxpayers and seniors.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, and I definitely want to pick at that thread a little bit more, especially how it impacts Obamacare subsidies. But we get to have these sorts of conversations because we have great sponsors such as Lorne Levy.
SPEAKER 07 :
Many seniors are feeling squeezed because of inflation, higher property taxes, and increasing costs of living. If you’re 62 or older, a reverse mortgage may be the solution. Reverse mortgages can be complicated, so it’s important that you understand the process and work with a trusted professional. Mortgage expert Lorne Levy will help you craft solutions for your unique circumstances, whether a reverse mortgage, first mortgage, or a second mortgage. If you’d like to explore how a reverse mortgage might help you, call Lauren Levy at 303-880-8881. That’s 303-880-8881. Call now.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 13 :
Quickly.
SPEAKER 04 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
Welcome back. This is Alan Thomas. I’m guest hosting the show for Kim today. Make sure and check out Kim’s website at kimmonson.com. If you’re ever in or around Pueblo, make sure and visit the Center for American Values located in Pueblo on the beautiful Riverwalk. The center is focused on the foundational values of America, honor, integrity, and patriotism. Through their K-12 educational programs, training for educators, and portraits of valor of over 160 Medal of Honor recipients, the Center is helping to instill honor, integrity, and patriotism for our next generation. Make sure and check out their website. It is AmericanValueCenter.com. That’s AmericanValueCenter.com. And on the line with us, we get to continue talking with Phil Kirpin, the president of American Commitment. And before we went to break, we were kind of pulling on this thread a little bit of Obamacare and the Inflation Reduction Act. And one of the things that they were advocating for, they being the Democrats on that side, is the subsidies and how those were kind of running out. And Really, Phil, I guess my question is, how do they really need more subsidies if these healthcare companies say, we need subsidies for Obamacare and all of this, but they’re paying $9 billion commission advances to advocacy groups like AARP?
SPEAKER 21 :
Yeah, it’s a really good question. How have they made so much money when supposedly their profits are capped by… regulations under obama care well you know the the way you obama care with designed uh… it was very easy for them to exploit because the the uh… you supposedly they’re supposed to pay out eighty percent of all the premium dollars they bring in in claims although they’re allowed to do quality adjustment which is how they can play games and retain a bunch of profits uh… but even the five that what they’ve done if they’ve consolidated So they’ve become vertically integrated. They bought up the pharmacy benefit managers, so now the pharmacy benefits are paid to themselves. So, for instance, UnitedHealth owns OptumRx, and so they run the insurance claims for pharmaceuticals through their own pharmacy. Now they can make money on internal transfer pricing, and it doesn’t count for the medical loss ratio regulation purposes. And they’ve done a lot of other things like that. For instance, they’ve hired a lot of doctors. of uh… you know nurses that they’ll send your house and try to generate as many billable encounters as possible that way and generate claims that way and so what we’ve seen is this massive consolidation into conglomerates of these huge health insurance companies which have acquired providers they’ve acquired pharmacy managers they’ve acquired just a massive vertical integration uh… which has been very destructive in my opinion and we’ve seen the same thing happened by the way with the hospital systems that are acquiring all of the independent physicians practices uh… just as a result of the differences in payment policies by the federal government a lot of the regulatory things uh… is that are built into obama care and so We’ve had this massive, massive, highly destructive consolidation trend that’s allowed them to make a ton of money while there’s really no downward pressure on premiums because the products became so unattractive to anyone who wasn’t getting subsidies. that you essentially have only subsidized people that are enrolled in the Obamacare plans, but the structure of the subsidies is such that the amount that enrollees pay is capped as a percentage of their income, so 100% of the increase falls on taxpayers. And so we’ve seen just huge galloping increases in premiums, kind of a death spiral, if you will, but the whole cost of that has fallen on taxpayers. And this was getting so bad five years ago, that the democrats essentially used the cover of covid to say we have to increase subsidies we have to throw more money at this we have to make more people eligible for subsidies because nobody’s willing to pay these unsubsidized prices they don’t perceive it as valuable and so what they did during covet is they changed the structure of the subsidies in two very important ways and originally in obamacare The subsidies went up to 400% of the federal poverty level. There were no subsidies above that. And even at the bottom, even if you made 150% of the federal poverty level, you still have to pay 2% of your income. So you’re paying $5 a week, whatever it is. It was a very small amount. But they changed that to zero during COVID in these enhanced subsidies. And when you change something to zero… It’s basically an invitation for fraud. There are now millions and millions of people who have been signed up that because they have to pay zero, they never file a claim, they never use the insurance, but the insurance companies make a bunch of money, the brokers make a bunch of money. You also have people who maybe don’t even value the plan at all, but if it’s zero dollars, it’s maybe not fraud, but they’re willing to sign up, but they don’t value it. They don’t necessarily use it. They don’t place value on it. And at the top end, they got rid of the income cap completely. So for the last few years, no matter how much money you make, You can’t pay more than 8.5% of your income towards these premiums. Everything above that gets picked up by taxpayers. And so that basically signals the insurance companies, right, no matter how high you raise the premiums, you’re not going to lose customers because everyone’s getting subsidies. And the structure of the subsidies is the entirety of the increase is going to fall on taxpayers. And so we’ve had this spiral in terms of price. And this was originally supposed to be for three years on an emergency basis during COVID. They extended it two more years, tucked into the Inflation Reduction Act, which, by the way, Inflation Reduction Act raided money from Medicare. It clamped down on Medicare prescription drug spending, and it used that money. for these expanded subsidies and for green energy giveaways so it was a total rip-off of seniors and yet there was a arp cheerleading for it why who could be enough pick-up united healthy the expanded and subsidies now we’re two years later that that extension and at the end of this year and this has been the whole democratic tantrum if they would shut down the government if they were demanding that there be another extension in these giveaways directly to to these big insurance companies And, of course, they’ve relented for now, but they’re going to continue to push for that through the end of this year. And, I mean, I think it’s crazy. I think it’s crazy to throw another $40 billion a year in taxpayer money at a system that’s already melting down. I like the president’s idea. If we’re going to have subsidies, put them in an account that people own and control, and they can use it in the way that makes sense for them. They don’t have to give it all to an insurance company. They can do a subscription plan maybe with their own local doctor where they just get unlimited visits or whatever it is. There’s a lot of these direct primary care arrangements now. And I love the idea of pairing a direct primary care arrangement where you subscribe with a local doctor with a catastrophic policy for hospitalization and emergency and surgeries. If, God forbid, that happens, you have financial protection. But for your day-to-day, it’s much better to contract directly with a doctor. And I would love to see us, and I would love to see Republicans in particular, become the champions of getting back to independent physicians. Before Obamacare passed, About 60% of doctors in this country were either self-employed or working for a group of doctors. Now that’s only 20%. 80% of doctors in this country now work for a corporate boss of some kind, a hospital or some other corporate entity. I think that’s been really bad for the quality of care, and I would love to see that reversed.
