You're listening to bill Handle on demand from kf I AM six forty. No, it's a shutdown, shut down.
KFI AM six forty bill Handle here it is a Taco Tuesday, October seven.
Burbank Airport.
Now, for those of you that don't know Hollywood Burbank, I used to be Bob Hope and that well, it's Hollywood Burbank, and then it became Bob Hope and now it's just Burbank Airport. It's about ten minutes from the station, and it is probably the nicest airport in southern California. Not so much the way it looks because it's been around for a while, it's just the way it operates.
There are two terminals. I think they're building a third terminal.
It is easy. Parking is simple. I mean unlike lax. I picked up Lindsay over the weekend and she has come back from Europe and went, oh my god, it was a crap show and its forty minutes just to get into that you it was just nuts. So here's Burbank Airport, in my opinion, one of the best airports in the country. If you can bail out and or people do everything they can to leave and come back
on Burbank. Well, there's a big issue with air traffic controllers, as you can imagine, and Burbank Airport is the poster child because it got hit the worst with this TSA. Air traffic control controllers, specifically air traffic controllers during the shutdown do not get paid, but they must go to work, and there is a shortage of air traffic controllers and they are working now in many cases ten hours a day, six days a week. It is one, if not the
most stressful job that exists. I mean, you're putting airplanes in the sky and you're telling them where to go, at what level, what speed, coming in and leaving, you make a mistake and three hundred people die or three hundred people could die.
And so it is a mess.
And what happened at Hollywood Burdbank a pilot came in and asked for directions was flying in, and the pilot got a recorded message saying there is no air traffic controllers because of understaffing, we have none here that can help you. WHOA, that's pleasant, all right now? If you were on that airplane and you got that news, that wouldn't be pleasant. I'm assuming that the pilot didn't share that with the people on the plane, but it was it was trade.
It was crazy.
And it also what happens is during these times is that people call in sick.
They're not getting paid. They probably will get paid.
Historically they've always gotten paid retroactively, but right now they can't make the mortgage, they can't buy groceries, so they have to go into savings, they have to go into credit cards. And so during these times, and this is across the board with the government workers, those that are forced to work without pay, and that is a huge number out of the four million employees.
So they call in sick.
Interestingly enough, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, there was only a small uptick and air traffic controllers calling in sick. The delays now people was that airplanes were still taking off and landing because the rules kick over when there are no air traffic controllers. I mean, they're still flying going on, but the pilots effectively have to control themselves.
And these if I remember, I don't remember what you call them, but they are not only air traffic controllers at the airport, but they're also regional controllers that as soon as you leave airspace and the regional people take over. Those still seem to be working, but the delays are astronomical. As of five pm out going this yesterday, outgoing flights at Hollywood Burbank delayed an average of two hours two and a half hours. The longest delay was three almost
four hours, just short of four hours. Oh man, oh the name of that the control tower.
If it's unmanned. Then you have air.
Traffics called Tracon, which interestingly is a private organizations as rated by the FAA and uses radar technology.
Old technology.
That's the other thing is that we that is in the United States, we have a technology that.
Came in in the sixties.
Now, one thing that the federal government did is they did pay a company to revamp the entire air traffic control system, and the company screwed it up. It got even worse. So are they making a move? If you're going to fly, let me make a suggestion. If you have to fly from here to San Francisco, for example, instead of using a Hollywood Burbank, I would suggest flying out of Stuttguard, Germany. They have very good technology. They know what they're doing.
You know what the median salary is for an air traffic controller, I do not it's approximately about one hundred and forty five thousand dollars. And that's not enough, right, It can be depending on you know, experience and stuff like that.
Well, the training is years, literally years, because it is a job that is number one, very technical, very difficult to do.
But the lives that are on the line. All right now, I.
Want to share with you what's going on with the shutdown, and it all is a predicator on healthcare demands. The Democrats won, that's it. The Republicans want a stop gap measure. And this happens all the time, is continuing resolution, which says we can't agree on a bunch of stuff, but we'll negotiate later, and in the meantime, let's pass the measure that allows the government to keep on functioning.
Because, as I talked to, as.
I spoke in my last segment, air traffic control, for example, among many others, are forced to work by law and are not getting paid. And so the Republicans are saying, we always pass one of these and we're not asking for anything more or not negotiating additional bills or amendments. We just leave it exactly alone the way it is for another month, another two months till the end of November, and the Democrats say no, no, no, we're not going to cross that line anymore. We are going to have
the extension of the health care healthcare demands. Now, the Republicans are cutting healthcare.
But it depends on how you perceive cutting.
Let's say you get a raise temporary rays because of whatever situation, temporary situation.
In this case, it was COVID.
And then your boss kicks it back and says, you know what, We're going to.
Go back to where we were.
