Do you want to be an American idiot?
All right, here we go on it's Tuesday morning, slowey, seven hundred w and in a cold one at that's also Veterans Day twenty twenty five. Thank you for all of you who have served our country. More on that a little bit later on. It looks like Congress may be actually getting off their butts and moving forward. Here could pass a funding passage this week and ending. And once that happens, by the way, Trump should sign it, and that will end the longest government shutdown in our
nation's history. In the history of America, we have never been shut down this long. We're seeing. Of course the snap benefits also flight delays and cancelations are part of this thing. It's going to take a while for that to get back together. But on this is Representative Greg Landsman, who also is sitting on his hands right now in his house. Greg, how are you.
I'm about to go to DC, but yes, I'm down.
Good, are you?
I'm fine?
Veteran?
Yes, And thank you to all those who've served, by the.
Way, yeah, everyone, everyone who's listened, who's served, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I was in the service. I'm a Navy veteran. Yeah, for twenty twenty four hours. I was in for twenty four hours on a media tour. So I think I get I think I get complimentary ice with my soda today. I believe if I get a pope, I could complimise.
Yeah.
Yeah, well we didn't get invade for that twenty four hours.
Before I go to DC, I'll do a bunch of veterans today events and they're the best. We honor the Veteran of the Year, both for Warren and Hamilton County, and they're just remarkable, remarkable human beings.
Yeah, and so critical to what it is we do here now, and sometimes we was sight of that, like with the shutdown. It seems counterintuitive thinking veterans and talking about the history of this great nation, the successes and challenges we face, and then we're fighting over dumb stuff largely.
But we have eight Senate Democrats, including Schumer, who broke ranks to get this deal done, and it's going to reverse the reductions in force and the where we're allegedly getting a vote on the Affordable Care Act text credits should be coming soon and refund Sam. Maybe the question would be then why now, why is this happening now?
You know, I don't know. I mean, it's not clear why. These folks sort of, I think gave in because you know, at the end of the day, there wasn't real bipartisan negotiations the president. And this is the first time ever in my life I've ever seen a president sort of not participate in something like this. I think the whole thing has been absurd. There should never have been a shutdown.
If if if you're you got a government that's this close right that, you know, it's it's almost an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in both the House and the Senate, even though Republicans have the majority, Like you've got to work together. Everyone has to work together. And it's like it's the American way, like we do.
Better when we work together.
And there's been none of that. And so in the absence of that, a few of these Senate Democrats decided, look, enough enough and we'll get what we can. But you know, they they feel like we gotta do it now, and without the healthcare for peace, I can't abandon thirty two thousand people might diss story too about to see skyrocketing healthcare costs because they didn't extend the affordable care accessidies.
Are you voting an acid?
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I think most of us who have been like fighting this healthcare fight will have to vote against it.
But the fact is is.
Like we're going to be here in the same place. It's money in three months. Like this is not a long term funding bill. This was reopened the government, I mean everyone thankfully, food assistants will go out and all these other things that have been held up. I believe unnecessarily by the administration. They could have provided relief during
this whole thing. But we're going to be back. And the question is is that our Republicans and Democrats are going to work together, you know, And I think in the next round, Democrats need to be crystal clear about what they're focused on, and it should be entirely on the American people and costs and the things that are going to bring costs down, like health care. I believe that from the beginning it should have been reopened to government and extend the subsidies so that people don't see
their healthcare premium skyrocket. That's crystal clear, and that's what they ended up landing. On. But at our last, you know, the eleventh hour, I think Republicans have to you know, sort of buck Trump or push Trump to actually work with Democrats because we need each other and we can't keep doing this.
What would be great, Greg Lansman. I mean, let's face it, Democrats, you guys, you're not making healthcare more affordable. You're making it worse with subsidy because you're giving people taxpayer money to pay outrageously expensive care that doesn't solve the problem money, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it causes prices to go up, just like college subsidies, Like okay, we subsidized college and the price goes up
ten percent a year. But Republicans have been complained about this for ten years and still have no plan or alternative that's better. That's a failure.
Yeah, it's a failure. I mean, there's no question about it. But I believe in this idea that people generally, at the end of the day, want their tax dollars coming back to them, and you know, when they're looking, fewer and fewer people can get health care through their employer. More and more employers are saying, look, go to you know, we can't afford it because health care costs have gone a big time, and a lot of that has to do with how much profit is taken out throughout the system.
And then you know, when you go to the marketplace and you buy your healthcare, which small businesses have to do, farmers or all these folks who are not working for a big company that can afford healthcare, you look at a premium and you're like, Okay, I need a little bit of help. And that's where these subjecties come into play.
And it goes to the insurance companies, which may be a problem, but you know, the fact of the matter is is that these insurance companies are going to continue to raise the cost and until we have real reform. And in the meantime, you're either leaving these folks out to go into medical debt or lose their health care altogether,
which will raise everyone's. Else is the people who are going to leave that lose their healthcare, the healthy ones, because they're going to look at it and they're say, I'm healthy, I can't afford this without any support, without any subsidy, and everyone's healthcare costs are going to go up. I think it was a huge, huge, huge policy and political mistake for them not to include these extensions.
I have no problem with extending this for a limited period of time, but a year or whatever it might be. But there's also got to be a concrete go listen, we have to blow this up and fix the problem. The subsidy. Yeah, I agree with I get why we subsidize it. It makes a problem worse. But simply pulling the carpetif from people is punitive, is what it is. You know, this is them that both sides agreed on for the time being, and so you've got to continue that.
I don't like it any more than anyone else does. I get that. But you simply say we're turning to spick it off, and hey, good luck, because now you're going to flood hospitals, emergency rooms and it's just gonna it's just going to increase the cost of healthcare and
make it worse for everyone involved. Instead of sitting down and solving the problem, going Okay, we're going to stend this for a period of time and we have X amount of days or years, whatever it is, to come up with a solution that's going to bring costs down and take care of people who fall between the cracks, but at the same time make healthcare accessible and bring the cost down like the rest of the world. I know it's a big problem, but we've been talking this
now for generations. I don't know why we can't get together and solve this.
Leadership, right, I mean, ultimately, when we solve big problems, it's because there's been a big time leader, and you know, we don't have that right now. And then this is this is an indictment on both sides, but we just don't have the kind of big time leaders that can get people in a room, and so all these really complicated issues. I spent Saturday in South Lebanon and it was on immigration. It was with a group called Braver Angels.
They pulled together ten Republicans and ten Democrats and they had already spent a day in September working through the immigration issue, and I think it was five hours. They came to what would be really good transformative policy on border security and immigration reform, and you know, it just reminded me, and then we got a chance to talk through it. It reminded me that the American people, the vast majority of people, are somewhere in the middle right seventy
eighty percent of us are somewhere in the middle. We just need the kind of leadership that said, look, I'm not going to I'm not going to be hyperpartisan. I'm actually going to solve this. And so you know, with a big time leader, you could have somebody say, look, I'm going to put people in a room on immigration, I'm going to put people in the room on healthcare, I'm going to put people in a room on costs, and you would see big, big change.
All right, So we're back to this anyway. Representative Greg Landsman on the show, and it looks like we're going to get opening up the government here after the longest shutdown in our history. Democrats like yourself want the shutdown, say we're not going to settle for the promise of a vote, but that's what happened, and one said it's
an awful deal and a total failure too. So are you going to be punished for this by your constituents, so specifically the progressive and Democrats for for what happened here? I don't think so.
I mean, you know, I've been in this fight on the on the healthcare piece, and you know where last majority of folks are which is reopen, extend the you know, extend the subsidies, make sure that people don't see skyrocketing health care costs. And and my position hasn't changed, So you know, I'm going to keep petting for this and and and I think my constituents are there with me. I think they're relieved that the government's going to be opened.
And yeah, at the end of the day, I think they hate the chaos and the I'm the opposite of that, right, Like you know, I'm about as structured and disciplined and reliable as you get.
So my sense is.
That people are and I do. I hear this so much traveling around the district, which I've had the opportunity to do more so because of the shutdown. I've been all over and it's been that part's been great. People are so tired of the hyperpartisan politics, the fact that everyone's yelling at them at each other and not focused on them. They are they're they're underwater. I mean, farmers are panicked in terms of what they're dealing with, small businesses.
Everyone is struggling, not a little bit of pain, but a lot of pain in terms of trying to pay their bills and they look to you know, politics and they're like, well, there's just fighting with each other. This is this is absurd, And you know, I'd stay out of those fights and try desperately to find people to work with. And we had a crew that was working on a you know, a bipartisan solution, but they're just there just wasn't ultimately any interest from the White House and others.
Yeah, and obviously it's two sides of willing to negotiate here, but you mentioned that vast majority of the silent majority in the middle. It doesn't seem like it's getting better. It seems like it's getting worse. And you know, whether it's the healthcare or what's going with the economy, it's our federal dead and we can talk about all those things that it doesn't seem like the needle's moving. It's more about messaging, posturing in our side or their side of winning.
Yeah, totally, that's what I see. That's you know, this has been nice to be sort of away from all that because quite frankly, like you come back here and that's not what people want and it's not what they're talking about. And this is my community of my people I love it, and it's it's a good reminder that
this is this is broken. The whole thing is broken, and uh, you know it's going to require like it is entirely possible that it's gotten so bad that what follows this is some sort of postpartisan you know, crew of leaders who just work right and they're focused entirely on on their constituents, which is the way democracy should work. Whether or not that happens, you know, that is up to us. But I you know, like I do think that's I mean, look, I'm I'm a little bit more optimistic.
I think it's so bad. It's funny that that people are going to say no, Like if you if you're running, do not be one of these partisan hacks. We can't do it anymore.
Yeah, it seems like, you know, moderates aren't necessarily taking things back. I mean, you have a better perspective at than I do. I mean, you're a moderate, but you're few far between. Is a very small coalition.
I'm a pragmatism, somebody who likes to get to work and some things, I'm moderate on some things, I'm progressing on the conservative I feel like I'm where my constituents are and this district and you know, the district is more sort of you know, pragmatic. But if I look at election results and in Virginia and in New Jersey, you know, Mikey Cheryl is a good friend, and Abigail Spamberger is a friend, they are very much like me. They are very much pragmatic folks who focus entirely on issues.
