Welcome to the party pal. The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. That was just BS. time to get a new perspective we know just what you need and we've got just the cure open wide and prepare for steaming hot cup of freedom i just don't fathom it
The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. Live around the world on the internet at MichaelDukesShow.com and across the state of Alaska on this, your favorite radio station and or FM. Translator, hello my friends and good morning to you. It is The Michael Duke Show and it's Monday. Wow. It was a fast weekend, wasn't it? It was a fast weekend. Lots of stuff happening. Lots of stuff going on. But here we are back to it. Another Monday fun day.
And we are ready to go with you. Got a big week lined up here. We're coming up into the final days. of the legislative session. This is the final two weeks, essentially. April 20th. is the final official day of the session this year, and it's rapidly approaching, and our legislators still have not figured out. how to fleece us as much as they possibly can. So they're working on that right now. Just, just so that, you know, they're working on that right now.
Um, there's a lot of things going on and a lot of hand wringing and boy, the people out there, or maybe I should say the sheeple out there. are bang, bang, bang to the wolves so much to basically say, eat me, just to eat me. I just, just to solve all these problems, just to eat me. It's pretty crazy. On top of that, we got all the national stuff going on, of course, with the tariffs and everything. People are, you know, there's a lot of hand-wringing going on. Let's just put it that way.
Um, there is another, there's a, just a lot of hand wringing, uh, going on over the state of the nation and the stock market and the tariffs and, oh man, it's, um. It's it's pretty it's pretty crazy right now with what's going on. But here we are doing our thing. And we're just going to go through a lot of these headlines that went on over the weekends, because I'm sure many of you. just um just just didn't you know you're you didn't take the time this weekend to
stay up on all of it, right? To stay up on all of it. You're like, okay, we're just, we're just gonna la la la la la. Good for you. good for you because you know some of this stuff is going to work itself out the the here's what kills me overall about the uh hemming and hawing on the stock market let me just say let me just i guess i'll throw this out here first The hemming and hawing on the stock market, it always recovers.
Now, in the midst of the throes of pain and turmoil and market adjustments and everything else, it looks bad. Right? The Dow's down a thousand. Oh, it's down another thousand. Oh, it's struggling. We just don't know what's going to happen. We're right over. But the bottom line is, is that it will recover as because it's all based on market confidence, right? And we're going to come back. It's going to be okay. Yeah, it's dire right now, but I think it's going to be okay.
But everybody is just so up in arms about all of this stuff right now. And understandably so. If you just watched your pension or your 401k or your, you know, whatever, just drop down. A big chunk. Just be patient. Just be patient. And if you got a few extra bucks lying around, now's the time you might want to buy. I'm just saying.
I mean, you just, you know, now is the, now is the time you might want to buy when it's bottomed out and, uh, see what it looks like on the other side. Right. Cause it's going to come back. The companies, the physical assets, these kind of, this stuff's not going away. It's going to come back. But we're seeing this whole movement play out across the nation and across the state. We're seeing this whole movement play out of...
of, you know, oh, well, we've got to have, government's got to come in and save us. There was the 50-51, 50-501, that's the big movement around the country. 50 protests in 50 states in one day. And they've been doing this on and off. Since the first part of the year, since Trump took office, the people who are out there just protesting, just protesting the fact that I guess Trump got elected, that they don't like his policies, that they don't want to cut.
I mean, at one point I heard that, at one point I heard that, you know, Well, more than one point. Well, government should be cut, but, you know, this is not the right way. Well, what is the right way? I think that's the bigger. If this is not the right way. and we've known that there needs to be cuts, if we've known that we need to pull in the horns and size and scope of government, if we know that there's waste, fraud, and abuse,
then what is the right way? Because what we've been doing so far has obviously not worked. So what is the right way? See, everything that's going to have to happen in the future is going to have pain points. And what I think you're seeing here is a microcosm of what's going to have to happen. When the final domino finally falls. And we'll talk about that this morning as well. That this is just a sneak peek. It's a sneak peek.
of what's going to be coming and what's going to be happening. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the town hall meeting in Anchorage where everybody was screaming, tax me. I mean, literally, that was some of the things. We're going to talk about the new state operating budget that came out of the House Finance Committee with the... With the accidental PFD in it. The accidental PFD. And where does that go from here? Where, what does that happen?
