Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty.
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty Handle Morning Crew on a Foody Friday,
Speaker 2: March fourteenth, Pie Day three fourteen, of course coming up
Speaker 2: at I love Fridays because especially the last hour because
Speaker 2: we have Foody Friday, which means Neil and I get
Speaker 2: into it with food, which we do all the time anyway.
Speaker 2: And then at eight thirty it is to ask handle
Speaker 2: anything we end the show with embarrassing me.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Now, one of the big stories that we are covering,
Speaker 2: and it affects every one of us, and that is
Speaker 2: the government shutdown maybe and unless there is what's called
Speaker 2: a stop gap bill to keep the government running because
Speaker 2: Congress has to vote itself. The ability now it is
Speaker 2: to borrow money because the income of the government is
Speaker 2: far far less than the expenditure by the two trillion
Speaker 2: dollars a year insane deficit anyway, so your usually there
Speaker 2: is a stop gap bill when you're about to shut down.
Speaker 2: The government's about to shut down, and it turns out
Speaker 2: that Republicans and Democrats can't agree. So here's what the
Speaker 2: Republicans did. They want a bill that extends to September,
Speaker 2: allowing all the negotiations to go in for the fiscal year,
Speaker 2: which means you're halfway.
Speaker 1: We're halfway through this now it's a kind of October November.
Speaker 2: Yeah, three months into the fiscal year before there is
Speaker 2: a budget agreement. And usually what they do is they
Speaker 2: cut a deal which continues the government with no changes.
Speaker 2: You know, while we're figuring this that we'll leave the
Speaker 2: government alone. All right, We'll leave the budget alone and then.
Speaker 1: We'll figure this out. Republican are saying no. Now they
Speaker 1: have introduced the bill.
Speaker 2: Their bill is we'll have the stop gap bill, but
Speaker 2: here's what we want in it. And this is where
Speaker 2: the Democrats are going completely crazy. What it is is
Speaker 2: it takes away a lot of governmental programs, education programs,
Speaker 2: programs to various disability issues. I mean, it just goes
Speaker 2: on and on, substance abuse treatment, international peacekeeping, the DC
Speaker 2: budget because the federal government pays.
Speaker 1: For Washington d C.
Speaker 2: And federal government in this case, because it's a Trump
Speaker 2: government hates Washington d C. Because it is a very
Speaker 2: liberal area and it's a city state sort of things
Speaker 2: very unique. So in any case, here's the Democrats dilemma.
Speaker 2: If they say no to that bill. Therefore, the government
Speaker 2: shuts down Saturday night, shutting down meaning that only essential
Speaker 2: workers are allowed to get paid, and the government can't
Speaker 2: borrow money. And literally, if it can't borrow money to
Speaker 2: keep on going, it doesn't keep on going. So the
Speaker 2: Republicans say, okay, we're going to keep on going, but
Speaker 2: this is what we want in the bill.
Speaker 1: We want those cuts. But wait a minute.
Speaker 2: Usually you have a stopgap bill that sort of keeps
Speaker 2: everything the same. Nope, not this time around. So now
Speaker 2: it's up to the Senate House. It's already passed. Now
Speaker 2: it's up to the Senate. Chuck Schumer, who is the
Speaker 2: minority leader, said, oh, we have enough Democrats to keep
Speaker 2: this from going forward. Well that was on Thursday, or
Speaker 2: that was on Wednesday, next day Thursday. He changes his
Speaker 2: mind because look at he calls it a Hobson's choice,
Speaker 2: which is true. If the Democrats stop this, which they could,
Speaker 2: if all the Democrats voted that way, then they're going
Speaker 2: to be blamed for the shutdown. The Republicans are already saying,
Speaker 2: we're looking at a Schumer shutdown. Now if they let
Speaker 2: the government run out, where the uh, the stopgap bill
Speaker 2: isn't passed, then what happens is that the president has
Speaker 2: complete power to determine, for example, which employees are essential,
Speaker 2: which employees are non essential. It gives Trump enormous more
Speaker 2: power to run the government during a period in which
Speaker 2: there is no budget. So the Democrats are looking, we
Speaker 2: have no choice. Look what the Republicans did to us.