They like solving problems, and they aren't partisan hacks. They one big So I do think if if you know, if both parties allow the folks who you know, who are who represents that big majority, uh, you know, if they let them out of primaries or they can find their way out of a primary, those are the folks that are going to win, whether they're Republicans or Democrats like they just you know, if you if you if you decide that you're going to you know, cater to
the far lefter the far right, you may win a primary, but that's just not going to get the country anywhere.
Yeah.
But again it's the rules of engagement written by the Democrats and Republicans. I'm going to look at redistricting here in Ohio on how you're bearing the part of that right now, it's going to be hard for you. But I can also point to California and what they're doing there. Yeah, it's all awful.
I mean, I on the California piece, like, I understand why they're doing it, but I don't understand why they're celebrating it. Partisan jerry mandering is one of the worst things that has ever happened to our democracy. And then that's not hyperbolic. It takes away, you know, the power of voters. You know, in these instances where you do partisan jerrymandering, where they do it, the decision is made
before people even get their valid and it's terrible. So you know, Congress has to pass and this is going to require I think those of us who are so passionate about it to start organizing and be louder about it and get people engaged in this pass an anti
partisan jerry mandering bill to protect the democracy. You know, both Republicans and Democrats have to stop doing it and return power back to people because the reason why things are so bad economically is because we've lost so much of our power and the folks at the top can can rig it, and they've rigged it. They've rigged it for themselves and they're making money hand over fi at our expense. You know, just one you know example, because I was out in Warren County and talking to farmers
this week and or last week. These huge megafarms. They have all this private capital, they get all this money, and they're just that plus the tariffs, they're just taking it out on our farmers. I mean, it's this is this is a real crisis for farmers.
Yeah.
But I mean it's not like we're cutting off you know, we're a lot more productive when it comes to farm line where they're just a generation to go. I mean, and that's that's a separate discussion entirely. And you know, we're moving more towards AI and we need to put those things in for sure. I don't want to get off in the weeds here because we're talking about the government reopening and healthcare and how that all fits into
the thing. And we're just going to do this again in three months, right, it's a few weeks from now, Are we going to have another shutdown? And if I were looking at and go yeah, probably.
Yeah, unless unless unless the disposition of the White House changes. I mean, I you know, I know this skills or sounds potentially part of some. But I would say this if it was a Democrat and the Democrat in the White House wasn't negotiating. The President of the United States has to engage. They have to engage. They are the they are the person in charge. They have to bring people together. And again, this deal would have been done,
you know, within a matter of days. There should never have been a shutdown.
You know.
You know, my understanding is that when they went in there and they had this one conversation with Trump about it, he was supportive of of the healthcare supports and understood that they needed to get past It was Johnson who said, well wait a minute, because you didn't have the votes you know, on his side. But he you know, if you rely entirely on partisan votes, you're not going to get a good result.
You're going to get this.
You're going to get this.
It's chaos. Yeah, and we're just gonna I think we're gonna have more of it in just a few short months again. But you know, for the for the short term, make sure people are whole. Let's keep it the way it is. I don't like having to pay more for it, but this doesn't do anything. Actually, what we just did with the shutdown makes government even more expensive because we're borrowing more money and we're going to do that with
healthcare subsidies or just transferrents of wealth. I'd rather it be that we have some sort of health I don't know what it's going to look like in the future. I'm more libertarian, Greg, I think that the free market can solve this if government backs off, put some roadblocks in and rules for everybody, and especially this day and age when people are helding multiple jobs. It's the gig economy. It makes no sense to till your employment benefits to
your workplace. Most Americans get it through their workplace, but that's a dwindling number. The big companies can afford it. The bulk the bulk of business in America small business and like my wife, we're small business people. We don't pay benefits. We can't afford that. And if we're going to have a portable gig economy, these things have to work together. Greg Landsman, Representative, Now get back to DC and do something about it. All right, take care, thanks again,
be well saved. Travel's got to get a time out in and uh, remembering our veterans today with Honor Flight. By the way, Honor Flight turning twenty years old, twenty years old, and it was there's a chakra for you. It started right here in the Tri State details coming up next to the Scott flund Show seven hundred WOW Scott plumb Out seven hundred WLW on the eleventh day of November twenty to twenty ft. Also, it is Veterans Day, and of course a lot of you know, places are
doing things, well we should. A lot of places are doing things for veterans. I know, the Casino's got free food for veterans this afternoon, a bunch of other places as well. Just google it, our check seven hundred ww dot com got more on that one. One of the things we do for veterans. This is a really really
cool thing that started just twenty years ago. On Or Flight, the nonprofit organization that provides free trips to d c for military veterans to visit the memorials dedicated to their service. And I mentioned it's been gone for twenty years, so the twentieth anniversary is today. That organization in the Tri
State and Dayton and on. This is Adam Arrow is a news director at ABC twenty two in Dayton twenty four to seven now and he's got a piece that's running on about four stations for markets in the Buckeye State as well, including here in Cincinnati. Adam, welcome back.
How you been, Hey, doing well, Scott? Thanks a lot for having me. This is a wonderful program. It's that we've been able to highly invest in over the last during my time over the last ten years.
Yeah, it really is cool and it came on to its own as I said in two thousand and five, and you may have heard about it too, But these are and these the trips are it's a one day trip to d C. Veterans get to go to the memorials and they're taken by either loved one or a volunteer guardian who system throughout the day and then they fly back and it's really really cool. What do you know what memorial say?
Is it?
They visit most of them. So we've had an opportunity to go on three of these trips. They'll go to the US Marine Corps Memorial, to go to the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Korea War Memorial, and the World War Two Memorial. This all started Scott in Springfield back in two thousand and five. A man by the Earl Morse was a physician assistant over at the Springfield DA And it was right after the World War Two Memorial
was built in DC. It built two thousand and four, and he was speaking with some of the World War Two vets and trying he said, hey, guys, he decided to go to your memorial now that it's finally built, and it's like, well, we don't think we can make it, you know, for age or monetary reasons. So that really frustrated him. And he had belonged to an aero club over at Right Path and so that's the Air Force
base here up in Dayton. And he started talking to somebody these of their small pilots and they just decided, you know what, we're going to fly them ourselves. And so six pilots took off in two thousand and five and took a handful of these World War Two veterans to DC and it just snowball from there. It inspired a movement across the country. Now there's one hundred and twenty eight I believe hubs across the country, including Cincinnati.
Yeah, that is incredible and it started right in Springfield in two thousand and five because someone said, hey, how come we can't get these guys and women to see what it is we built for them. And yeah, it makes sense in retrospect that you know, you should be able to see the memorial you help craft, absolutely, and
it continues to grow as well. You mentioned there's over one hundred and twenty nationwide, and I think other cities just continue to get on and say, hey, this is something we need to do well.
And especially it's a ball of too right because there's you know, unfortunately there's not as many World War Two vets with us anymore, so it's evolved into mostly Vietnam and some Korea. Thats taking the DC And for these Vietnam guys, I mean, you know, they were craped on when they came back, the majority of them were, and they didn't get that welcome home. Many of them hid, you know, who they were and what they did, and
they don't talk about their service. And then they get an opportunity to go on this honor flight and it's very cathartic for many of them, and they get that welcome home when they come back to the airport and everyone's cheering for them and telling them thank you, and throughout the trips they're getting the sixty kind of treatment while they're in DC, and it just means the world to these guys. And you can see it in their faces.
You see the gears, you see the hugs. You know, when you get to that wall, especially in the Vietnam Wall, it's one of the most powerful experiences, you know, that I've experienced as a civilian. You know, I don't have a military background, but seeing these guys and the weight that it lifts off their shoulders, it's truly remarkable.
He's Adam Arrow, ABC twenty two and Dayton twenty four to seven now has a store that's running in four markets, including Sincy. Regarding today the twentieth anniversary on this Veterans Day of Honor Flight that takes our veterans to DC for a one day trip, It's long day for these guys, isn't it.
It is a long day.
You know.
We went on the trip for Honor Flight Dayton back in September, which was really exciting because they for the first time they took military aircraft. They two sea some teens on the right pad and they took one hundred and fifty six vets to DC, which was the first time they've done that in the program's history. They typically will take commercial airliners to try to maximize how many
vets they can take on the trip. So that was kind of the catalyst to doing a special tonight, which is a half hour special, and we're going to re air that story that we did. It's a long form story, and then we talked to Earl Earl Morris, who founded on a Flight, and we did a story with him
just talking about the genesis of the program. And then we also include a second trip that we took in twenty twenty two, which was the first trip that Honor Flight Dayton had taken coming out of the pandemic, and so that was highly emotionally charged because you had a lot of vets that weren't able to go because the program had to be shut down for a couple of years. So all in all, I mean, it's a thirty minutes of a couple of trips and just the history of this great program.
Adam Ara on how's the funding. It seems like we've got enough corporate sponsors and backers to keep this thing going, and that's true in here in Cincinnati.
What about Dave, Yeah, it's the same thing, right, It's all donations, you know, these Honor Flight boards, they they all volunteer their time. They go out and solicit sponsorships and donations. And because you know, reserving a commercial airliner is not cheap, right, I mean it's it's you know, one hundred thousand dollars, you know, just to do that. So they, thankfully it's an easy program to get behind.
So there's been a lot of great businesses throughout the tri state and across the country that have financially backed this program to get these vets on these trips because you know, some of them will put it off and they won't go. And really the push right now is to get as many of these guys and men and women on these trips as possible because it truly does make a big difference in their lives.
Yeah.
In fact, I'll tell you, I'll tell you one story. We had a guy on our trip in twenty twenty two who went and he passed away before the story aired, but I found out from his family that he was buried in his Honor flight. Sure, I mean, that's the kind of power that these trips have on these guys. And he's not unique to that. There's been many, many cases of that.
So yeah, it's nice to have some respect. But I think it's closure for a lot of these guys, well, especially the Vietnam era vets that that get to go see that memorial, that have those memories. But that's also true of Korean War and World War Two vets, which of course that that generation is tapping out, so to speak. And I know they prioritize these flights, so if you are the older, you are the you know, for example, World War Two veterans get top priority. Correct.
Yeah, yeah, they'll they'll go out of their way to make it work. And I can't emphasize it enough. There's hubs all across Ohio. Just google Honor Flight Ohio and you'll find a hub near you and you can get on one of these trips, apply and go because it is it is one of the most incredible experiences. I can't speak enough about the people behind the program and how much work they put in.
I don't know if you covered this in the piece, Adam, but they do flightless Honor Flight. Now for those veterans who are unable to.
Travel flightless You mean the RV trips.
Yeah, they call them flightless honor flights and for those who physically can't make the trip to DC anymore.