We'll also talk about who some of the who some of the. readers of Must Read Alaska, which is the the Republican newspaper in the state, the conservative, I guess, news outlet in the state. Who do they think should be running for governor? They ran a poll, some interesting results, something that I did not expect. The fact that Anchorage lawmakers are not only looking, you know, lawmakers from Anchorage, I guess, state lawmakers from Anchorage are not only looking to boost the regular funding.
But now they want to boost for education. They now want to raise on top of that. They want to boost the pre-K funding as well, which includes another big chunk of money. And we've still got all these issues in front of us that are all coming forward, including the supplemental budget, which is unfunded, education funding. the PFD, et cetera, et cetera. It's all so many things to cover this morning as we go through. And I did mention the 5150.
50-51 protests as well. And then to top it all off, just in case you didn't have enough to think about today. I just took a look at the crude oil prices for today. Um, so far today, they dip down, uh, to $58 a barrel, $58.95 a barrel. So 59 bucks. Yeah, that's, you know, that's not the West Coast intermediary. It's just, you know, WTI, West Texas intermediary or anything. That's just regular crude oil, but that's an indicator.
currently $61, $61 for oil. And, uh, I don't know what the price was that they fixed this year for oil, but, uh, it's going to be, it's, you know, somewhere in the seventies. Uh, and so we're already, we're already, uh, uh, pulling forward and see, look from the, and somebody just mentioned it. I just looked from the time I started talking about the markets and how they're all going to come back.
They start clawing back there. They just for now, the live updates are just saying the market's clawing itself back. Don't panic. 500, 500 is a massive reversal. They're coming back up. See? I mean, it's just a watched pot never boils. Just know that in the long run, it's going to go well. I mean... Probably that's a hard thing to say if it was like 1929, but by 1931, 1932, it was all good, right? It was all good.
All right. Anyway, we're going to get into this and more this morning as well. Oh, we've got your and we've got your. We get the phone lines open as well. So if you want to sound off and, you know, give me a counterpoint to anything. I ran into somebody this weekend who said. who said, you know, I love your show. I don't always agree with you, but you know, you always bring up good points. And sometimes I want to scream at my radio and, you know, yada, yada. And I'm like, well, you can call.
You can always call and offer a counterpoint. I've got no problem with that. We'll have a conversation. It doesn't have to be a screaming match or attack, attack, attack. We can always, you know, bring this up together. So the phone lines are open right now. 319-527-3864. 319. 527-3864. If you've got some thoughts this morning as well, I'd love to hear what you have to say.
Uh, feel free to, uh, feel free to, to give us a ringy ding and we'll bring you on and we'll, uh, we'll talk about that, uh, as well. It's a, it's a good time. Good time. to jump into this with this fun day monday as we go through headlines and more we'd love to hear what you have to say with us just uh let's let's let's get let's get it going on that's what we're saying right now let's do that All right. Well, we're coming up on the break.
So we'll take it here a minute early. And we'll be back and we'll get ready to kick things off, shall we? Yeah, Brian says that optimistically assumes that we want to talk. Maybe you don't want to talk. Maybe you just want to listen. I've got more to say. Let's get with it. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty-based, free-thinking radio. Back with more. If you missed the show, you can listen to it on your time with Duke's On Demand.
free, like America used to be. Streaming live every weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Kevin says, this is the session of exciting terms. Deep fake fiscal note. Accidental PFD. Yeah, I mean, it's the accidental. Oops, oops. We accidentally included a full PFD in there. We didn't mean to. Sorry. Ja. Ja. Ooh, MD ran into a true homeroid.