Speaker 2: By the way, it's a good move on the Republicans,
Speaker 2: very smart political move.
Speaker 1: But they have everything.
Speaker 2: They have the House, they have the Senate, they have
Speaker 2: the White House, so they have a lot of power.
Speaker 2: Obama had the same thing in his first two years.
Speaker 2: How do you think Obamacare got passed? Well, it changes midterms.
Speaker 2: Is it going to change midterm this thing this time?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think if there is a recession, I think if
Speaker 2: people lose their jobs by the handful, I think if
Speaker 2: businesses do not move in the do not move as
Speaker 2: quickly as Trump promises, do not make as much money
Speaker 2: where people as he said, you're going to be better off. Now,
Speaker 2: there may be a slight delay. I mean he went
Speaker 2: from day one, I'm going to change everything. We're gonna
Speaker 2: have the best economy in the world, to now, okay,
Speaker 2: there's going to be a period of adjustment and then.
Speaker 1: We're going to have the greatest period in the world.
Speaker 2: If none of that happens, I think the Republicans are
Speaker 2: going to get nailed in the midterm, nailed. But for
Speaker 2: the next two years, things like this are going to happen.
Speaker 1: Will fund the stop gap, We'll pass it. But here's
Speaker 1: what we want.
Speaker 2: And you Democrats have no choice because you're going to
Speaker 2: get blamed for shutdown. As a matter of fact, I
Speaker 2: think a lot of Republicans want to shut down of
Speaker 2: the government because first of all, the Democrats get blamed.
Speaker 2: Second of all, their president gets even more power than
Speaker 2: he has now. By the way, that's the biggest fight
Speaker 2: that's going on in the United States right now. This
Speaker 2: is the largest number of lawsuits that have been filed
Speaker 2: against the federal government and how to remember how many
Speaker 2: years and it's all about the president's power.
Speaker 1: How far does it go? Right now? Trump is not
Speaker 1: winning a lot of it. But we'll see what the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court has to say.
Speaker 2: Okay, moving on to the story of undocumented immigrants and
Speaker 2: undocumented health care. Gavin Newsom has been very proud of
Speaker 2: the fact that California is the first state in the
Speaker 2: nation to offer health care to all income eligible immigrants
Speaker 2: one year ago as people who don't have any money,
Speaker 2: which is virtually all virtual the illegal immigrants. Nine point
Speaker 2: five billion dollar price tag for state sponsored healthcare for
Speaker 2: undocumented immigrants is not only is it expensive, it's three
Speaker 2: billion dollars above the budget estimate and is expected to grow.
Speaker 2: Now new some of the Democrats under.
Speaker 1: Big pressure to hey, reduce that coverage.
Speaker 2: It's just way too expensive, especially since California is under
Speaker 2: a budget crunch right now. I mean, there's no issue
Speaker 2: that we used to have a ton of money. We
Speaker 2: used to have surpluses that were astronomical. Now they're going
Speaker 2: the other way. For example, you go to Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker,
Speaker 2: pretty liberal guy. He proposed a three hundred and thirty
Speaker 2: million dollar budget cut last month to stale to scale
Speaker 2: back his expansion of healthcare coverage for undocumented illegal aliens.
Speaker 2: So it's getting really expensive here in California and expected
Speaker 2: to grow.
Speaker 1: There's an assembly member Carl.
Speaker 2: Demeyo who's always on joining on John Cobot show. He's
Speaker 2: a Republican out of San Diego.
Speaker 1: He says we.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't bury these costs. Period, especially in a budget crisis.
Speaker 2: And where are the politics here? Oh my god, this
Speaker 2: whole issue is ridden riddled with politics. So California's position
Speaker 2: coverage for all residents, illegal or not, we become a
Speaker 2: state very right for conservatives. Elon Musk weighed in saying
Speaker 2: that healthcare here in California is a mechanism by which
Speaker 2: Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants by essentially paying them
Speaker 2: to come here and then turning them into voters. I
Speaker 2: don't know how many illegal immigrants have become voters in
Speaker 2: the last five years. None, or it's almost infinitesimal. I
Speaker 2: must say Democrats are pushing hard to maximize payments to illegals.