SPEAKER 19 :
Hmm. Yeah, that’s great advice there, Phil. And I guess we have just a minute and a half here. How do you want to button it up? How can people follow you, and how can they keep apprised of the situation?
SPEAKER 21 :
I would urge them to go to AmericanCommitment.org, and you can see the research where we go through the AARP financials and some of these other things. We also have a pre-written letter to Congress you can send to your senators and your congressmen your member of Congress as is, or you can edit it, whoever you want. We’ll make sure that gets delivered. And if you do any of our action items or sign up for the email list on our site, that will also get you on our list to get updates as we continue on some of these health care fights going forward. And I would also, if people want my up-to-the-second thoughts, I’m a little bit of an ex-addict. You can also follow me on there. It’s my last name, Kirpen, K-E-R-P-E-N.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, thank you again, Phil, for all that you guys are doing, and thank you for watching out for all of these nefarious incentives, shall we say. So continue to keep up the good work.
SPEAKER 21 :
Thanks, Alan. We’ll do what we can. I appreciate you having me on. Have a good one.
SPEAKER 19 :
Absolutely. I mean, learned a ton today. So, again, that was Phil Kirpen, K-E-R-P-E-N. I’m going to be visiting the AmericanCommitment.org, signing up for their newsletter because – As we well know, big government loves big corporations, and we can definitely see that right now. So to close out the show, again, got me quoting James Wilson, a very thoughtful, when we talk about the founding of the country, he had this to say. The opinion has been very general that in order to obtain the blessing of a good government, a sacrifice must be made on a part of our natural liberty. I am much inclined to believe that upon examination this opinion will prove to be fallacious. It will, I think, be found that wise and good government, I speak at present of no other, instead of contracting, enlarges as well as secures the exercise of the natural liberty of man. Again, very important that it is good government that would actually help out with our freedoms and our natural liberty. So today, be grateful. Read good books. Be grateful. Think good thoughts. Listen to beautiful music. Communicate and listen well. Live honestly and authentically. Strive for high ideals. And like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. You are not alone. God bless you and God bless America. And stay tuned for our number two.
SPEAKER 14 :
Through the mountains climbing, twisting, turning further from my home. Young like a new moon rising fierce. I don’t want no one to cry. But tell them if I don’t survive.
SPEAKER 08 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
SPEAKER 20 :
It’s the Kim Monson Show. Analyzing the most important stories.
SPEAKER 11 :
The socialization of transportation, education, energy, housing, and water, what it means is that government controls it through rules and regulations.
SPEAKER 20 :
The latest in politics and world affairs.
SPEAKER 11 :
Under this guise of bipartisanship and nonpartisanship, it’s actually tapping down the truth.
SPEAKER 20 :
Today’s current opinions and ideas.