I just, you know, they were so nice. They were so nice about it. Like, oh, I listened to your show. Yeah. I don't always agree with you, but you know, and sometimes you make me want to scream at my radio. That's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Um, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Um... Kunashi... Let's see. I'm just going back here to see what's going on. Fat Ray says, the biggest impediment to fixing issues are the people Yuri warned us about, like the ones in Anchorage.
Oh, man. Everything is wonderful, says Willie. I like where your head's at, Willie. MD speaks and the markets are shooting up, says Chris. Well, you know, it is what it is. I'm just scrolling backwards to see. Oh, Fat Ray said earlier on, I wonder if crew dropping to $60 a barrel is one of the headlines.
I can't wait for the legislature to do the adult thing and cut the budget to match. Yeah, don't hold your breath on that because that'll lead to asphyxiation, okay? Don't hold your breath on that there, sir. Bill's over here doing the happy snow dance. I don't think we have to worry much about it. I mean, there's a little bit of... There's a little bit of snow here, but it's 33 degrees. I don't imagine it's going to last very long. Let's just put it that way.
Over the weekend, I got some news clips here and there about the protesters protesting. And I noticed a commonality. Most of them seem to have no idea why they're angry or why they are protesting. When some of them asked them, most of them would cough up a CNN talking point that made no sense. Then started name calling. Lots of people need therapy. There's always five different banners from Palestine to Nazi nonsense to social security theft.
And he goes on and on. I mean, that's a common theme that these people don't, a lot of times can't articulate what they're angry about. They just know. That they should be angry. And more importantly, we're going to get into this here in a little bit, that they should be afraid. That's what they should be afraid. They should be angry and that they should be afraid. Those are the, those are the, that, that is the, that is the constant consistent reminder in the end is that you need to be afraid.
And that was articulated this Saturday by somebody who was here in Homer, a lady named Lolita. Uh, she's quoted in an article by the Penance of Clarion that we're going to get into here in a bit, talking about this 50, 51, um, a protest movement that's going on out there, but it's about, but it's about, um, it's about fear. That's what, that's what, that's, that's, that's the thing. Anyway, it's going to be interesting.
Troopers are looking for my trapper friend today, said Franks. He was not at his pickup point in the bush. No sign of him there. Well, let's hope that they find him. Franks, let's hope that they find him. Um, that would be a, that would be a positive, you know, but he's out there doing something he loved. So let's hope, but let's hope he shows up.
Okay. Let's get back to it, shall we? We're about 10 seconds out, getting ready to bump back into this. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. The Michael Duke Show. Not your daddy. Wait, sorry. Not your daddy? Ooh, not your daddy's... Scared for a second. Thought we were going down. Okay, welcome back to the program. Let's see, where do we want to start? I guess we'll start with some of the protests.
There was a lot of protesting going on around the state. There's several articles about this project that you may or may not have heard of. The 50-51 project. And this is 50 protests in 50 states on one day, right? That's where they came up with the schnazzy 50-51 name. and they've been organizing these since January. Now, interestingly enough, When these things got started, they started off pretty low and slow. There's a story in the Peninsula Clarion.
Talking about the Kenai protests and how the organizer in Soldatna, her name is Michelle Vasquez. She said over recent months, the central Kenai Peninsula have been increasing. that back in January, there were three people at a protest. And then there was a dozen at the protests that they had for 50-51 on the 17th of February. And then they had a hundred. out in March, the first part of March. And this last one on Saturday, they had 300.
So we're growing, I think, is what what they're saying. But here's what's interesting about all these protests. And I think that somebody in the chat room just made a mention about it. He said, over the weekend, I saw some news clips here and there about the protesters protesting, and I noticed a commonality.