Speaker 2: Free luxury hotels in New York, free medical care for
Speaker 2: illegals in California, And that's for their future voter base.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know, I don't think that's the reason.
Speaker 2: I do think Democrats view that healthcare should be for everybody,
Speaker 2: illegal or not, no matter how expensive it is. And
Speaker 2: in this day and age, you know, there's just not
Speaker 2: a lot of money there and where do you cut?
Speaker 2: And now here is the difference in political outlook of
Speaker 2: life in general? If you're a liberal Democrat you give
Speaker 2: health care to everybody in the United States, regardless of
Speaker 2: immigrant status.
Speaker 1: You're a conservative, you.
Speaker 2: Don't illegals are illegals or illegal immigrants are illegal immigrants?
Speaker 2: Is there undocumented I don't even if say, you can
Speaker 2: say illegal undocumented immigrants.
Speaker 1: Is there any way for us to back charge or
Speaker 1: have an agreement with Mexico?
Speaker 2: Which or sure Mexico agree, Yeah, Mexico agrees to it,
Speaker 2: like they're going to for sure?
Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, yeah, you can argue that.
Speaker 2: Someone coming over the border is the money has to
Speaker 2: be paid for any.
Speaker 1: Health care that undocumented immigrants are voting even legally.
Speaker 2: No, they're not. No, they're not. There is virtually no
Speaker 2: evidence that there is. It's the other way. Actually, you know,
Speaker 2: the Republicans are arguing. Trump argued during the election, there.
Speaker 1: Are millions and millions.
Speaker 2: Of people who are illegal, and that's just not who voted.
Speaker 2: That's just not true. It's simply an allegation the Democrats
Speaker 2: want to pay for illegal immigrants medical care just to
Speaker 2: make them voters.
Speaker 1: Come on, I mean, that's not true.
Speaker 2: Now, they do want to pay because they believe it's
Speaker 2: a very liberal approach that everybody, everybody gets medical care
Speaker 2: come hell or high water, and Medicaid, particular medical which
Speaker 2: is our version of medicaid, which gives medical care to
Speaker 2: people that are extraordinary poor. It really goes to if
Speaker 2: we give medical care to illegal immigrants, which we do
Speaker 2: right now under Newsom's plan, it's almost every illegal immigrant.
Speaker 2: Because illegal immigrants have no money, they do not buy
Speaker 2: medical insurance. They just don't. And if everybody is entitled
Speaker 2: to medical care notwithstanding illegal status or illegal status, you
Speaker 2: know what that means is that proportionally illegal immigrants are
Speaker 2: going to get far more medical care than others.
Speaker 1: I have insurance, you have insurance.
Speaker 2: The illegal immigrant that's crossing the border, which is not
Speaker 2: because Trump has successfully shut down the border, which I'm
Speaker 2: fine with, is that person has no money.
Speaker 1: That person walks into.
Speaker 2: An emergency room and has to be treated by law,
Speaker 2: by the way has to be treated. If I walk
Speaker 2: into an emergency room, I'm handed a bill, and I
Speaker 2: either go to Kaiser if I go to another hospital,
Speaker 2: they pay, Kaiser pays the bill. Who pays the bill?
Speaker 2: When someone has no money? Virtually every illegal immigrant we're
Speaker 2: talking about the government does, And so some states say
Speaker 2: illegal immigrants, too bad, You're on your own if you
Speaker 2: have a medical issue, that's cheaper than California, which says
Speaker 2: everybody gets medical care. Remember, used to have anchor babies.
Speaker 2: Anchor babies were babies that were born of women who
Speaker 2: came over the border, who illegally had the baby. Because again,
Speaker 2: a baby born in the United States is of course
Speaker 2: a citizen, notwithstanding any immigrant status of the parents. And
Speaker 2: so what these anchor baby, how these anchor babies work
Speaker 2: is the prospective mom would sneak over the border and
Speaker 2: go to a hospital where she would get treatment about
Speaker 2: one hundred times better than she ever could in Mexico.