SPEAKER 11 :
On an equal field in the battle of ideas, mistruths and misconceptions is getting us into a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 20 :
Is it freedom or is it force? Let’s have a conversation.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome to the Kim Monson Show. I’m Alan Thomas. I’m excited to get to guest host the show today. Let’s have a conversation. Thank you all for listening. Each of you are treasured and valued and have a purpose. So today, strive for excellence. Take care of your heart, your soul, your mind, and your body. We were made for this moment in history. Thank you, Producer Joe and the team, for all of your good work. May have missed the northern lights last night, Producer Joe, but the sunrise this morning was particularly spectacular. I agree, Alan. It was beautiful. Yeah, so hopefully some of you got to witness that this morning. Make sure and visit Kim’s website at kimmonson.com, and there you can sign up for Kim’s weekly email newsletter. You’ll get a first look at all the upcoming guests. as well as the most recent essays, you can always email her at Kim at KimMonson.com. And we can only have these types of conversations because you protect our right for freedom of speech by contributing and supporting. So thank you to the Harris family for their gold sponsorship of the show. And also from Parker to Golden, Little Richie’s Pizza and Pasta is your go-to for real New York-style pizza, hearty pastas, and that unbeatable local vibe. Little Richie’s is serving up daily specials, quick and tasty weekday lunch deals, and a happy hour the locals actually build their plans around. Whether you’re bringing the crew, catching up with some friends, or flying solo for a hot slice, Little Richie’s is your neighborhood hangout. Jumping on over here, we have the word of the day. It’s an adjective, invidious, I-N-V-I-D-I-O-U-S. It’s of an unpleasant or objectionable nature, of a kind to cause harm or resentment, tending to cause discomfort, animosity, or envy. So labeling concerned parents as extremists is an invidious tactic that poisons debate. We’re certainly going to see a lot of interesting policy down in Douglas County with our incoming school board and really across the nation. Wasn’t a very good election season for liberty-minded folks, but… We continue to use our self-assertion. We continue to stay abreast of all the issues and continue to speak out when we see something going wrong. So the quote of the day is from James Wilson. He was a Scottish-born lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a major architect of the U.S. Constitution. He was also one of the first six justices on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1789 to 1798 and an author of the pioneering Lectures on Law from 1790 to 1791. He said, Law and liberty cannot rationally become objects of our love unless they first become objects of our knowledge. So our republic only exists and only thrives if we are civically educated, if we are able to understand the type of government that was given to us. So James Wilson, again, one of the first six Supreme Court justices. I think we would be well served if he was also on our Supreme Court today. So. On the line, we have with us Lorne Levy, and usually this is when we jump over to some headlines, but I actually saw a headline yesterday that piqued my interest, and as it was, we have perfect timing that Lorne’s going to be here to talk to us. So welcome to the show, Lorne. Hey, good morning, Alan. Hey, so, you know, yesterday I heard some talk about 50-year home loans. What have you been hearing about that?
SPEAKER 17 :
a lot, actually, just different opinions in the last couple days because President Trump floated that idea. And we’ve had a 40-year mortgage available in the past during different times. We’ll see what comes of it. Right now, it’s just an idea. Ever since the the meltdown of 2008, and then Congress created the Dodd-Frank Act. There’s this thing out there called a qualified mortgage, or QM, we refer to it. And there’s certain rules that mortgages have to meet in order for it to be equivalent to what’s called a qualified mortgage, which makes it available to be purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And right now, one of those qualifies is that the loan has to be on course to be paid off in 30 years. So Congress is going to have to get involved if we have a 50-year to change those rules. to make a 50-year qualified mortgage or else Fannie and Freddie won’t be able to do them. So we’ll see how that goes. But aside from that, you have a lot of people who are saying, oh, that’d be great to help the housing market because it’ll spread payments out over more of a term, which will lower them. So there is that, which could get more people into homes, which is always good. On the flip side, you have people that say, look, your payments will be strung out so far, you’ll be paying hardly any principal, won’t be building any equity, except if the home goes up in value. And, you know, it’s basically so long that it’ll probably never get paid off. Although the answer to that is most people don’t pay off a 30-year loan either. They refinance or move or something. So there’s been arguments on both sides. we’ll have to see what happens. You know, right now, Alan, if you have a 15-year mortgage, you have a lower rate than if you have a 30-year. So I’d be concerned that a 50-year would have a higher rate than a 30-year. So that might eat into the savings of spreading the payments out. We’ll see, because banks and investors are going to want higher interest rates in order to keep the money out there for 50 years versus 30, you know? So it’ll be an interesting thing if it ever comes about or if it’s just an idea floating. There’s a lot of problems with the housing market with affordability as well as the president was referring to. It’s not just that payments are higher and that rates are up. There’s things like startup costs if you listen to builders. I was reading an article from the CEO of Beezer Homes the other day who I don’t know how much they do here in Colorado but they do a lot in California and he was saying that To even break ground in California, it’s roughly $139,000 in fees just to get to the dirt, meaning permits and prints and everything that goes into getting the home approved. So you want to talk about affordability. How about we start cutting some of those red tape and fees?
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and we also see a lot in just property taxes, especially here in Colorado. When we de-Gallaghered, I think folks really started to feel a little bit more of a pull of local governments trying to increase the mills. We have a lot of taxable districts. We’re seeing a lot of taxes go towards that affordability.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yep. And we also have seen huge increases in homeowners insurance costs, which is another one that’s touching affordability. And, you know, as we clean up immigration, which, you know, has been a great thing, we are cutting into the, you know, the pool of typical construction workers as well, which has made it harder for them, for builders to find workers and the pay has gone up. So that’s cut into the affordability as well. There’s many factors that are causing home prices to be where they are. And not to mention, the biggest one is that we’re just simply not building enough homes. And, you know, so you add all five or six of those items together and you get the affordability crisis that we have, not necessarily just because, you know, rates are higher.
SPEAKER 19 :
That’s not just the only reason, you know. Right. It’s kind of easy just to blame one thing when there’s a lot of factors involved. But how’s the Colorado market looking, Loren? Is it starting to stabilize a little?
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah. Yeah, from what I can see when things are moving, I mean, we are seeing price decreases, I believe. You know, on the mortgage side, my biggest concern always is if someone goes under contract on a house that, you know, the appraisal is what the contract says. And I have not had any problems with that where, you know, we’ve had an appraisal come in lower than a contract value. You know, whether or not homes are increasing as much as they were before, that’s probably not happening as much. But I have not seen any real decreases. I know there are listings out there where people are having to lower the price in order to get the house under contract. But once they’ve gone under contract, the appraisals have held. But we’ve also been able to help a lot of people that bought homes in the last couple of years at these upper 6% range. We’re refinancing people from $6,875 to $599 and saving them $350 a month. So there’s a huge opportunity for that, too, for people who’ve purchased in the last couple of years to try to get relief, which is what we were talking about a couple of years ago. And we were like, if you like the home and you can afford the payment, get into the home and buy it and then we can refinance it later, you know, and hopefully save a bunch of money. And that’s kind of what’s happening a little bit now.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, I love the couple a while ago. You said marry the home, date the rate, right? Exactly.