Most of them really seem to have no idea why they are angry or why they are protesting. When someone asked them, most of them would cough up talking points that made no sense and then started name calling. And I was watching some of the I was watching YouTube this weekend and was watching some commentary from both sides on this. And what's interesting is. He's right. There was a lot of people that when confronted with questions of, you know, okay, what specifically are you upset about?
What specifically, what is the reasons, and what is your solution? If not the solutions offered for whatever they brought up, and most of the time they couldn't even articulate. You know, and these are pretty well-spoken people, some of these people who were in the clips that I saw. This wasn't like somebody with one single tooth in their mouth, slobber and all. These were well-dressed, articulate people, and yet they still couldn't really articulate what it was that they were upset about.
They just knew that they had to do something because they feel like this thing is that something is just not right. Right. That's the that's the whole point. People don't understand that what we're looking at right now is a microcosm of what's going to happen. in the future if we don't make some changes in this country and in this state. It's inevitable. It really is. Inevitable. But what's really driving this more than anything else is fear. The fear that's being genned up by...
organizations and the mainstream news media and more. And that was encapsulated, I thought, nicely in a comment from, um, From from the Peninsula Clarion, they had an article about the protests where they talk about that, you know, hundreds of people turning out in hundreds of people turning out in Soldotna. People turning out in Homer, Kenai, you know, all across the peninsula. But there was one comment captured here that I think encapsulates the problem completely.
And here's what it said. A Homer community member named Lolita said she attended Saturday's protest. because of the importance of action in response to feelings of fear and isolation. and suggested that individuals should not just stay at home, but actively resist. Quote, I don't want to be scared.
I want to feel like I have some agency. I want to feel like I can look around and see people who agree with me. I think that's really important. But I think it's really important to feel tied to your community and not feel isolated. So really, it's for us. It's for strengthening that feeling. What can I do to resist? And see, that's what's happening. The news media and the folks who are...
I guess, I mean, I guess the term loosely is orchestrating this or organizing this or pushing for this. They are pushing this narrative of fear. And the isolation part, I think, is interesting as well because People want to belong to something, and they want to know that they're not alone.
But in this day and age of the Internet and everything else, I mean, it's ironic that here we are connected, potentially connected to every other person in the world, and many people feel more isolated than ever before. You know, get out. Say hi to people. I went out on Friday night. to pick up some food for uh terry and i because she was uh she was not feeling good and i wanted to wanted to do something nice so i went out and picked up some food at a food truck thing that they had here in homer
And I got a chance to stand with a bunch of people and talk with a bunch of people over the course of, I don't know, 35, 40 minutes as we were waiting there to get food and everything. People that I wouldn't normally, you know, it wouldn't be my crowd, so to speak. And it was really interesting to talk with people and to go out and about and be amongst people. Right. I mean, it's such a unique thing. Hey, look, there's people here.
If you're feeling that isolation, if you're feeling that fear, that's exactly where they want you. They want you to feel isolated. They want you to feel fear. Because then... You're easier to control. You're easier to manipulate. This is all about fear. I'm afraid. I'm fearful. And I didn't feel that way. When Joe Biden was president.
I mean, I had some anger over some of the things that he did and some of the policies, and I may have had some long-term fears in the way the country was going, but I didn't have any kind of immediate... I mean, you know, it's a whole different thing, but there is a whole movement here. to motivate this entire nation or one segment of this entire nation based simply on the fact that you should be afraid.
They want to fill in the blank, eliminate you, remove your protected status. They want to hurt you. They want to take your kid. They want to steal from you. They want it's just it. And when they come together, they feel more powerful. And I understand that because that's the power of esprit de corps. We're human beings. We all want to belong to something greater than ourselves.
I mean, whether that is political or religious or whatever, we all want to be part of something grander. Right. That's human nature. But they are manipulating that fear. It's the same thing that's going on with the education debate. But again, I think most people are not thinking beyond the talking point.