Speaker 1: It was absolutely free, and the kid was an American citizen.
Speaker 1: That's the way it worked, or did work, not anymore,
Speaker 1: by the way.
Speaker 2: Okay, now moving on that, I want to talk about
Speaker 2: what happened during the fires. If you remember, of course
Speaker 2: you remember it because it just happened a little while ago.
Speaker 2: During the course of the fire. There was huge controversy
Speaker 2: afterwards when there wasn't enough water where the fire hydrants,
Speaker 2: especially in the upper regions of the regions of the Palisades,
Speaker 2: didn't have enough water pressure and or there wasn't water
Speaker 2: period in the fire hydrants and we had one of
Speaker 2: those reservoirs that was empty up in the hills, because
Speaker 2: our reservoirs all over up in the hills of southern California,
Speaker 2: and so that.
Speaker 1: Became really controversial.
Speaker 2: And the argument is had there been water pressure, had
Speaker 2: there been that reservoir and it was operating, then that
Speaker 2: would have helped.
Speaker 1: Now fire officials.
Speaker 2: Are saying, people that know fire saying nothing would have helped.
Speaker 2: When you have one hundred mile an hour winds that
Speaker 2: are kicking up fires.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: I mean, the fire outraces everything and there isn't enough
Speaker 2: water on the planet of any city that could take
Speaker 2: care of it. And the argument, another argument where a
Speaker 2: ton more water it would be available, is that the
Speaker 2: amount of water that was necessary to deal with the fire,
Speaker 2: and even it couldn't be dealt with, let's say it
Speaker 2: would have made an impact on the fire.
Speaker 1: Not that it would have stopped it, but let's say
Speaker 1: would have made an impact.
Speaker 2: Well, there's no city in the world that can sustain
Speaker 2: that much water being needed and used for that period
Speaker 2: of time. That's what firefighters and water experts were saying
Speaker 2: and explaining. Not that it matters because the lawsuits have
Speaker 2: already filed, especially against PG and E, because they may
Speaker 2: have started the fire with a power pole, a transmission
Speaker 2: line hitting vegetation under those transmission poles could be don't
Speaker 2: know yet, probably, but that doesn't mean that the fire
Speaker 2: could have been put out.
Speaker 1: Because this thing started, well, we knew.
Speaker 2: We knew because National Weather Service was telling us that
Speaker 2: we are looking at a cataclysmic event coming up, a
Speaker 2: life threatening event with the winds, and if the fire
Speaker 2: is going to start, and it always does someplace, look
Speaker 2: at massive damage and loss of life.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were warning us.
Speaker 2: They even warned Karen Bass when she was in Africa,
Speaker 2: of which she promised during a campaign she would not
Speaker 2: leave Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: And of course there was the politics of it there,
Speaker 1: not that it would have changed anything.
Speaker 2: By the way, as far as Karen Bass is concerned,
Speaker 2: what the hell could she have done if she were
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles?
Speaker 1: Just the optics of.
Speaker 2: Her not being here. And anyway, that's the political part.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the other political part, and that is
Speaker 2: the amount of water that was released from northern California
Speaker 2: and this was upon the order of President Trump. And
Speaker 2: what happened and what didn't happen and how that was
Speaker 2: pure one hundred percent politics, having nothing at all to
Speaker 2: do with the fire, although it was portrayed that it did.
Speaker 2: This is a segment as to what happened during the fires,
Speaker 2: the Eating Fire, the Palisades Fire, Malibu, and what ended
Speaker 2: up happening was, of course, there was a lack of water.
Speaker 2: There wasn't enough water pressure in the Palisades fire particularly,
Speaker 2: and that.
Speaker 1: Reservoir was empty.
Speaker 2: And so what the President did is ordered water to
Speaker 2: be released from northern California into southern California as some
Speaker 2: kind of aid to the firefighting.