Well, you're well, your wages are being cut, aren't they And your boss says, no, they're not being cut. We're just not going to keep the money being paid. We told you it was temporary, and temporary is now over. That's what's going on here. The problem is that temporary allowed tens of millions of low income, middle income workers
to afford insurance under Obamacare. They now have insurance because of the extension, because of the added but COVID regulations that allowed them to have it, which the government paid for subsidized.
And here is the difference.
The Republicans want to cut it all or cut a lot of it, and the Democrats are saying, you can't cut it because so many people are now going to be uninsured. Again, this also has to medicate. We're talking tens of millions of people. I mean, we're seventy million people are going to be affected somehow or another, and tens of millions are either their insurance is going to double or they're simply not going to be able to afford insurance at all. And the Democrats are saying, this
ain't gonna happen. And either you keep those extensions going because so many people desperately needed, or we're not going to vote the budget in that's all, We're not going to have a budget, and the government shuts down. And there is a philosophical difference, and it really is a philosophical difference.
The Trump administration wants to.
Pour money into the border protection and into the military, and does not want to pour money into social programs. It just doesn't believe in social programs. Why because of waste, because of fraud. By the way, I want to make a point, there is no such thing as waste or fraud in the military.
It doesn't exist.
The military is clean of waste, and fraud and immigration. There is no fraud or waste at all. It's only in the social programs that exist. The philosophical difference is that the government should not support people who need money and need help, or should limit the amount of money that goes to these people. And it is a big one because we're talking about well the cuts, well the cuts or the lack of the extension is going to be about a trillion dollars over the next ten years.
And that bill passed by the way, the Tax and Spending bill, which cut everything past this summer under the big beautiful bill, and it went through there, and so
you've got the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Ten million additional Merrick will become uninsured in the next decade, between Medicaid and other healthcare programs, the Democrats insisting on an extension of those programs, the money that was paid, the subsidies that were put in during COVID, And so which way is it going to go, Who's going to win, who's going to lose? Right now, no one is compromising. Compromise doesn't exist anymore in this government.
And the real.
Issue, the political issue, because that's all everybody cares about, Now, frankly, that's the bottom line.
Who's going to be blamed for it?
Now, up to this point, the Republican's been blamed for it, and it costs them political points. The longest shutdown of the government in the history of the United States happened during Donald Trump's first tenure thirty five days. We'll see what happens this time around as to who gets blamed. And the Democrats are saying, you have no ho to the Republicans, you have no heart. Do these people deserve
medical care? Do they deserve subsidize insurance? And the Republicans are saying basically no. And then the Republicans are saying, don't we have to keep the government going? How do you have these people working and not get paid those that are never going to get paid. The President is talking about he has to furlough jobs and I mean literally just lay him off. Which way is it going to go? Well, what's more important? And now it's a
question of your philosophical view on this. Frankly, I think that it is more important to have someone insured than it is the border issue, because I don't think let's say I don't have insurance, is my job being taken away by an illegal alien.
Not really. I don't know that many people have lost their jobs.
If I can't get insurance, that affects me big time. So we'll see what happens. It just keeps on going. Now you're going to hear something about the Insurrection Act and it's just a weird It's not weird, but it is part of the US government and it was put into place in seventeen ninety two, just when the US was created. And it has to do with if there is an open rebellion against the United States, the President has the right to invoke the Insurrection.
Act if there is, you know, a.
Well insurrection. I'm thinking of how else to describe it. I have an over trying a group of people trying to overturn the government.
Riots.
Now, it has been used thirty times by a president, but you it is used and virtually every time asked for.
By a governor or a mayor.
Last time was in nineteen ninety two when the president that's HWHW. Bush number one was asked to call in federal troops in Los Angeles because of the Rodney King riots. Those were riots, I mean, that was No one argued that that wasn't legitimate. Well, here's what the president is doing, and nobody Well, of course, you know, it's no surprise.
But I don't think any other president would consider using the Insurrection Act to deploy the military if the courts prevent him from deploying the National Guard to protect federal buildings and conduct law enforcement operations. So he has to first declare, and he is considering doing that. That's happening in Portland, what's happening in Chicago, what's happening in la a full blown rebellion.
Against the United States.
Stephen Miller, white House Deputy Chief of Staff, who is the author of a lot of this stuff, says that it's illegal insurrection when the ruling stifle the White House agenda.
The insurrection is.
The courts that in fact are rebelling against the government of United States, against the Constitution. Here's the problem in terms of what we're experiencing. If you are against the administration, you are against the Constitution. This administration does not interpret the Constitution. This administration is the Constitution. We are the
Constitution of the United States. Therefore, if you go against us, even saying something against us or for God forbid, you have demonstrations and they're out of control, and local law enforcement says, we can handle it. The governor says we can handle it, and the President said no, he declares an insurrection and therefore brings in the troops.
It is a tough one. And then of course it'll go to court.