Yeah, and that that is a neat part of it. There's also the Honoring Yesterday's Hero program, which is where they take photos of the families better and take them to DC and take a photograph of that photo with an American flag at the memorial representing the conflict that they served in. So they did they go, They really go out of their way to try to honor these these men and women in every way possible.
Yeah. Talk about how the guardian process works too, because not all vets are bringing someone with them, especially the older ones that have lost people around them. And so you can also volunteer to become one of those guardians.
Yeah. So one of the things when they first started the program was e Remorse made it a point. He said, look, rule number one, they're not going to pay. And rule number two, when you fly these guys out, you're going to stay with them all day. You're not going to wander off to go do something else. And so you can volunteer and you can have family members they don't do spouses because they want it to be a much
more focused trips. But you know, I've seen granddaughters or grandsons, you know, be a guardian for their for their grandparents, or a son or daughter. In fact, we talked to a son and daughter, a father and daughter pairing on our last trip that we went in September, and it's just a remarkable experience. And to be able to see it just from a from their perspective, and to be with them all day, it's just it's amazing to say the least.
Yeah, it is pretty cool. You also volunteer, as they said, and there's a cost to you to do that, but I mean, to get to see that up close and that personal on the day is is it's enriching for everyone, but you're also helping out of that and having that story come to a conclusion their service for our country.
And this also includes not just war veterans too, but I know the terminally ill veterans from any area are eligible here provided you know that it's based on age sixty five and older, and the older you are, the more prioror you get for obvious reasons, but even terminally ill veterans get a chance to go to this.
Well they do, and you know some of these that's you know, they they're so humble and they feel bad, like, well, I didn't serve in the actual conflict, but I served during the conflict, right Like I wasn't in a battle or anything. But you know that doesn't matter. You served your country and that's what that's what it comes down to, and that's what these trips are designed for. You don't you don't have to have served in a in a
battle or you know any of that stuff. If you're serve, if you served your country, I mean, that's that's who that's what they're looking for to take on these trips.
All right. So sure, So if you're in Dayton, this is on when.
The Dayton Specialty. So that half hour special airs on ABC twenty two tonight at seven and then it airs on Fox at ten thirty tonight. So and in Cincinnati it air is at ten this morning on Star sixty four. So it's also wearing a Toledo and Columbus as well.
Okay, good, So if you're hearing this and you want to check that out or go to a date in twenty four to seven now and you can watch it on demand, i'd imagine as well. Adam Arrow, news director up there, thanks again for jumping on this morning. And it's an important story and an important day, so I'm
glad we're getting the word out about this. And if you're looking to volunteer or maybe make a donation and get involved, you can reach out to a Honor Flight, which was created right in Springfield, so right here in our community. Thanks again, but I appreciate it.
Thanks God, I appreciate your time.
Take care. Yeah. Also, on this Veterans Day twenty twenty five, we have all sorts of freebies out there for you because plenty of people want to pick up the cost of at least breakfast, late breakfast or lunch today, if not dinner. Well, Gay, I got that naxt I'll share it with you right after this. On seven hundred WLW all right, on this Veterans Day, Hard Rock Casino for veterans of course, free launch new to four that's inside the cafe, and they're going to make a donation DAV
to support veterans year round, which is nice. Also, I'll see here I hop they're doing free red, white and Blue pancakes or pancake combo. Applebee's you get a free meal, Bob Evans Chili's, Buffalo Wild Wings get a friend free ten piece bonus wing and fries purchased been in locations. That's a good deal. And Texas Roadhouse, you get a voucher for a free meal. They're gonna hand that out today and you got to use them by the end of May of next year. There you go. You got
it all. So and probably many more didn't have a chance to mention as well too, but you know what, you earned it. Go get it, enjoy yourself, eat free all day pretty much. I'd say, what if they say veterans going around just you know today as the day is, I'm wearing I'm wearing stretch pants and I'm hitting all those spots. So I'm doing all five of those today. You go get it, go after it, go on, get you some, get you some. And for those of us who didn't serve, I would say, in the mortal words
of SEG. Dennison, the three words you need to know are nick rib. Okay, that's that three words. Thank you. The McRib is back, and that's a deal for all Americans. I think that's appropriate that on this Veterans Day, when we celebrate America and those who served our country at times of peace and times of war, but mainly just all veterans, that the symbols of this country. Maybe not the flag of the United States, the Constitution, the capital, all that stuff, it's the fact that the McRib is
back today. That is the that's American af right there, By the way, we're bringing the mcgrib back on Veterans Day. Perfect, perfect, that is the truly the symbolism of this great nation. Home of the best Bengals coverage seven hundred ww Cincinnati.
Do you want to be an American?
Scott blown back on seven hundred WWT first snowfall yesterday. But if you're in the city of Cincinnati and you went to the new and highly publicized snowplow tracker website, it was not working. Wasn't up. Why Well, he's I would call him mister Plow. He just ran a very successful re election campaign and he won. That'd be council Member Seth Walsh. Congratulations. By the way, I'm glad you got your seat back or retain your seat. I guess I should say thanks, Scott.
I appreciate it.
This morning.
Yeah, you too. We talked a lot about transportation. I saw your you know, your campaign ads featured snow removal issues. It's one of the big big things for people. Obviously they felt made that connection, being November and all that.
So let's go back to this now. We know the headaches and heartbreak we had this time last year, or maybe a little bit later earlier than last year, but two weeks ago the city I think it was two weeks ago, we had this, you know, this whole crowdsourcing thing, and we're having a contest to come up with a
better way to get the information about plows working. And we've got these investments and we've instructed all the plow drivers and workers how to use these tablets and we put them in the plows and you can see if it's coming down your road or where they are, and if you if they're missing you, you can somehow send a message back to central Command, the High Command. We'll get a plowed to you. We'll get your plowed out. We did all this, it snowed yesterday and it wasn't on Why.
Well, I think some bl answer Scott is there weren't snowplows out there yesterday. The ground was pretty warm, so snow wasn't sticking. They did a lot of pre treatment for the streets and you know, it resulted in pretty safe, clean streets very quickly yesterday. But I think there's a fair there's a fair question there. You know, why why are we not including when we're pre treating the streets, so you know your streets getting pretreated. There's a lot
of information. I think people love to know that we're not quite there yet. But yesterday some blansters just there weren't clouds out there because the weather was taking care of it for us.
Yeah, I think typically, and it's I think it's an important point is that we weren't plowing. But certainly you know where I lived and coming from Warren County to Hamlin County, the roads were well, they were in need of some some treatment for sure. You know, maybe not plowing technically, but I think when you're a constituent, when you're a voter, when you're taxpayer homeowner, you look at it going. I don't care plowing or just treating. I just want to know you guys are doing your job.
I just want to know you're out there tackling the problem, and I go log on the site that you guys pouted the hell out of and it's saying, Wow, there's nothing to see here. Forget it. I go here we go again with the communication. I think that's I don't think that's an unfair analysis of this.
No, No, it's not unfair at all. And I talked about city communication all the time. I think it's the only thing we know about each other at this stage. But yesterday was the first day that really builded two debut things I think we needed. Let me back it up. We actually got a briefing yesterday that was coincidentally prepared before the snow is planned. And one of the things they talked about was there a forty four major areas of failures that we had in this last snow emergency
right back in January. I think a lot of people like to try to downplay and say, well, was ten inches of snow, what did you expect us to do? And the answer is how it? And the reality is like, there was a lot of reasons why we couldn't get it resolved, and there are forty four major areas to resolve it. They have been working incredibly diligently and you know that I'm not wont to hold back a criticism.
So I hope this comes across genuinely here because they have worked very diligently to get the entire operation scrapped and rebuilt since January, including bringing to a new director of Public Services who has just impressed me a snow end. Yesterday they debuted it, and I think, like many things of the city, we just missed the market on how we can do the pr I think we forget that people want to play with the new shiny things just
as much as we want to debut them. And so yesterday, you know, it snows and you're like, where's the snowpod tracker? It was a design for this, and so there's a lot of disappointment, including myself initially, and I asked the briefing, like, why aren't we showing off the snowpops, like because there's not snowflops, and they're like, oh, that makes sense. But I do think that there was a lot more we
could do in the communications. I think there's more we could do to showcase what we're doing to get people out there and have you ride along in the snow, possibly like here's how it's dramatically different because it is, and there's still a lot more work we have to do, right, let's not sugarcoat it. There's a lot of work that had to go to the rebuildings entire operation.
Yeah, I so were you treating streets at all yesterday during the event or was it just a pre treat and hey, it's going to melt anyway?
To my understanding was we did a lot of pre treatment. There were some areas that we were getting reports on that we were getting out there and doing treatment on. But within the city limits, it sounded like they had it pretty well under control and that the pretreatment did its job. One of the things that I don't think they've talked about that, and it sounds insane, but these guys actually went out to cities I experienced massive snowfall, Denver being the most recent one. How do you guys
handle this? And they took those lessons they came back and to used it to get ready yesterday and you know, short of a few car accidents that that I've heard about, which you know, I think is on all of us to make sure we're driving safe and snow weather. I'm from Michigan or from Buffalo. We know what this is like. Yep. It sounds like things actually worked pretty smoothly yesterday in terms of the actual road condition.
And that's the hardest parte. I guess that's my point. It's the lack of communication. It's getting the ball to the goal line and fumbling. And I look at this way. For example, our peers around this Louisville, Kentucky Transportation canbiet cabinet O Dott Warren County, Butler County. They're active on social media saying hey, we're treating the road street. I was looking through this morning school and so the only
thing on there was come and meet. I think a police dog was the only text or the only social message from a post from the city. At the very least, you know, communicate that on social and say, hey, listen, we only turn the app on when we are plowing streets, not pre treating streets. And then people go, oh, okay, yeah that makes sense. But to leave people hanging like that is that's just incompetent, isn't it.
You know, it's frustrating. I think it's frustrating, and I think it's part of a culture mindset that I'm personally trying to get shifted to the city hall, which is they try to solve the problems. They don't necessarily communicate how they solve the problem. And that's what we saw yesterday. Hey, the problems solved, So no, we knows the problem solved. Worried about why the snowpout tract and you did.
All this hype about the app and so people are naturally going to go, oh, I'll see why you know what's going on with And it's like, wait, it's down and it feels like you failed when actually everything worked.
Right.