SPEAKER 17 :
Yeah, because once you’ve married a home and you have your rate, if it’s a fixed rate, it’s not going anywhere. So, you know, you’ve got your worst case scenario right there. And if you can maintain that and manage it, then that’s fine. And then if an opportunity shows itself to get a better position on your payments and jump on it. And so we’ve had those opportunities peak their heads out, you know, a few times in the last couple of years where rates drop for whatever reason temporarily. And, you know, we’re kind of going through one of those situations right now.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, so how can folks find you, Loren, and how can you help them out?
SPEAKER 17 :
The easiest way is to always just call us at 303-880-8881. It’s free to have a conversation, and we’ll never try to push them into a loan that doesn’t help them. But if we can help them, we can help save people and make their lives a lot better. And then, quite frankly, if we can save them a few hundred dollars, that’s money they can take and put towards something else to pay down something else in their life to make their situation better. So we love to help.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, Lauren, well, as always, thank you for your nuggets of wisdom. And everyone, make sure and reach out to Lauren, great sponsor of the show. And also another great sponsor of the show is Roger Mengen.
SPEAKER 12 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
For nearly 20 years, mortgage specialist Lorne Levy with Polygon Financial Group has helped individuals realize their hopes and dreams of home ownership, fund kids’ educations through second mortgages, and access capital by utilizing reverse mortgages. Lauren Levy works with many different lenders, and his goal is to provide home loans to his clients with the lowest interest rates and closing costs as possible. Lauren Levy pledges to help borrowers overcome roadblocks that can arise when securing a loan. Call Lauren Levy now at 303-880-8881 so that you are prepared for opportunity in the mortgage market. That’s 303-880-8881.
SPEAKER 18 :
There’s so much noise coming at us. Sometimes it is difficult to make sense of it all. How can you sift through the clamor for your attention and get to the truth? The Kim Monson Show is here to help. Kim searches for truth and clarity by examining issues through the lens of freedom versus force, force versus freedom. Tune in to the Kim Monson Show each weekday, 6 to 8 a.m. with encores 1 to 2 p.m. and 10 to 11 p.m. on KLZ 560 AM, KLZ 100.7 FM. The KLZ website, the KLZ app, and Alexa. Play KLZ. Shows can also be found at KimMonson.com, Spotify, and iTunes.
SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back. I’m Alan Thomas, and I’m pleased to be hosting the show today, filling in for Kim because she was emceeing a Veterans Day event last night. Make sure and visit Kim’s website, kimmonson.com. You can sign up for the weekly email newsletter. Thank you all for contributing to our independent voice and the exercise of our right to the freedom of speech. And through all of Kim’s work with veterans, she’s honored to highlight the USMC Memorial Foundation and all the work they are doing to raise the money to remodel the official USMC Memorial, which is located right here in Golden, Colorado at 6th and Colfax. Paula Sarles is the president of the foundation. She’s a Marine veteran and a gold star wife. Paula and her team are working diligently to make the remodel a reality. So you can help by donating at usmcmemorialfoundation.org. We are pleased to have on the line Trent Luce, a sixth-generation farmer and rancher. Welcome to the show, Trent.
SPEAKER 22 :
Hi, Alan. Great to have you back.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, definitely excited to be here. So I guess what’s the first thing you want to share with our listeners today?
SPEAKER 22 :
Well, I just want to echo the sentiments about the veterans, actually, and I just want to Recap something that I share often because it happened on September 21st, 2012, with a wounded warrior outing that the All-American Beef Battalion was feeding 300 men or women who none of them had two arms and two legs. And I said, thank you, as I do when I see someone who I know is a veteran to retired First General Jimmy Williams, United States Marine Corps. And he just as quickly turned to me and said, don’t give me lip service, boy. If you really want to say thank you, then you will exercise the rights of these men and women for 250 years. He didn’t say that at that time, but what’s now 250 years are protected for you. And that really shaped how I go about this, particularly in appreciation for for the veterans is that you must engage and do what it is that they protect for us to do. It’s very simple, Alan. Use it or lose it. And we don’t have enough people using it.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and when we look at our founding, you know, there’s that famous quote attributed to Ben Franklin, we have a republic if you can keep it. But it’s very obvious in all the writings of our founding fathers that this was not a passive government created for passive citizens. It was a government created for active and engaged and educated citizens to be involved in and to be a part of.
SPEAKER 22 :
One hundred percent. And I think that nails it exactly. And we often talk about why can’t somebody fix this? Why can’t somebody fix that? Whether it’s a local issue or a D.C. issue. What are you doing to fix it? That should be the question of the day.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, when I was growing up, one of my pastors one time, he had a very similar quote. It was somebody talking about, hey, we need to be doing more for college kids at our church. And he turned and said, okay, so go ahead and do it. And this lady apparently, you know, he didn’t name her. He didn’t call her out in front of the church, but she said, no, I want you to do it. And he said, you know, no, God gave you the idea. He put it in your head to help. So if you are the one that’s noticing the problem, you’re probably the one that’s uniquely suited to help fix it because you’re noticing the problem. You therefore see the need. You need to step into that gap. And that’s really what we as citizens have to do is understand. We can’t just say, hey, our school board needs more people speaking up. It’s like, no, you need to go and go speak up and encourage others to do it by your example.