Speaker 1: And the government was told it's going to do nothing.
Speaker 2: That water is not going to go to the Palisades,
Speaker 2: it is not going to Altadena.
Speaker 1: It's just going to be released. That's it.
Speaker 2: But the politics, oh my god, where the politics absolutely terrific.
Speaker 2: The President said, I have released the water. I have
Speaker 2: helped the situation, even though you know the water was not.
Speaker 2: So here's what he did did not help, Okay, he
Speaker 2: calls for the federal government to maximize water deliveries in
Speaker 2: California and during the course of the fire. And there's
Speaker 2: a memo that just been released by the government and
Speaker 2: shows how the Army Corps engineers responded, because the Army
Speaker 2: Corps engineers were responsible for this, so they went ahead
Speaker 2: and and they emptied two dams to carry out the water.
Speaker 1: Even though officials knew the water couldn't be moved out
Speaker 1: of the Central Valley as he wished. They released the.
Speaker 2: Water anyway by releasing the dams and downflow the water.
Speaker 2: There's only one bit of good news about that that
Speaker 2: I'll share with you in a minute. So the water,
Speaker 2: and this is water that is held to be used
Speaker 2: during the summer months for irrigation where it's hotter than
Speaker 2: hell in the Central Valley, and he ordered it released
Speaker 2: and flowing down southern California, not to the Palis Aes
Speaker 2: area or Altadena area. Remember that's those two are not connected.
Speaker 2: And he said, I release the water. It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2: This is what I have done. I'm paraphrasing, but those
Speaker 2: are his quotes. And it's the Army Corps engineer that.
Speaker 1: Had to do it.
Speaker 2: And they did, even though the water managers of the
Speaker 2: various water districts saying what are you doing? This is
Speaker 2: going to do nothing except release the water so there
Speaker 2: won't be water for the summertime for the Central Valley.
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody involved. We're told you can't do it,
Speaker 2: you shouldn't do it. And the Army Corps of Engineers,
Speaker 2: according to this memo, responded saying, this is a presidential order.
Speaker 2: The president says, we release the water. We release the water, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, the president does have the authority. No
Speaker 2: one's saying that he didn't have the authority to do this.
Speaker 2: It's just did it make sense? Absolutely not. Was it
Speaker 2: a political issue? Absolutely now. Was the water wasted? Here's
Speaker 2: the one bit of good news.
Speaker 1: The water did not go to anything that it was
Speaker 1: intended to do. Nothing.
Speaker 2: It was a political move. So the president could say,
Speaker 2: look what I did. I made the water flow. Where
Speaker 2: the water went was it went, It was absorbed by
Speaker 2: the ground, and it filled up the aquifer.
Speaker 1: Helped our aquifer.
Speaker 2: Underneath southern California, which is a good thing. The water
Speaker 2: was not wasted, it was not thrown away. It did
Speaker 2: some good. Now that it do more harm than good. Probably,
Speaker 2: We'll see what happens this summer and how droughty the
Speaker 2: drought is going to be, and if we hit very
Speaker 2: drowdy droughts, if we're into droughdiosity in a major way.
Speaker 2: That water well, it could have, would have should have
Speaker 2: been used. We'll find out. Okay, there there it is.
Speaker 1: Let me see if I have the quote here. This
Speaker 1: is a story out of the La Times. Where was it?
Speaker 1: What he said?
Speaker 2: Um? I had the quote, and there we go.
Speaker 1: There we go. Okay, I can't find it. Excellent.
Speaker 2: This is a show that is so well planned, and
Speaker 2: I have such control of these topics. It's extraordinary.
Speaker 1: Coming out is well planned. Yeah, you're right. I take
Speaker 1: that back.
Speaker 2: Okay, I will rephrase that it is well planned. It
Speaker 2: is not particularly well executed coming up foody front.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Does someone just say something? Yeah, I said,
Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 2: This is KFI A M sixty. You've been listening to
Speaker 2: the Bill Handle Show. Catch my Show Monday through Friday,
Speaker 2: six am to nine am, and anytime on demand on
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