You know, there's nothing worse than turning in your paper, but the professor loses it. So you're like, well you didn't. You didn't do the work in the first place. Right, Ultimately, we have to get better if you are as a city. I keep saying this over and over again to you. I've said it to them personally. I had them on their offices yesterday as the snow's coming down, and I was like, why are we not showing everybody what we're doing because we've put in a lot of work, we
were ready for this. We've knocked it out of the ballpark. I think you'd be blown away. If you meet Mark, you know, when you get a chance to get him audio to talk about the work he does for public services, to make sure that we are ready. But then when you're right, when we missed the lowest the lay ups to say, hey, it's the first snowfall of the years, let's see where the free treatments are. How do you know what are we doing. Let's show you with our
snowpous look like. Let's show you what the tracker looks like. We did hype it up a lot. We weren't ready to show off shiny new toys. How lets people play with them? And I think we can do better at that. Yeah, but I also think that that's a pr issue and the real problem of making sure people get safely to it from work. We actually did great on it, and the only complaint you've had so far was take County Warren County, which I'm gonna take the rare moment to
deal say. It wasn't the city Cincinnati that failed on that part.
Yeah it was. I mean, it wasn't a horrific event by any means. It was a little bit of snow yesterday, but a good test I think for the system and it seems like, you know, and I think it's also unfair all the people you mentioned Seth is like everyone will blame them and go, well, you guys screwed this up. No, we did our jobs. It was just a lack of communication. And it hasn't been easier. It's never been easier in
our lifetime. Is only going to get easier to get this information through social even a social media, hell, even on the web page itself, put say hey, listen, we pre treated the roads. Here's what if you're looking for plows, here's why at least explain it to be we're going to that website. And I think that is also so quite honestly a systemic problem for the city because it's not just this which is relatively minor. Let's face it, I'm trying to make a big deal out of something minor.
But I think it's also emblematic the whole problem is is I mean, look at the police department, lack of communication from the Mayor's office when it came to Chief Fiji and the crime and only recognizing the good things and the appearance that aftabs only there for ribbon cuttings and the like. Ni he won re election handily, there's no debating that. But the problem has always been communication with the City of Cincinnati, and I just don't know why we're so bad at it.
I wish I had an answer on that, And again, I think it's a cultural issue. I think it's part of the form of government that we have. There's an expectation, I think from the citizenry that the answers come from the politicians, and so the administrative side has taken the philosophy of like, we're going to get the problems solved, all of the politicians to be the politicians and go do the marketing APR well, with all due respect, I
mean economic development guys. I'm not a PR guy. I'm not a guy who know how to put you know. I can find really hilarious means on Instagram them and
so I think that's where the disconnect is. And I think part of the job of the politicians and conversations that you and I are having here and that I had yesterday, is to say to the administration, like, the job's not done if you're not communicating it to the public, because you have an equal responsibility to the public to tell them what you've done to showcase it and frankly, be proud of the work you did, because in this case, you know this is literally and you have a listener
that has sent me a letter almost every time I have come on here about the sell plops the situation, saying, Julius will never solve this problem because for fifty plus years we haven't solved the problem. Scott then keep presenting like we solved it, but we haven't solved it. And this time they've put in a lot of time and effort, and and I've seen the work that they put into it. Let's go, let's go showcase it. Let's go show it off and brag about it. Let's let's let you see
how much we fre treated the streets. Let's just let you see how we change the beat tooth that we're using to be able to make sure that we're actually aggresed up on it so that yesterday it doesn't go across. And all we're complaining about is the snowpile tractor wasn't on and working, and we they communicate about that. Right, that's actually a win, but it's not framed as a win because we're not doing a good job of talking about it and we have to continue to push the administration.
We have to continue to push the city to have that expectation that there are a lot of cities that are doing a really great job on how they communicate their work and their success, which makes people feel more confident city, because right now we have to recognize that for decades we have failed in some of these areas, and now we have to earn your trust back. It's not just about saying like trust me on stuff walls, right, It's about saying trust me, and by the way, go look at yourself.
And the thing is too you know, it's a young, vibrant, democratic led city and so you've got a lot of young people in this administration, and that seems like an easy thing to fix relative to you know, get a and maybe not an influencer per se, but someone who is knowledgeable in social media and have them putting videos together, put it out on social You know, how we're changing the beach juice recipe and all that. That seems relativelyazy, and I know other cities do it.
Yeah, I mean I would think so too. Again, I'm not a pr expert, so I don't want to be over here saying exactly how it is. But I agree and I'm just as frustrated that we don't do a better job at our victory left. And I hope the message that they hear here is we want to celebrate you.
People want to talk about it. If people want to feel to talk about what's actually positively happened in the city, you get the absence of talking about the positive things that we do because we just expect you're going to pick it up. You're only going to talk about the negative things. And when the negative things happen, it feels like that's all that's happening in the City of Cincinnati. That's not the case. We have a lot of things that we should be very proud of, but we should
be talking about them outside of the month. Leave us to an election, because we do some really great work at the City of Cincinnati. There are great people that are dedicating their lives to it. Let's talk about it, let's celebrate it, and we don't do a good job on that.
You need to be more.
We need to be more like Trump for God takes and break your arm, pant yourself on your back.
That's that's one way to do it. I mean again, I don't even run my social media. So I'm really not wanting to criticize it too.
Hard on this too much, you know, but there is.
A point to say. You know, again, we literally had the snowfall yesterday. This is this is an easy way up to celebrate earlier it is. I'm glad to get the chance to talk about it, but I wish that we did more to celebrate.
Wait, we had some calls in our newsroom about it, and it wasn't about the streetsman, It's like, why isn't the snowplot tracker working? And people were more mad about the lack of communication. That was because the streets were relatively okay. They weren't like, you know, people couldn't get up the cut in the hill, you know, the typical things we've seen and we get a lot of snow.
It was more like, you guys, you touted this thing, you spent the money, you did the whole contest for it, and then it's a nothing burger when we actually had a little snow. I think people just wanted to see it. To your point, and on the communication thing, I'll point this out too, is and this is just another example of okay, so interim chief. Henny is the interim chief. We're going to get a new public information officer for CPD,
which I think is needed. Uh, They're had full time squat officers, all watches there, the crime center hours have been extended, and all these other things that Henny's doing. But back to this, he's the interim chief or is he the actual chief at this point? I mean interims generally hold on and not don't do anything until someone else comes in and officially becomes chief and they put their stamp on it. If Terry Thigi is still the chief technically, why is he making all these changes again?
Communication, Yes, I mean very much so. I think that's a unique situation. I figured he pop on my office yesterday talking about this one of your colleagues, Scott. But I do think that's a unique situation in the sense that interim Chief Heny has inherited a situation where we have a public safety crisis that we've been trying to get our hands wrapped around. I think the worst thing we could do is just put it in rom in
there and not try what their ideas are. And he has great support from the police Department, so I have great confidence ideas he's putting forward or their suggestions for how they can solve this. But to your point, we
do need to communicate that way. We need to have the press for a while, we need to have the introduction to the community, because as a minimum for the contract, the investigation is going to go to the end of this year, so he's going to be the inner in police chief for at least two months, and that is
not an instant insignificant amount of time. They're very busy period in Cincinnati, Like, yeah, how do we do better at communicating and making sure people feel comfortable with him, whether that's just the short term or long term, and make sure they're comfortable with the decisions he's making. I do think you're spot on. A lot of the problems that we experienced this summer could have maybe been a
little bit more mitigated if we communicated better. And I've said that that's why one of the reasons I come on here. Yeah, we just have to keep challenging it to say, hey, we can do better on that. Because we challenged the snow situations, we said we could do better on that, and look, they did better on that. And as I said to you last week, my job is that you guys never even know my name because things are going so smoothly and so yesterday, I think
things went smoothly enough that we're complaining about communication. That's a great problem to have.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, I guess I get what you're saying is, hey, the plows aren't running and so, but if you're treating streets, you put a you know, the plows that had the assault on them. Because actually, for a minute it was they were on and we were watching it early on in the morning and said, okay, there's only two streets that I don't know. It was like seven o'clock that had been done, and then you switched it off, and I went, wow, wonder for that
having problems with the system or I couldn't put it together. Now, what you're saying makes sense because if you had two trucks out there that were just assulting the trouble spots, that now makes sense in retrospect. But if I'm a taxpayer, if I'm a property or you know, citizen of Cincinnati, I look at it and go, what the hell are
they doing here? Just like the breakdown and communication, we just need to I know, we've been talking about doing better, But it seems like with the police department getting a new public information officer, it seems like the city needs a little bit more that someone to handle the communications. And maybe it's a departmental thing. Maybe streets and bridges and the street department needs someone to handle all that's
up on social media. Not that we want to spend more money, but communication's key, and it really undermines all the hard work that behind the scenes that the city's been doing stuff well well.
I mean, we have a small but mighty team handling communications at the City of Cincinnati, and I don't think it s fie overlooked is that they are putting entriagy in a lot of situations constantly. And so I think, again, communications, you know, there's a strategy to it some of it. You know, you can choose one way and then you're always wrong and should go the other way. I think what we're talking about here is, you know, how do we get strategic about some of these victories and talk
and talk that way. And part of that is, let's just you know, we just have to encourage them like that. The area that I think would be very helpful to be engaged in that doesn't mean that they're not doing a good job, but they are a small but mighty team here. To your point, we're not spending a lot of money on communications in the city. Maybe we need to beat that up. Maybe that is a conversation we need to have. But those who are working on it deserve the kudos for putting on a lot of fires
constantly throughout the day. There's a lot of Scott clones in the city trying to get information from the city.
Yeah. Yeah, I'll leave it at that. He is a council member of a real exs Seth Walsh on the Scott Sloane Show on seven hundred ww aka mister plow and mister Development. It was good to have you back. But I'm glad you I'm glad you won your seat.
Well, I appreciate it, Scott, thank you too, late, all right.
Appreciate it. Thanks so much. Hopefully got some answers there. And uh, you know, I didn't drive in the city yesterday, but maybe you did. And how did they do? By the way, if you're a you're driving in the city yesterday compared to maybe years past. Granted to say, very small sample sizing, a little bit of snow, But how did it all work outside of the snowplow Tracker app five one, three, seven four nine, seven thousand eight or the Big one talk back on the iHeart Radio app.