SPEAKER 22 :
Yeah, perfect. Whatever your concern is, the best person qualified to address it is the person you look at in the mirror every morning. That’s the perfect way to say it to what your pastor did.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah, so what else do you have for us, Trent? How else can we be getting involved? What are you noticing that maybe others might not?
SPEAKER 22 :
Kim and I have talked about this quite a bit, and I brought it up last week because I saw this housing situation developing in Boise, Idaho, and this week I drove to North Carolina and back since last Wednesday. And I have a friend who’s an attorney in Tennessee, and two weeks ago on a broadcast with me, he shared that in Tennessee we’re losing 100,000 acres of farmland. every day to urbanization. And oh my goodness, did I see that. And he’s actually fighting one of these, I’m using the quote, affordable housing developments in Tennessee that’s trying to take farmland out of production. And a lot of that is redundant, but my goodness, as I drove through Tennessee, through Nashville on Interstate 40 to Knoxville, and then ultimately to Asheville, North Carolina, first of all, Alan, I saw a The remnants of Hurricane Helene and Interstate 40, once you get into that very eastern part of Tennessee and North Carolina, is down to two lanes, one way each way, because the interstate just collapsed. It came down and went down into the river. That was interesting how they were spending time building the infrastructure to once again put the interstate on top of, not just redoing the interstate because there’s nothing there. It’s just gone, just sloughed off. But the traffic, the nonstop traffic, just taillights everywhere, just from a planes guy. from the Sandhills of Nebraska. That was just more than I could handle, you know. But with all of that said, and we have news about the 160-acre farm in New Jersey that has been protected now, supposedly. I read the letter from the attorney. They’re still fighting, and they’re still not sure they’ve got it in the clear. But New Jersey, like every other state, has this mandate to create this affordable housing. And so many times it goes on farmland that’s producing food. Well, I think most people have heard bits and pieces of the Henry family in New Jersey that had their 160-acre farm placed under eminent domain, and the cranberry of the local city said they’re going to take it. Well, I did one step further last night. If there is what we deem to be affordable housing, And by the way, the buildings I see, these complexes that are being built, which are just like cookie cutters, I’m going to cut to the chase. This is a 15-minute city in planning. That’s exactly what’s taking place. Because there is no way this is affordable to the people who need housing. It cannot be affordable without government assistance. So I went to look at who is providing the subsidy to do the affordable housing. And Alan, I’m curious, who do you think that would be?
SPEAKER 19 :
You know, I can’t even hazard a guess.
SPEAKER 22 :
There’s two paths of federal subsidies. One is obviously through HUD, Housing and Urban Development. But the other one, which seems to be more prevalent for single or multiple family dwellings, is none other than the United States Department of Agriculture. So here you have the USDA and Brooke Rollins taking credit for for stopping this eminent domain and taking a farm that’s been in a family for over 100 years, when in fact it’s the very programs within the USDA that are facilitating the development and the taking of the property to begin with. Now, I’ll grant this. That did not come about during this Trump administration. That was in play in previous administrations. But The Trump team has gone to work to stop many things that are considered abusive spending, and this one has not been touched. So I just found a great bit of irony in the fact that the USDA, who’s claiming credit for saving this 160-acre farm, is the very entity that provides a subsidy to make it happen.
SPEAKER 19 :
You’ve got to love government incentives and just how convoluted they are. And a lot of the issues I see with reports such as these is when you talk about farmers, especially nowadays, it’s such a small subsect of farming. our economy. There’s not many of you out there, right? And you get this idea that we can take from a small group and give it to a majority and call it eminent domain, call it for the public good. And it’s just antithetical to anything about how we were founded as a country. In fact, that was one of the warnings was if they ever find out, that’s why our rights are protected is so that even the minority can always be protected. from the majority having these ideas of, well, we need your land because it’s more important to the public good.
SPEAKER 1 :
100%.
SPEAKER 22 :
And we still deal with that today. And I just want to walk through some numbers because you brought it up. We often say that only 2% of the United States population is involved in farming. Well, that’s accurate if you look at what the United States Department of Agriculture defines as a farm. Their definition of a farm is anybody who sells more than $1,000 in gross sales from their location in a given year to be a farm. That literally means students at Boulder at the University of Colorado selling things that grow in their dorm room, by definition, are considered a farmer. When the truth of the matter is that 240,000 farm families produce 80% of the food in this country. 240,000 farm families. And obviously, it brings us back to the topic of the day and what food costs are. And so much attention has been played to what beef costs are. And I still contend and can make a very stringent argument that beef prices at where they are at today is still one of the great economic buys in all of retail because of the nutrient density that you get from the very beef items that you purchase. You can buy expensive beef items if you want. There’s also means of buying very affordable beef items. If you know how to do a little bit of preparation and cooking, you can feed your family beef very affordably. But we’ve moved into this whole convenience era, and convenience costs money.