And the position that the administration is taking is an insurrection is what it's defined as. Whatever the President says it is. If the President says it, it must be so. And under constitutional authority, remember seventeen ninety two, the president has the right to then bring in federal troops and he decides, you know, I mean theoretically, Well, here's what Portland is saying.
The chief, the police chief of Portland is saying.
This quote, insurrection is one city block, that's what's going on here. And the President says, no, it's not. It's Portland, which is a hell hole. Portland is on fire. Well, he's describing Portland like Los Angeles during the Watts riots, during the Rodney King riots, where there is where there were thousands of people out there all over the city and the city was burning.
And I don't think anybody argued against that.
And so there's a federal judge, And this one is absolute hilarious.
I want to end with this.
The federal judge who put a halt on it temporarily, who say you can't go into Portland. You have to stop at this point, although they're on their way, you can't do it, is.
Not a radical left wing judge.
Usually judges that rule against the administration are radical left wing judges who.
Should be impeached.
This one is simply a judge who has lost her way. And you know why she's a judge who has lost her way because she's.
A Trump appointee.
And you can't have a Trump appointee a radical left wing judge, because how does the president put into place a radical left wing judge? So she just lost her way. It's pretty scary stuff. Now, is he going to do what he's considering doing it? He said he's considering. If the courts go against him, then he says he will. Well, he says he may. I think he will, that's my opinion. But there's no question that the president truly believes that insurrection is defined by what he says it is.
That's it. He defines what the constitution is.
And as I said, bottom line is President Trump believes I am the Constitution of the United States. My job is not to enforce the law. My job is to enforce what I think. The law is what I believe, and if you are against me, then you are violating the Constitution. January sixth, rioters that was not a riot. Can't use the word riot. You have to use the word patriots. In overrunning the capital, the word is patriots.
And of course everybody was pardoned, you know, I mean, that's the world we live in, and I'm having a you know, obviously a lot.
Of us having a tough time, and a lot of us aren't.
There are a lot of people who think that everything the president is doing is absolutely wonderful and believe that he is the constitution that he embodies America. And those of us who have some real problems, well, we're traders. Okay. Now we're going to get something really serious. And we've been talking about insurrection and civil rights, but now we're going to get really serious.
Parking.
If you live in the city of Los Angeles, which I used to but I'm still there all the time, parking, we're talking about meter parking, We're talking about the money you have to spend It used to be you put quarters in into meters and that would give you an hour quite a while ago, and I always ran out of quarters because, as I said this morning, I always used my quarters up at strip clubs, so I never had any. And then they went to credit cards, which is very easy to do, and it is why because
it's expensive. Now, well, the metered spaces, the prices haven't gone up in more than a decade, so prices are going up fifty cents for the most of the city's thirty five thousand spaces right now, the prices are a dollar to eight fifty per hour.
That one I don't understand.
My dollar goes up to a buck fifty, and I think eight to fifty goes up to nine dollars an hour, And why are they doing that. It's a revenue call. That's actually more than a revenue call. Because here is the argument that's being made by the La City Transportation.
It's a win win situation.
It gets more people moving around, it's more expensive, so you're quicker to get in and out.
The businesses love it, and so you know it's a good thing, right. I don't quite understand that.
I do find a business person I understand it, but for the most part, you know, it's it's a straight revenue call. The city's going to get another fifteen million dollars. Have you seen a meter maid any place in the last bunch of years. I have not seen one of those meter maids. I have not. They still go around those little carts that they have. Amy you've just nodded you've seen meter maids. Yeah, they're not necessarily in the little carts, so they have little cars.
And it's their parting enforcement. They're everywhere. Are they all named Rita? I don't know. I don't stop to ask.
Oh, okay, well, yeah, no kidding. Oh. Here's an interesting factoid which I didn't know until I started looking at this, and that is if you, let's say you have a few minutes left and someone is looking for the parking spot and you put in some money, uh, to give them some extra time, do you know that's illegal? You are not allowed to put in money to have someone else take your spot. They have to pay for themselves. Got stupid laws, right, you can't have a car full
of pickles on Sunday. You know, those laws that were passed at the turn of the last century just crazy stuff. Okay, coming up, it's Rich Demurrow, and then a couple of stories we I want to share with you your brain or lack of them, and then a story about wild horses. We have to do that song of course, and then tomorrow and and we don't have the time.
Can you get that the ig Nobel.
Prizes, because this weeks matter of fact, I think a prize was just handed out from the Physics Prize for work in quantum physics, and so all this week we are getting information on who's going to get the various prizes, ending Friday with the Peace Prize, that's the big one.
Tomorrow we're gonna do the ig Ig Nobel Prizes.
It is one of the funniest segments you are going to hear in a very long time, almost to the point where you think this is an snl skit na. I couldn't be. It's true. And that's coming up tomorrow. This is kf I Am six forty.
You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
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