We'll do that next right after news on seven hundred WW Scott's floan, I'm his veterans Dave. Thanks to you if you served. I've just had Seth Walsh on Counselman talking about the snowplot. It was it's not controversial or anything like that, like here we go again. It's more like,
you know, unforced errors. We went to this whole thing a year ago with the bridge fire and the lack of communication with traffic and transported surface you couldn't get people out there directing traffic for a little bit, to get people out of parking garages and surface lots so they could get home in less than two or three hours. And they just simply it was it was ignored because it was inconvenience and I don't know was it on
their radar? Okay, you know, I think this story was that they were still lamenting the election loss by the way, which I don't doesn't really affect you in the immediate short terminal somewhat long term future, but short term virtue. Okay, we still got around the city and you know it was neglected after the bridge fire. Sure get that and you get learned from that. Okay, Well, then we have
the snow event and the streets aren't plowed. There are people and even the city manager said, or maybe it was the individual in charge of plowing and said, listen, our plows are broken, we don't know enough of them, and some streets are not going to get plowed. Not a great message. And I absolutely have you made progress since then with people like Seth Walsh and others on council that have taken it upon themselves and make this
their cause. So much so he used this during his re election campaign just a few weeks ago, that we're going to get this thing turned around, and they did. You know, I was reading some of this about during the break here, and some of the things he brought up are true. You know, we improved services, has got new managers and equipment, the fleets being fixed, are devoted money to it. We're taking it seriously. Some of the potholes filled a hell of a lot of potholes in
the last year. Okay, awesome, you kind of need to do a victory lap and it congratulates your So I was joking about the Trump thing, but he's really good at that and taking credit for things that he doesn't even do. For that matter, or just as we'll get into a second ignoring the truth in reality. But I think you also have to do that. I mean, that makes him beloved by many people and supportive that he is getting the message out there. Whether you agree disagree
with her. It's not true at all yet to be told. But you've got to self promote to some degree. And I think that's solely lacking here. It's just communication. We live in an era and now where everyone is a brand, everyone self promotes. That is the whole purpose now of social media. Everyone talks about how great everything is in their life, having the greatest experiences, and everything's going to
be documented and nothing really bad is on. It's all the good stuff, which of course adds to our national handwringing and thinking we're well, everyone else is having a good time, why am I not? Well, it's because they're just putting the good stuff out there. That's all you're seeing. And the algorithms feed all this, and that's why a lot of people are miserable these days. But you can
also use that to get the word out. How hard it would have been to just simply say, look, we only use this when the plows our blades are hitting the ground. If we get a dusting of snow, yeah we're going to treat the roads. Just say that, you know, because you hype this whole thing up. We're having this big contest and there's a prize, and if you come up with a way to get the word out to people that were on top of the street thing. I mean that. I thought it was a good initiative in crowdsourcing.
Religion costs all that much. You got the companies to kick some money in and help out. Okay, great, awesome, you crowdsourced it and somebody came up with a solution to it. Yeah, that's that's our capitalistic system at best.
Right.
There are a lot of people out there that are vying for in this case, compensation which have been a new set of tires I think. And so somebody won the contest, they got the gift certificate and everybody wins. Awesome, And just you know, if it's if it only uses you're really gonna use it when the when the blades hit the ground, when there's enough snow to plow it.
And you know, when people go to the website expecting to find information out, you should just simply put that at the top, going, Hey, by the way, we're treating the roads, but we're not tracking it. If there's a problem, you know, here's a click on this link or something along those lines, or you know, send us a message and we'll get after it, or just simply turn it on and let us see where the trucks are. Kind
of cool technology. It seems seems kind of easy. But communication has been a huge issue for city Hall and this administration in particular. And when you when you do something well, you probably should celebrate that or at least get the word out, Hey, this is what we're doing. Just communicate it. Just communicate it. Not that hard, not that hard. And this is I think it's a good test for the winter months coming up, so we'll see how well all this stuff works when it all gets
put together, actually gets turned on. Although I would think that this would be a kind of a nice little test tour, wouldn't it kind of a soft launch if you will. Nonetheless, that is behind us and again, you know, it's just a light dusting snow, nothing to get too worked up about. But plenty of people had reached out to us saying, do you know what the hell is going on with this website? And that's why I reached out to council Member Walsh this morning to talk about
it on seven hundred WLW. What else is going on on this veteran's day? Yeah, I did have this. Yeah, the President has been talking and you know, back to the soft congrigil congratulatory nature of this, and you know, I totally understand. He's, as I said, really really good
at it. He was discussing the issue of affordabilities making the rounds after Democrats won the state and some local allowed number of local election did really well on Tuesday, as usually is the case these off primary elections and the like, you know, off off not a every four years we get a huge turnout and then the off years not so much. Campaign on the cost of living, right, the cost of it. This is all about affordability. The referendum for this cycle is going to be affordability. And
he said that's not true. As a con job, and I've been really successful in lowing prices, and you know, you could have just said, hey, listen, we were much much worse under Biden. We had a forty year high under Biden, it was like over nine percent inflation. That number has come down since I've taken office. I actually started a little bit before he took office, just maybe a couple of weeks before. But still you could go, hey, listen, the election, I want election. Great, it's shifting other way.
It's going to take a while. You could just believe that that. But you know, coming out and saying that prices have fallen since he's coming back in office is not really helpful. It's, you know, saying everything is down, everything's way down. The prices under the Trump administration done substantially. Inflation is almost non existent. You know, I think you can do that. I think it's a good strategy if the president is dealing with intangibles like tray or something
like that. Yeah, Like, I don't really know how the tariffs are work in. I know it's adding to the cost right now, but you can talk about getting money back, some two hundred billion dollars back in taxes, and that's the Supreme Court's debating that right now. As a matter of fact. But the thing is this is measurable. It's measured by you. If you're going to the store and you're paying more, you don't feel these alleged cuts, then it's more. I don't know what. I don't think he's
looking at any numbers. I just think he's as figures. It's like true social If he says it, people will believe it. I'm sure there are plenty of people to believe it. And there's plenty of things that don't get reported because he's Trump one hundred percent on that. But in this case, it's measurable by you, and this is just a battle that I you know, you could be the biggest MAGA Trump support in the world. To look at it going, Yeah, I don't think the prices are
coming down. You know, if prices are coming down, you know how much money you have in your budget. Inflation has accelerated the three percent year over year inflation has increased for about what five consecutive months now, and prices where now one point seven percent higher is at Brank at the bank. But you know when you hear stories about people who can't afford their mortgage because property taxes
are going up around us. You know, the margins are pretty thin, so one and a half percent it's something. It's something. And if they're higher this year than they were in January, three percent higher than they were a year ago, then yeah, we're feeling that grocery prices are up. And it's not just beef. It's a number of important products. Grocery product get more expensive. I look at it and go, okay, well, what's P and G doing. They're in Kroger. They're laying
people off. Why people are buying less or people are buying tide but they're buying less of it and somehow really packing that washer and get there. I'm going to make sure that sucker is full to the top before I put a tide pod in there.
Yeah.
I get it. I get it. And I remember when Biden did this, and I poked holes in the theory that when Biden was saying, okay, remember the Congression Democrats we're screaming about as prices went up, that there's a collusion of fixed prices here. This is about food producers and they're gouging. Remember the whole gouging thing and shrink flesh and gouging. We're gouging we're gouging. People are getting gouged. I'm hearing so much of that anymore. Why is that, Well,
because it wasn't necessarily true. I mean, shrink flation has been around certainly. If you look at that little, I don't know bag of Doritos, for example, they just decreased the product and put a little more air in it. But they've been doing that since like the beginning of packaged foods. That's nothing new. Look at all, the air we get it, while the air has to do more settling and at least having a few chips that aren't completely smashed at the bottom of bag. That's more about
packaging and protecting the product. That's like, you know, the air cushions the chips. So, yeah, there's a lot of air in the bag for a reason. You've filled all the way to the top. And actually I've talked to extras before about this, said, yeah, if you filled it all the way up to the brim and we tried to seal it, basically by the time you got it, it would be a bag of dust. It's just works. They've tried. But there's a reason why there's so much air in a bag of chips and yeah, some of
these packages. Okay, it's went from three point eight to three point six ounces and my little tiny self serving Oh yeah, there's like there's like four. It's like the airlines. You know, you go in tow youreline, get a bag of you would to like a bag of pretzel. Sure, and there are two like mini pretzels in there. Why even put this in the package? You just like throw it. Feed me like I'm a I don't like a carp
at King's Island. You get the little put the twenty five cents and the fifty cents and get a handful of food. Just stick my mouth open like a carp feed me in that little river. But yeah, I get. You know, shrinkflation, it is a thing. But it's not like some conspiracy. They don't want to raise prices because you'll buy less of it, so we keep the price the same and give you less. That's how we get
around it. It's really the same thing. You're not paying more for less, you're paying the same plan for less. Makes sense. But the test of this whole thing for you and your personal budget. Now, some people don't feel it at all. I mean, hell, when I go in and I think I'm doing. Okay. I go into Costco of all places, and I look at ground beef and go, yeah,
I'm passing on. I'm not buying. I'm not spend that kind of money with some ground beef, man, And that's Costco price is really really good, like at the regular grocery store. It's like I'm doing. I'll be honest with them, cooking more chicken thighs like chicken brass wings are crazy occasionally looks like a treat now, and it should be anyway at my age, Let's face it, I can't can't crush wings and pizza and burgers like I used to, nor should I. So yeah, chicken thies are pretty damn good.