SPEAKER 19 :
As with many things in life, just because it’s expedient doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Excited to continue some of these conversations, Trent, but we can only have these conversations because of great sponsors such as the Second Syndicate.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back. This is Alan Thomas filling in for Kim today. Make sure and visit the website at kimmonson.com. There you can see the weekly email newsletter and you can find out what guests are going to be on for the week and who’s going to be guest hosting if there are any guest hosts. Thank you all for contributing to support the independent voice and exercise our right to the freedom of speech on air. And financial freedom starts with the right guide. And Mint Financial Strategies is here to help. As an independent firm with over 25 years of experience in the credentials of an accredited investment fiduciary, they offer advice that’s focused on you, not a sales quota. Their strategy-first approach is all about helping you live life on your terms with clarity, confidence, and control. So call Mint Financial Strategies today at 303-285-3080, 303-285-3080. Your path to independent financial confidence starts with Mint Financial Strategies. So we are joined on air today with Trent Luce, a sixth generation farmer and rancher. And before we went to break, we started to broach a topic that’s close to my heart, my Father-in-law is actually a father-in-law and brother-in-law are both meat processors here locally and in Colorado. So, of course, I’ve had a front row seat to how good beef is and also how it has just skyrocketed up in cost here in the past year, Trent.
SPEAKER 22 :
You know what? That is absolutely fantastic because the art of butchery is, is it’s lost. My father-in-law, 85 years old, started butchering animals when he was 10. And it’s so many skills like that that can take an animal. In fact, I’m going to quote Theodore Roosevelt, who at one point, and I have some issues with Theodore Roosevelt, but from a conservation standpoint, his whole concept, Alan, of conservation was hijacked. But he did go into the wilderness and he said, I fear the day is coming when men will go into the wilderness and will not have the knowledge to hunt and process their own food. And with your in-laws being of that persuasion, you know, they know how to get this job done. They know where the challenges are. And we have just moved so far away from those basic survival skills that I try to regularly find a way to get back to people who have some knowledge of producing and growing their own food. But we just continue to increase that divide.
SPEAKER 19 :
We do. And we see it, again, it’s a lot of involvement by the government where it’s not needed. We see subsidies. We see the government telling farmers either to give up their farms or to purposely follow their crops. You know, we’re seeing increasing beef prices for a variety of reasons. The point I saw something several months ago about how they were even thinking about importing beef from Brazil. And it’s like, well, if we could just get government out of the whole process, we might see some cheaper food prices.
SPEAKER 22 :
Well, I want to just amend what you said a bit. In 2025, Brazil became the number one beef import country in the United States for as long as I can remember, to be honest, Alan, it was Australia. and your in-laws will know about this. We take the trim from our animals in the packing sector. We mix that with imported what they call lean trim coming in from then Australia. Australia is now second. Brazil has overtaken that, and Brazil is the home of the Batista family, which owns JBS Swift, obviously very prevalent in the front range, and not only in Colorado, but largest meatpacker in the world. I think the announcement that you saw was the importation of Argentina beef, and that stirred a lot of people because I’ve been following this, and I’ve been following Argentina for quite a while because Argentina historically has been the number one beef per capita consumer in the world. And in 2024… argentina admitted that they were no longer consuming more beef than any other meat they started consuming more chicken and pork than beef which was a big deal to me because while i’m not anti-pork and it’s certainly not anti-chicken argentina was the example of where you go eat beef and they would cook it in you know and almost like this what we would call a rotisserie chicken mold and they just have such a unique approach But the reason that they gave that Argentinians could no longer afford to eat the beef was because the economics were so bad in Argentina, beef prices began to skyrocket, and people could no longer afford it. And then they gave the reason for that is that it was because the cattle numbers were, the inventories were low, and so beef prices were high. We come into 2025, we have the same story in the United States. Our cattle inventories are at a historic low. Beef prices are high, which then leads us into this Trump announcement that we’re going to import beef from Argentina to bring the cost of beef at the retail level down. How do you decontaminate? When you’re bringing meat in, beef in from a country that has lost its beef consumption ability because the beef became too high. None of that made any sense unless, in fact, I’m only assuming this. I’ve found nothing to verify it, but it’s a big buzz in the whole beef world. Brazil is bringing beef. This has not happened. This is all what has been the buzz for the last two months. What are the odds that Brazil wouldn’t just take beef into Argentina, put it in a package, and send it to the United States? Because the other part of what I left out was that in the process of Argentina beef becoming too expensive for Argentinians to consume, they started importing beef from Brazil.
SPEAKER 19 :
And so the circle begins, right?
SPEAKER 22 :
I think it continues.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and what can what can our listeners do? Because, again, you know, one of the the ranch and and farming industry is small. And so there’s not as many advocates and definitely there’s not as many voices. So what what can most of our listeners who aren’t in that industry be advocating for, be looking for? And what can they do to to help out our ranchers and farmers?
SPEAKER 22 :
Ask more questions where you purchase your food. It’s very easy for us to go to that super center on the edge of town because we come back to the same word that we used before. It’s convenient. It’s convenient to go to a place. Get your oil changed. Get your pharmaceuticals. Get your food all in one building. But the truth of the matter is that that building is relying on sheep. It doesn’t care where it comes from. No matter where you’re listening right now, there is somebody that is utilizing whatever species of animal we want to talk about. It could be eggs. It could be lamb. It could be beef. Make sure that where you are buying your products, it was grown in the area, whether it’s in Colorado or the Great Plains or wherever the case may be. We must demand more accountability from the people we purchase our food from instead of just going about our life and doing what is most convenient. Because what is most convenient is ultimately going to end our ability to produce fuel and food from a domestic supply. And that’s our number one job of national security.
SPEAKER 19 :
So that’s something I wouldn’t expect a rancher to necessarily talk on is the tie between food and fuel.