They're like bigger chicken wings, and they're a lot cheaper, so you buy some of that stuff instead. But you know, the test for me would be, and for you would be, instead of wearing your political hat and agreeing with everything going all right, if all the prices are down and stuff like you claim, then why do you want to give us all two thousand dollars in relief from the tariffs, which to me is silly because it's a we just keep borrowing more money to give it away. It's more
it's subsidy in a different form. You always railed them to Democrats and subsidy, and you know, look at healthcare. I had Greg Landsman on the first start. If you miss that's in the podcast. I'll follow the show here on seven hundred WWVD iHeartRadio app and you can also stream the show where we are too as well, but download the podcast. So first I had a good discussion, and you know the knock I have with him and Democrats is well, it's all about band aids. It's all
about subsidy. This whole shutdown was about them going okay, well we need to subsidize people more for their healthcare. It's too expensive affordable care. It's not affordable if you're giving people subsidies. Affordability means you're reducing the cost, getting rid of all the red tape, all the bs, all the nonsense that drive costs up. Okay, you don't affordability isn't taking other money and moving it to give it to people who can't afford healthcare. And I'm not saying,
you know, we should just ignore those people. That's a tragedy in out of itself. If all these things expire where you canna needt your health care. That's a problem for twenty two million Americans. We know these are the rules. Both Democrats and Republicans came up with and set this whole thing up and have been doing it for a long time. I don't think it's entirely fair to pull the carpet on our fee bill. Go okay, well you're
it's three hundred percent of good luck with that. How about just doing it temporarily and saying, okay, we've got I don't know, two years to come up with a solution of health care, you know, whether it's a private sector involvement or getting rid of all the subsidy and insurance. And I'm the simplest thing to me, I've said a million times, is just getting rid of it. To your employer can no longer offer healthcare. We are literally hamstering this gig economy where so many people work so many
different jobs, and none of those jobs offer healthcare. You know, if you're out in the cry is and I hear this from older people is like, well just go get a job. Well, okay, but bigger companies can offer healthcare benefits. The engine that drives America is business, but in particular small business, like eight out of ten businesses or small businesses, fewer and fewer in fear of those small businesses can
afford to give health care to their employees. And we also, as I mentioned, live in a gig economy where people are doing different hustles, right you, maybe it's door dash or maybe you're delivering, you're doing this, I got a bunch of part time jobs and okay, great, and you know what, that's awesome, But they don't offer health care. So buying your healthcare on the open market seems to
be the way to go. And if we have subsidized healthcare, that's bad because it's costing way more than it should. Where we're boring that money, it seems to me the easiest thing to do would be to simply say, Okay, if you're in this business, no more healthcare. You got to buy it in the free market, like you do with all the other insurance you have in your life.
And the savings we reap from all the compliance and code all that nonsense can go to help those people who fall between the cracks, and you still have money left over to throw to the deficit. It's like an easy it's a slam dunk. But Democrats say, oh my god, all these people are getting thrown off by bad private business and the like, and it's just that's why're not going to get anything done with this. But the idea is here. We give everybody two thousand dollars in relief checks.
I thought I thought the prices were lower than they were when Biden was office. You you really can't have it both ways, but that's him. He just throw stuff at the wall. See what sticks. At some point, I think you look at it and go, I don't know. Yeah, maybe you're doing some good stuff here and there, And okay, I'll buy the terrafsh for a little bit longer I can. I can stand the pain for a while. We'll see if we can get jobs back here and make everybody
rich again, as promised on the campaign trail. But right now I know that it costs a hell of a lot to go to the grocery store. It costs a hell of a lot. Coming up on the show on seven hundred WW just a few minutes here it is Veterans Day. We'll talk to our buddy Steeve Baalsco from Claremont County Veterans Services on this day where a lot of people to flying the flag because you know Veterans Day and all that. I saw a lot of flags actually driving this weekend. Seen a lot of people just
having flags in the car, which is cool. Normally it was like around election Day or you know fourth of July you see somebody to pick up truck. But I saw a lot of at least a handful of cars this weekend with flags on, which I think is awesome and a way to show respect not only our country but to those veterans who serve. So we'll get more than that with Steve in just a few minutes here on seven hundred. But Adan Schaeffer is in at eleven
thirty five all Worth Financial. It is simply money to show heres at six o'clock on our sister station fifty five care see but the hull Worth Financial. He's here on Tuesday mornings talking about one of the things I'm going to get into is the fifty year mortgage with him in addition to the government shutdown allegedly ending and what that means, but also the fifty year mortgage proposal. And then speaking of the President, he offered this up.
I don't have the make of that, you know, kind of leaning towards I mean, it doesn't make if you're if you can't afford a mortgage payment. Now it does get you own a house, which is a good thing. But I don't know at a fifty year rate, how do you build equity, because that's the key, you know, is building equities. Like I make my payments. I got
my principle and interest. Okay, here's my interest payment, which is going to be huge, the principal very little, and even after five or ten years, how much equity will have in the house, You're not talking all that much. At some point you're gonna want to borrow on that equity or user to improve the house or whatever it is. I just it seems like you're paying yourself in a corner. But in this age when credit card debt is a
super high right down and is continue to go up. Hell, people are buying fast food on layaway for crying out lack. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. It gets more people in houses, it's good, it's good for you know, my wife's business for sure, being a real estate broker. But I wonder you know, with that debt, and you look at it's like how much am I paying an interest? How much am I haying? In principle?
And that interest is going to kill the principal is the one that works for you, right, I'm not sure it's interesting. I don't know why you would also go from you know, you get a fifteen or thirty year mortgage. I don't know how I went from thirty to fifty. Maybe a forty year mortgage, fifty year mortgage, of course I don't know older. I may refinance and get a fifty year mortgage out because I know I'm not going to live long enough to pay that son of a
gun back. It's a U problem, not a ME problem, and not that long from now, you know what I'm saying. We'll get a time out and we got news on the way in just a few minutes, and when we return, we'll get into Veterans Day twenty twenty five, and then Andy Shaeffer here on the Scott Slan Show, I'm the Home the Best Bengals cover back at it after the week off and Joe Burrow by the way ready to go right around Thanksgiving? Is that a good idea or bad idea. I'm not sure. It depends on these next
couple of games. We'll see how it goes. I would say that if it doesn't look like you're going to make the playoffs, you bring them back, You're risk wrecking next season as well. I'm kind of leaning on the side of being conservative. But you wonder how much juice Joe has and he says he wants to play. Is any going to tell him no? That's the big question. Seven hundred WDW, Cincinnati.
I don't want to American.
It's on seven hundred WLW on this eleventh day of November twenty twenty five. It is Veterans Day. Thank you to all who have served this wonderful country of ours. And granted there's a lot of people think it's not so wonderful anymore, but still the greatest experiment in the history of man coin I believe the United States of America.
Can we do better? Hell yeah, we can always do better, continuous improvement, correct And on this Veterans' Day, we should all be flying the flag in front of our homes or whatever it might be. You'll see a lot of flags out because it is Veterans Day and this opportunity to thank a veteran, and I would thank that. Steve Balco from Claimout County Veteran Services on the show this
morning on seven hundred WW. If you are flying that flag or whatever, you fly that flag often, I see it, Steve, and I look at it and see like an image of an individual. I saw Charlie Kirk flag the other day of all things. And you know, if you're allegedly patriotic enough to fly the American flag, you should also then know that you can't do that. You are desecrating the flag, that you can't do.
Those things to it, especially within the boundaries of these continental United States.
Correct, correct, yeah, you're not. You can't alter the flag. It's if someone did that with a Bible. What do you think the reaction would.
Be, Oh yeah, yeah, we'd be out with pitchforks and torches and right yeah right.
So well we saw the Trump Bible and people lost their minds over that. Right with this, I don't know, he put his stuff in. It's like, okay, strying to make money off that, like the shoes. But people who are fought for this country even and will stand out there with the flag that's altered it drives me crazy.
It does. It does. Where's the due diligence and respect to that which.
You're not a patriot, You're a self absorbed idiot if you're doing that right.
And to realize the power of the United States flag in a global economy, every nation knows what the United States flag is, Yes, they can identify it. Yeah, they all want to become like Americans. As I used to tell my Marine Sloany when we will go overseas, this is your uh, your Dorothy tour, because Dorothy said it right when she clicked her heels and said, there's no place like that's a fact.
I'll tell you what. And as I get older, you know, we travel a lot. When when I fly back to CBG, it really puts a lump in my throat to see, welcome to the United States of America. Right, How cool is that it is? It's awesome. I was usually an event Folds of Honor, which I know you're familiar with, and we do a golf outing up at TPC in Mainfield and they do a great job of this thing.
We had a flying World War on airplanes we had you know, is just come into the whole thing and We had service members active and retired that were there that were honored, and it raises money for Folds of Honor with Budweiser. And it's a wonderful event. And the coolest thing is too, is that we forgot about this is what when in folded American flag. Thirteen folds in that flag what each fold signifies. And they had whole display on that out there, and I had to write
it down because I'd forgotten myself. But the first fold is life itself. Second fold is eternal life. Then veterans trusting in God, the difference between right and wrong, which we miss in this country. God and country. Tribute to our armed forces. The eighth fold honors mothers. The ninth ist were womanhood. The tenth folders for fathers who's given their sons and daughters to military service in their lives.
The eleventh foldest were Hebrew Citizens for Jewish citizens. And the twelfth fold in that flag is for the fatherest on the Holy Spirit, and the thirteenth is in God we trust. As you present the flag to someone, all you see are the stars correct, representing of course the states verse thirteen original states, and so even the fold of a flag is significant.
It's significant and even when prison emptying the flag to the deceased family, the veterans deceased family, it is presented on behalf of the President of the United States, a grateful nation, and by the secretary of the branch of service that they serve from. It's delivered kneeling to the family. Yeah, Sony, I've done over two hundred and forty five funerals for Marines.
I've done a lot.
I can't tell you the amount of mothers that will hold your hand because you are the symbol of her loved one and they don't want to give it up if they want to stay in that moment. It's moving now.
If you see any of these ceremonies, it gets emotional coming even get emotional right now. And we're talking about the flag and what it means because today is Veterans Day. The thing to me, Steve, is it pisses me off to know if I see someone mistreating or burning the flag right, dragging the flag on the ground or whatever. But at the same time as anger's I might be people disagree with me all the time and that's fine, which is another constitutional right. Is that what other country
in the world. Are you allowed to desecrate the flag because it's a symbol and your freedoms allow you to desecrate that flag. It's the most paradoxical thing ever, is it is? Do you defend that as a veteran?
I don't defend that as a veteran.
No, I meant the idea that concept, right, just like you're allowed to do that, you shouldn't do that. But you're like, it's the paradox of American, of our country. We don't take ourselves seriously. It is.
It is, but there are many who have shed their blood I know, so that to be therefore give it the respect it's due on the cost of lives spent for.
It, Which makes sense because we have holidays like Memorial Day and Fourth of July that celebrate these things, and we turn into drunken idiots playing country music on boomboxes and have swimming pools and a three day weekend and all that, and we forget that the Memorial Day is the one to me is it's a solemn holiday, and we've turned that into now sales and the celebration going. People died for this holiday.
When you go to Israel on their Memorial Day, they sound sirens and the whole nation stops, stands at attention and pays respect. Can you imagine the United States of America coming to a complete stop to pay respect a Memorial Day?
No, because that's who we are. And that's the paradox, right. We find it's a certain to like, Hey, I'm having a car and I'm going to buy a new car right now because they're having a sale because people died in service of our country. What are we doing right?
Right? Everything's turned into a capitalist which capitalism is great.
However, when you start pushing the margins, you sit and think about it, it's like you scratch your go what are we doing here? But that is the beauty of America. I think that that, in essence is why people want to come here is because of those freedoms that very few around the world enjoy. And you can talk about developed nations in Europe and all that, but by and large, arrest of the world does not live like this.
No, No, absolutely not, absolutely not. There is no place like home.
The Taliban, by the way, just banned chess. Did you see that? No chess because it's immoral, Like what.
Because you're taking over kings. The queen has a prenominant place.
I suppose it is. Yeah, right, something.
Interesting for you whose father served in the US Navy, correct, yes, do you know that there is a time where one flag has the privilege of flying above the United States flag?
I knew this and I forgot it. What does it remind me?
During worship services aboard a naval they'll fly the Christian flag above the national answer?
That's right, yep, yeah, that's the only other time. That's the only the time it flies above correct, Godden Country
in that order. That's right, right, yeah. Steve also from Claimont Tenny veteran services on this VET Trend's Day twenty twenty five, and we're talking about the symbol of that service and what they fought for, and that would be the flag veterans, and you'll see a lot of today is the American flag, and we're talking about what that means as Americans, because I want to forget we see the American flag. It's become ubiquitous on everything, uniforms, you know,
football players, where it's on a helmet. In times when crisis, when we feel the wolves at the door, we will all start wearing the American Flag nine eleven comes to mind, and like, and I think it's just so common that we've kind of forgotten the symbolism and really what it means.
The vast, grandiose history of our United States flag, from the very hymn honoring the flag to what it represents flying foreign shores, bringing democracy to foreign countries that were locked down in different molds of politics. But yet there is something powerful when when you have four pillars of power for a country to see information, economic, and military. When the United States flag is flown off the shores or onshore a country, it brings the very persona of
strength of the United States to those shores. It is actually a strength we have going forward to calm down enemies and to put a piece into a chaotic situation. Or it's kind of like your dad. You don't want dad coming home.
Right right?
Right?
Yeah, I get it, Yeah, I get it. The other thing, too, is is a tattered flag, and I'm sure to think people will probably just take the flag and throw in the garbage, which is not You're not supposed.
To do that.
No, please don't, no, no, no, how do you properly get rid of a flag? So it's tattered, by the way, And when do we know it tattered? Means what exactly I mean? When when do we know it's time to retire fleg? Yeah?
Absolutely, So as you look at a flag, it should be a whole seem to seem still tight when it's starts to tear, when it starts to fray, or frequently fly in adverse weather and it's whipping in the wind. And as she starts to tear or weather or even become faded in an excessive amount. Is when you retire the flag, put up a new one. But then there's a way to dispose of the flag. And in that retirement ceremony, the description by law is that in a discreete service.
And what was that?
So in a private assembly, not in a grandiose situation in the four corners of your mall. It is in your backyard, in a small, little burned barrel. You burn the flag so it can't be used for adverse methods. Now, if you're like, well, I feel kind of guilty of doing that. The boy Scouts are taught a very ceremoniously procedure on how you retire a flag this way, and so call your local boy Scouts troops. I've got a flag I need to retire. Claremont County. We have a
flag retirement box. You can put it in there, and we have organization veteran service organizations, Boy Scouts, there's quite a few that will take the tattered flags, and they're teaching the youth as well as adults. This is how you respect the flag at its end of life.
I've done that before. Flags at my house. Yeah yeah, I know. You know, you fold the flag and a big ceremony, burn it right.
And it's not a grandiose let's know how fireworks. Let's hey, look at me.
Let's yeah, yeah, exactly, it's a whole it's a whole thing. Steve on there too. Okay, we flow the flag where we know how to dispose the flag. What else do people generally this when it comes to flag etiquette.
Oh, you know in this nation of ours that is sports addicted. We start out every sport activity with the national anthem, and the proper etiquette for the national anthem is to get on your feet one if you can. If you are handicapped, if you were out and you don't have the strength, that's fine, follow step two.
Step two is.
There is a way to honor and salute the flag. Now for the average citizen, it is putting your hand over your heart, right hand over your left chest. That's how we salute the flag in civilian attire or by civilians. Men, we take off our hats out of respect. And then sometimes you're holding that hat with your right hand. That's fine. The hand still goes over the heart all while the national anthem is being sung. For ladies, it's a right
hand over the heart. For those that are prior military, obviously, if they're in uniform, they're saluting the flag. Some military organizations Sloani, actually salute indoors. The Marines do not unless we're wearing what we call our cover. It's our hat, yes, which means we're under arms, we're carrying a weapon, or we're marching with the sword right, So we are under arms. We are therefore wearing our cover, and we will render a salute indoors. Other than that, there is no salution
by Marines indoors. So we if you see us, we'll put our hand over our heart, whether in uniform, indoors or outside in civilian attire. Even as a retired marine myself, i salute with my right hand over my heart. I don't salute to my forehead as an average.
Because you're not in uniform police officers, firefighters, you're in uniform undercover, then you salute.
Now.
I've seen and i've heard this debate too, that the proper etiquette is I don't know if it's for a guy, men and women, but you know, standing at attention and putting your hands behind your back and like in a parade rest kind of Well, that's what you call it. I've seen that too before, and I've heard there's a debate about which one is correct. Now, typically it's hand over the heart. I think that's the way to get a heart, which is a salute.
Standing at parade rest or at ease, which would be hands behind your back when you shuffle around, is really at a reduced comfort stance. Standing at attention is your maximum stance of respect. So to say we would stand at ease or hands behind the back or at parade rest is to mean nothing significant is occurring, not being given or rest.
Because you've seen it both ways, and the correct way is handled with heart correct for citizens, got it? And just I mean, these are people are listening to go. You know, so, what's okay, I'm standing them at attention. I get that. But yeah, the whole point of this is to just reflect on the sacrifices made for what that flag means, and people like yourself will put their life on the line, in those who've given their life in defense of this country. It's a very small thing,
but it's important. It's huge.
It's the democracy of this nation is built around that flag. She flies for liberty, justice and freedom, for all our constitution. The whole thing is pinned together. She is our lynchpin going forward. It is the visual we see who identifies that which we are or should be.
Do you think the reason why we're not making Canada fifty first state of that screw up the whole rhythm of the fifty stars? Do we really want? Do we really want a fifty first day? I mean it could be anything Puerto Rico, like it's fifty stars thirteen start.
There's a balance, there is a metrical yah pa, right now what extra Star Wars you put it? Well, now Star Wars extra Star War did you put It's too confusing anyway, Steve Balso, thanks again for coming in and thanks for your service and all veterans listening on this Veterans Day.
Appreciate it. Thanks, thanks for your service. Appreciate it. Scott's Loan Show continues after this on seven hundred W Time to talk.
About money, how to make it, how to keep it, and how to keep others off your stash. This is all Worth Advice with Andy Shaeffer. The big question is it over? Is a shutdown over? And what the hell does it all mean? What did we accomplish?
If anything? Andy Shaeffer from all Worth Financial, How are you?
I'm doing great, Scott you today.
Everything is good. So it looks like we got a deal together. Maybe by the end of the week, maybe this time tomorrow or Thursday, or maybe Friday. Government reopens, the agencies get funded, people get paid, and then maybe in about thirty days everything goes back to normal apparently. So from the market perspective, what's changed.
Well, I think it just helps investors gain a little bit more confidence as far as economic data is concerned. And there were hundreds of thousands of federal workers that were furloughed that weren't receiving incomes. Obviously, travel through throughout the United States was made a lot of investors nervous and also people that are looking to go home to visit their families over Thanksgiving. But in addition to that, you know, the ability to travel and navigate is important
for business as well. And so I think the fact that the House has I'm sorry, the Senate has actually you know, come to a resolution on that with a sixty forty vote that gets passed the House.
Now that vote will.
Happen tomorrow, that's likely to be passed, and so you know that that helped a lot with the markets. Yesterday, we saw the three main in DECKX gained. Technology stocks led the way after last week's slide. The NASDAC gained about two point three percent and that's its biggest one day rally since the two point five percent that we had in late May. We did, you know, the Magnificent seven companies, Alphabet and Vidia, Tesla, Gold, futures and treasuries
all rose. And so there is some optimism out there with investors, uh, you know, based on the government reopening.
And the data will start to flow once again. How how big one it seems like we really I mean, it's not official government data, I suppose, but it seems like we got to have indicator from the private market to kind of know what the economy is doing. How important is that stuff?
No, it's big.
You know, we can get some things from the private market, the Institute for Supply Management for instance. You know, we're able to get that data and that kind of gives us a little bit of a guideline. But there's a lot of data that you know, is set to be released as soon as the government reopens, and that's going to be critical for us to understand where are we really you know, what does jobs look like, what does
it look like? And you know, with the December FED meeting coming up, you know, with the potential for more interest rate cuts, that's going to be critical for the Fed as well. So you know, if we reopen on Wednesday, it's likely we get a slew of information on Thursday, and that's really going to shape you know, you know, what our future looks like from a policy standpoint, but also from a market standpoint.
Okay, but based on the data we have right now, it looks like we have continued to continue to buy stuff, right, so consumer driven economy, steady spending, but there's some cracks around the edges.
Yeah, yeah, so it does seem that the consumer has continued to support the economy with steady spending, but we are seeing some weaknesses around the edges. We're starting to see debt start to climb a little bit. We see that climbing to about eighteen point six trillion in the third quarter. That's a three point six percent increase from a year ago. And even though that's a new high, the pace is still in line with the three point
seven percent wage growth over the past year. So you have to kind of balance that and say, you know, yeah, it is climbing, but we're also making a little bit more money. But we also seeing, you know, some cracks other places too, and you know, specifically with our debt levels. Credit card balances are continuing to climb at a rate of five point eight percent. That's one point two three trillion dollars, and four point five percent of all household
debt is now past due. So there are some cracks now. Even though the confidence is softening, and we measure that with the University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index. You know, we've had some of the weakest levels in nearly two years. However, most households now expect unemployment to rise over the next year. The shutdown has added to the uncertainty, but ultimately we're still doing okay at this point.
So there are some cracks.
It does seem like we're getting into a place where the economy is cooling a little bit, but it's not all that bad.
Okay. I did see this because there's indicator's right, and metrics and all this, but this is an interesting test to me. So fast food, so companies like Household now, Chipotle, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, they've started warring about looking at flagging purchases, basically meaning that the purchases among low income customers are starting to drop. So what they look at is shopper attitudes. And this was from this October and in November two.