SPEAKER 22 :
So I’m speaking at an event in Dickinson, North Dakota in February, and they had asked me about six months ago and then just this week sent a note and said, Trent, just want to kind of clarify where we’re going to go with this presentation. Our business is really about building the infrastructure in the Bakken for accessible energy supplies. And that would be oil. It’s also electricity and the ethane capture of the flaring gas to generate electricity. And the answer to that question is simple. Without an affordable, reliable supply of electricity and fuel… We cannot maintain food production as we know it. The connection between food and fuel is so intertwined. You know, there are people predicting that we’re going to have this mass, we’re supposed to get three sunspots today. I don’t know if you knew that or not. And we had these magnificent light shows last night. I had people sending me pictures of light shows, northern lights, although some of them were taking pictures of the sky facing south. The northern lights don’t exist in the south. Yesterday morning, I had people sending me pictures of planes with chemtrails. And then last night, you had this magical light show that’s like crazy. And that is a sign of a weakening magnetic pulse phenomenon. on the earth, which is just part of a natural cycle. And if it comes at the wrong time, and there are people predicting that our electric grid is so vulnerable to these EMPs, electric magnetical pulses, that we will go dark. And if we go dark, how are people going to, number one, store their food? How are they going to prepare their food. There’s so many places where food and fuel are intertwined that you cannot talk about one without talking about the other.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and to that end, it’s, you know, we all rely on our refrigerators and freezers to keep our food, which is incredible to think about when you think about, you know, I know you’re a Christian too. When you think about like King Solomon and all these old kings and their vast resources couldn’t eat what we get to eat today just because of but we really are reliant upon that technology. If something were to happen to our electrical grid, we would be in a world of hurt.
SPEAKER 22 :
We’re below 16% of the electric supply coming from coal-generated electricity, and I think that’s a very dangerous place to be. Fortunately, we’ve increased natural gas electric generation, but our vulnerability is at a level that it’s never been before. And to your point, you talk about King Solomon, but truth of the matter is that it was about 1954 that we finally got electricity to all parts of rural America. Hmm. I was born in 1966. There are many people listening that were born before 1954. So in their lifetime, we’ve just really become accustomed to electricity. And now I got a new gizmo sitting on my desk that has 12 different plug-ins. and five ports for a USB plug-in all right there. We just take it for granted. Electricity is something you cannot take for granted. And another challenge, you know, my friend here in Nebraska, Kevin Kinney, has been chasing this rabbit hard and fast. So many rural communities the size of, you know, 2,000 people, as an example, have in the past few years been told through financial incentives being cut that they’re going to eliminate their backup electric generation in their own communities. Why would any community who has a tremendous backup electric program eliminate that? Why would you become completely dependent upon a grid supplied by either government or Warren Buffett, because Warren Buffett owns a tremendous number of electric gentrification programs? our companies, why would you eliminate your ability to be independent from somebody providing electricity? It makes no sense whatsoever, and yet we’ve charged down that path hard and fast.
SPEAKER 19 :
Well, and it just kind of comes back to this overall lack of virtue within the citizenry. You know, when we talk about the four civic virtues, one of those is self-reliance. You know, it’s not relying on government. And yet we’ve seen in New York, we have Mom Donnie now who now says government needs to be even bigger because they can do anything. even more for you. So again, it’s encouraging the citizens to look at how reliant you are on government, on their programs, on their subsidies and saying, you know what, maybe this isn’t the best path forward because it isn’t. It’s best to rely on your own self and rely on your own abilities. And one of the great things about this show is we get to Go down these rabbit holes and talk about these interesting topics because we have great sponsors. And one of those is Boson Law.
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SPEAKER 19 :
And welcome back. This is Alan Thomas filling in for Kim today. Make sure and visit Kim’s website, KimMonson.com. And if you ever want to email her, you can at Kim at KimMonson.com. And something you should put on your bucket list is to visit the Center for American Values located on the beautiful Riverwalk in Pueblo. The Center for American Values was co-founded by Medal of Honor recipient… Drew Dix and Emmy Award-winning documentary maker Brad Padula. The center is focused on honoring our Medal of Honor recipients and teaching and upholding the principles of America, honor, integrity, and patriotism. For more information, check out their website, AmericanValuesCenter.org. That’s AmericanValuesCenter.org. This morning we are pleased to have on the line with us regular commentator Trent Luce. He’s a sixth generation farmer and rancher. And Trent, we sure have covered the gambit from sea to shining sea, basically. I don’t think we’ve yet brought up California, but we kind of know what shenanigans they get into all the time, right?
SPEAKER 22 :
Well, I have a friend in California who I put on the air once a week. She actually moved to France, but she’s been back in California for the last two weeks, and she’s bringing shenanigans from California going on that I didn’t even know about. I thought I knew about all of them. But, Alan, I see a friend of mine has sent me a graph that I had not seen, but just since you and I were talking, looking at the amount of beef produced in the United States in the last 52 weeks, we are at… Not only just a historic low, we’re at a very critical low compared to what the lowest previous to that has ever been. In the last year, it’s 7% down in terms of total fed beef. What that means is it’s not going to be readily available. And that’s going to put pressure to do more importation. And that’s why I stressed. that you need to know where your food is coming from, not just beef, but all food, because I think beef is a precursor to what’s taking place. Know where your food’s coming from and develop that relationship locally that somebody produces it, because they are out there.
SPEAKER 19 :
They definitely are. And like you said, it’s very important. And boy, just keep your eye on that industry because that’s a disturbing trend for sure, Trent. But we are also joined on the line today by Stacey. Stacey, what’s on your mind?