We know consumer sentiment is fairly low according to that University of Michigan Datta you cited too, But there's been a double digit drop in sales by from customers who made less than one hundred thousand dollars, so I mean
one hundred thousand punds a lot of money. But for those under that threshold, we have seen the number of fast food purchases dropped dramatically from Chipotle, McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, et cetera, et cetera, to the point where that's why you're starting to see some of these value meals come back, and not the dollar value means anymore, like the five and eight dollar value meals, so not the value we used to just a few years ago.
That seems to be a pretty interesting indicator to me.
Yeah, And I think a lot of that has to do with discretionary spending. I don't go to fast food restaurants very often, and when I do, because I go in frequently, I do notice the increase in prices, and it's significant. And if you're a lower income house sold, you really have to watch their pennies and understand as
the economy slows down, where that money is going. You know, are you able to go shopping at Kroger and find a chicken to roast and some green beans and paint is ten dollars in feed you know, six people within your house? Or are you going to spend fifteen dollars
on a big mac coke and froes? You know, So it's coming down to I think everybody knows that the economy is pulling off a little bit, and I think a lot of people are really just trying to watch their pennies and the eventuality that maybe we do go into recession over the next couple of years, and that you have to have a little bit of cash reserves in case things do go sideways. In addition to that, people were nervous about losing their staff benefits. You know,
that weighs on a lot of people's minds. So everybody's kind of circling the wagons right now and you know, really trying to figure out which way are economy's going now. Ultimately, as we continue to see the labor market cool a little bit, I think that that allows the Fed to cut rates in December and hopefully that will spurn the market as well. If you cut interest rates, that will increase demand because the cost of borrowing.
Is a lot cheaper.
Will also help businesses spend a lot more and also maybe open up their cofers to hire a little bit more. And so there's a balance there. And I think at this point people were kind of in a wait and see approach.
All right, so buying less assuit but everything we buy apparently we're all putting on credit cards now.
Yeah, yeah, and I think you know about seventy percent of people don't pay off their credit cards on a monthly basis, and you know that is a way to give some people flexibility. You know, if you are a government worker and you don't have income at this point, that makes sense, right, You're probably spending a little bit more on your credit card with the hopes that the
government will reopen. And when the government does reopen, not only will that help those federal employees continue to earn a wage, but it will also help private businesses because they do a lot of business with those government entities. So that is the optimism that we're seeing from the market standpoint is that hey, business is likely going to
get back to usual. The airports are not going to have to cut as many flights as as we need, and we're going to see government workers start to be employed once again, earn a and hopefully encourage more consumer spending.
All right, Andy Schaeffer from all Worth this morning on seven hundred WLW, talking about your money. We also know that while student loans, for example, I saw something that did delinquities start to go back up again?
Yeah, they went up again as well, they served. Delinquencies jumped from less than one percent a year ago to more to fourteen percent following the end of the repayment pause, So that's significant as well.
So yeah, there're certainly cracks.
All right, very good, And we talked about the economic picture moving forward here we'll find and things are just kind of I mean, it's slowing, that's for sure, there's just no way around it.
Yeah, a much weaker report came in on the job cuts. Corporations announced more than one hundred and fifty thousand job cuts last month. That's the highest October total and over two decades. You know, we're seeing companies like Amazon plans to cut fourteen thousand rolls. Target said it will trim about two thousand you know here locally, well, we know what's going on with ups and here locally, you know, we have you know, cuts from Program Procter and Gamble
as well. So no, while they're not significant in the big scheme of things, you know, they employ thousands and thousands of employees, it is a trend and I think that right now business leaders are trying to you know, trim a little bit of the fact, get lean and be able to be nimbled to make decisions moving forward based on not only how our economy is going to project, but also with with with interest rates at how it goes.
Okay, I had a concert food expert on not long ago from Manhattan Institute about the Supreme Court here in the tariff case, which is really going to impact markets depending how the Supreme Court rules on the whether or not tariffs are in the purview of the President of the United States. You know, it's our basically, it's attacks and only Congress can tax people. And if your Solicitor General admits it's a tax, that kind of underminds the
argument before the High Court. What impact will this decision have on the market's.
Huge if if if that actually gets rescinded and we have to unwind the tariff conversations with other countries. Not only will you know, how do we figure out how do we do we give them money back? You know, and and you know from the revenue that we get. And furthermore, that will certainly undermine the leverage that we have in these negotiations with other countries, and it will make us look significantly weak. Now I'm not an attorney,
I don't know understand how all that plays out. But what I do know is if the Supreme Court rules against the ability for the Trump administration to implement these tariffs and will have a significant impact not only on our economy but the markets as well. I don't think that that's going to happen, but that is something to keep an eye on.
Yeah, and you wonder, I mean, you can only factor this in so much if you're the market, right Rob wall Street, It'll be interesting because it'll go either extremely up or down at least for a couple of days anyway, But then we'll figure it out like we always do.
Well.
The thing about the markets is that the markets are pre predictive indicators of how we feel about the economy looking out six months to a year. So the market generally will tell us how investors feel about, you know, not only certain economic data, but also geopolitical decisions. And at the moment, the market is not considering the fact that the terroriffs could be rescinded. We will see the markets respond, you know, way in advance of whatever decision
is going to come from the Supreme Court. If that writing is on the wall. We're just not quite there yet, and the market doesn't believe that that's going to happen.
Andy Schaefer. One of the more interesting proposals coming out this week, and this one left me shaking my head. Is the President suggesting we should do a fifty year mortgage, not a fifteen and not a thirty, not a thirty five or forty, but a fifty year mortgage.
Your reaction, Yeah, I don't know how I feel about that.
You know, And on one hand, the fifty year mortgage can be a game changer for people to be able to afford a home. It will certainly reduce the amount of payments that you're going to have on a monthly basis. But while that initially might seem appealing, there are some drawbacks and some of that could lead to obviously more payover time. You're not building as much equity in your home. There's more risk of default, and the reality is, if you need a fifty year mortgage, you probably can't afford
the house. But I do understand on this surface, it does make it look more attractive for low income families, because the American dream is owning a home and being able to afford it. But on the other hand, there are a lot of you know, drawbacks and potential pitfalls for that fifty year mortgage.
So if you're if you're if you're going.
With the biggest loan you can get on a car like a new car is at eight years old.
I don't even mean I mean I see a lot of five year loans. I think you can probably get an eight year loan. I haven't really researched, you know how far out.
You have to go.
The point is, is a financial we're just playing more principle. I mean the bank is that we're making the payment.
And that's right, and it's one of those you know, you're kind of renting to own. And if you have a mortgage where on a thirty year loan where it's let's say one thousand dollars a month, and you can get a fifty year loan where it's six hundred dollars a month, you know, it makes it seem more affordable for people. But at the end of the day, you're
not going to build enough equity. And what we've found from a data standpoint is if you are not able to build enough equity in your house, you are more risk to default and essentially get kicked out of your house. So the data suggests that that's not a good idea. I know it sounds attractive, but it's probably not advantageous for you to look at a fifty year term on a mortgage.
If I'm forty years old, I get a fifty year mortgage. To the math there, it seems like the bank thing is gonna be holding for a lot out of you know you' sixties. Like, hell, I'll take a fifty year mortgage out. I don't have to pay that back. I'll be dead.
Yeah.
And I think, on the other hand, if you're let's say thirty years old, in your beginning of your career, you get a fifty year mortgage, that doesn't mean you can't pay it off sooner. And I think a lot of consumers at this point say, well, I'm struggling right now, or I'm just cut my teeth and I have an entry level job. But at some point I expect that I'm going to make a lot more money and maybe I can accelerate this mortgage a little bit more.
So.
There are some positives, but there's certain certainly some drawbacks there.
It's a lot of debt held though. That's the thing a lot of people move to the fifty that that's a lot of debt that's hanging out there when we're already seemingly at our max.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that's why I'm not really a big fan of it. I mean, if you have equity at home, you know, we could see a bubble. And you know, when when you hear the term bubble, nobody likes that. It brings us back to those thoughts of you know, two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, where we were lending to people that really couldn't afford it and a lot of those defaulted. And I fear that, you know, something like this could also create a bubble as well.
You don't want to make be underwater on your loan because sometimes you owe more to the lender than your homes are worth. And that's what we're talking about with a fifty year mortgage. If you're not paying much into it, the bank holds the cards over your head.
All right.
Finally, we are wrapping up enrollment season for not only healthcare, about iras and stuff like that.
Real quick advice, Yeah, I think make sure that you do review it. A lot of people say, well, you know, everything's going to be the same. You want to make sure that you go into your platform with your employer to make sure that you know your choices are still in line with what your lifestyle needs. You know, whether it is adding insurance, whether it's long term disability, make
sure that you're protected. And if your company does supply a decent amount of capital to those premiums on your behalf, you want to make sure that you take advantag of it because there's a lot of value there. If you go out on the street and get a disability policy, it's going to be significantly more expensive in a lot of cases versus what your employer is going to offer.
And also kick into that premium whether you have the ability to have life insurance as well, you want to make sure all that's taken care of and button up. So my advice is to make sure that you review it, make sure it's in line with your lifestyle.
Okay, yeah, it makes sense. And I unlily, I mean, we sat down and did the health benefits and one, okay, we've got all these new plans, and then about ten minutes and well let's just keep them one we have and pay a little bit more. I have no idea what this means.
Yeah, well, that's when you need to speak with your financial advisor to review it with them to make sure your idea.
What all these copays and this and that and and it's a PPO and PPF and people just way how much?
Yeah, And I think that it can be complicated, but most corporations, especially if it's medium size to a large corporation, will have specialists with that corporation to be able to help you. I know, at all Worth Financial we have you know, our HR apartment holds a number of zoom meetings.
To review those with employees.
I think that we've scheduled you know, about a dozen of them so that it fits everybody's schedule to be able to participate. So hopefully your corporation and your entity you know, has the resources to be able to help you along with those choices.
It's final. I'll work another five years to pay for the healthcare for this year. It's fine. It's fine, it's fine.
Everything can be fine.
Andy Schaeffer, all Worth Financial, simply money nine at six, I'm fifty five k RC pops in the show every Tuesday, Mortal checkup for you. Appreciate it man, Thanks nice Scott touching Nex We got news on the way, and that means Willie stands by at twelve o six today on the home of the best Bengals coverage, seven hundred WW since NAP