SPEAKER 02 :
Good morning. So several things, as usual, when you guys talk. To start off, Trent, if you can… Either leave your phone number for me to call back and get or announce it on the air. I have some things I want to send you. And as far as, first of all, the vets, you’re just a gem in reminding us in really stark terms of how we need to be appreciative of our vets. I’m so… I have vets in my family, and I have to tell you, I really am ignorant about the whole thing, and we really do need to educate our younger generations on, you know, like you said, they didn’t have all four limbs. I’m no spring chicken, and I need the education, so the younger kids really need it. We’re in dire straits on that. So thanks on that. And then as far as civic virtue and passivity, I have a meeting. I would like anybody anywhere in the U.S. to dial into and those who are in Colorado to attend in person. It’s the Leiden Rock Metropolitan District. You can attend in person at 17685 West 83rd Drive. on November 18th at 6 PM. Or you can call in by Zoom, 720-707-2699. The meeting ID is 880-7135-9768. And if you’d like to review the documents on that prior, you can contact Pinnacle Consulting Group at 550 Eisenhower Boulevard. And I don’t know what zip that is. It’s 80537. And lastly, Trent, if you can talk about whether you know who Mr. Calicrate is and what Pink Slime is and the relation to that nugget you gave us all of Brazil’s Batista family owning JBS, which is here locally in Colorado, I think. I had no idea. Yeah. And then we’ve got several properties in our neighborhood that could be farms. They were farms. They were like acreage, but not farmed. We haven’t had farms here since probably like the early 70s. Around that time, they started disappearing. We could drive and go get our corn and whatnot. Like literally, we could have walked over there, but we would drive. And as soon as that guy went into a nursing home, that’s the last farm we had generating food here. And we’re like a suburb, and it’s very populated and getting more populated, and they’re disappearing our farms. So I would like to see, I don’t know if Luce and Calicrate know each other, but he’s running a thing in the springs, apparently, where… They’re bringing the beef in from eastern Colorado. They have to, for some reason, slaughter it out there and then bring it back in, and then people in Cotto Springs can actually drive over there. We’ve got a multitude of properties in my neighborhood where we could be, like, doing that right now, right here. And I don’t know how we get it done locally. you know, with our farmers out in rural struggling so hard and those of us here who want to buy from them and have ideas on how to make that work. So if you could speak to all that and I’ll hang up and don’t forget to give me your number. Okay.
SPEAKER 19 :
Yeah. Trent, that’s a, I always forget to ask that. How can people get ahold of you, Trent?
SPEAKER 22 :
Well, Stacy wants my number. Anybody can have my number 5 1 5 4 1 8 5. 8185. And Stacey, we have your number. Joe can get that to you if need be. I do know Mike Calicrate. Mike actually lives in Kansas. I do believe he’s got a property in Colorado as well. He does a great job at harvesting these animals. I believe he’s got a mobile system to do that, and I knew that he was developing a very good market in Colorado. He mentioned the pink slime. That’s a slang term, by the way. There was a family who I’ve actually visited with a guy from Sioux City, Iowa, who found a way to use a pressurized, kind of like, I’m going to simplify this, try to simplify it, but going to the The car wash, you don’t wash your car with a garden hose, you wash your car with a high pressure cleaner. And what this gentleman did is he found a way to utilize water and get about 12% more beef from the carcass of an animal simply by increasing the amount of water. And then that would be a very high, almost like a liquid base, and then he would dry it back down. And somebody actually in the United Kingdom coined that to be pink slime. The whole concept was simply to increase the amount The percentage of the meat that comes off of the bone, because we all clean our bones off, we eat our T-bone, and then we take what’s left to the dog. Well, we’d like to get as much as possible. That was the original concept behind that. That’s interesting, yeah.
SPEAKER 19 :
And we have about one minute, Trent, so bring us home.
SPEAKER 22 :
Well… At the end of the day, I have closed my programs with a very simple saying, and that is, God bless the veterans and the farmers who feed us. And we cannot take any part of that activity for granted, whether that be the production of food or the defending our freedom. We can argue about whether wars are just. That’s not the discussion here. The discussion is for the love of country, men and women take an oath to the Constitution And unless we’re the one taking the oath, we need to find a way to be a part of the solution of maintaining freedom for our future. If we are not a free future, we are slaves, and that’s not a place I want to be.
SPEAKER 19 :
Amen, Trent. Amen. So thank you so much for joining the show. Again, that’s Trent Liu, Sixth Generation Farmer and Rancher. And thank you, as always, Trent, for your commentary. And for the end of the show, again, quoting from James Wilson, one of the first Supreme Court justices, he said, “…the opinion has been very general that in order to obtain the blessings of a good government, a sacrifice must be made on part of our natural liberty.” I am much inclined to believe that upon examination this opinion will prove fallacious. It will, I think, be found that wise and good government, I speak at present of no other, instead of contracting enlarges as well as secures the exercise of the natural liberty of man. So today, be grateful, read great books, think good thoughts, listen to beautiful music, communicate and listen well, live honestly and authentically, strive for high ideals, and like Superman, stand for truth, justice, and the American way. You are not alone. God bless you, and God bless America.
SPEAKER 14 :
And fast on a rough road riding High through the mountains climbing to this great unknown but tell them if i don’t survive
SPEAKER 08 :
The views and opinions expressed on KLZ 560 are those of the speaker, commentators, hosts, their guests, and callers. They are not necessarily the views and opinions of Crawford Broadcasting or KLZ management, employees, associates, or advertisers. KLZ 560 is a Crawford Broadcasting God and country station.