Uh, but, but this is it. This is the thing in the same article was the, uh, was the comment that I was talking about earlier when there's a lot of people are saying, Oh, you know, uh, there was a quote from a guy named, um, And he said he's concerned about Alaska's public lands. And he's calling Trump's desire to drill in the gates of the Arctic National Park, gates of the Arctic National Park as a precedent setter.
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I was wrong, wrong, wrong quote. So let me get the right quote. Changes to the cost of government are needed, said one soldatna protester. But the way Trump and Musk are tackling it is wrong. He said, we've got to stamp out the right thing. We've got to stamp out the wrong thing. We've got to find people who agree what the right thing is.
That, you know, government is needed, but the changes, the cuts are, but the way that they're tackling it is wrong. Okay, well, what's your solution? See, because you're never going to find a way to cut the size and scope of government. Not even if you just didn't want to cut government. Let's just say you just wanted to clean it up. and get rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse. You're never going to find a way to do that without hurting somebody because somebody's benefiting.
either intentionally or unintentionally from that waste, fraud, and abuse. So somebody is always going to be hurt. See, when they say things like what they're doing is, you know, we need cuts, but they're doing it the wrong way. What they're saying is. we need to find a way where nobody gets hurt, where nobody feels the pain, where nobody is affected in any way in a negative way. And that's just not going to happen. And as I said earlier, what you're looking at here is just a brief snapshot.
of what's going to happen in the future if we don't get a grip on it now, if we don't pull back on the spending now at the national level. than these quote-unquote austerity measures, which is really, there's a lot of talk going on right now, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of savings actually happening. Doesn't seem to be a lot of actual cutting going on. They've talked about a lot of it, but and a few things. But I mean, it doesn't.
This is going to be but just a slight fraction of what will happen because there will be no other choice. Because we truly will be out of money. And there'll be a lot more people hurt in a much more visceral way because we haven't trimmed it out and we can't do it with precision because we'll just be out of option. And now you got to cut it off with a cleaver instead of a scalpel. This is what I mean. Folks don't seem to understand that there is no more money.
I mean, I don't know how to say it any clearer than that. Oh, we're too big to fail. Don't worry about it. We're too big to fail. Well, that is not the case. Many Rome thought it was too big to fail, my friends. And where are we at today? We're digging in its grave. We're digging in its ashes. You know, the Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe. I mean, we can go through case after case. Of course it'll always be there. Don't worry about it.
That is not the actual fact. What we're seeing today in the terms of cuts and proposed cuts from Doge are a pale substitute for what would happen if we default on our debt. If we continue to run the piggy bank and the credit card dry, I mean, you think this is bad? And the state should be taking a lesson from this. And instead, what the state's doing is it's trying to emulate. It's trying to be all things to all people. And the legislators are just ignoring what they need to be doing.
I mean, they're passing amorphous cut. with no direction. Here, you cut some. We're going to hand it to you. This hot potato, this hand grenade without the pin, Governor, this is yours. $74 million in cuts. You decide where to cut. We're abdicating our responsibility. They're passing an operating budget with no funding mechanism. They're passing a supplemental budget with no funding mechanism. There's no more money.
And instead of addressing that and having that conversation with their constituents, They are just blindly going along like it's all going to be OK and and proposing even more spending at this point. So, we're going to continue on in this discussion and uh we're we're gonna We're going to come back in just a moment. And we're going to talk about how the legislature continues to do this with the latest, the accidental PFD.
That's what we're going to talk about next, the accidental PFD. Phone lines are open. Am I wrong? I mean, I want to hear it. Am I wrong? Am I just being too doom and gloom? 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense Radio. listened to by more staffers in Juno than any other show. Because their bosses told them to. And after what they just heard, oh man, they're gonna be pissed. You're a bad, bad man. The Michael Duke Show.
Let me get caught up. Let me get caught up here in the chat room to see what you guys are talking about. Chris said, I saw a man having to read a piece of paper telling him why he was protesting, and he really still didn't understand why he was there. Anthony said, been saying this for a minute about how these protests. I've been saying this for a minute about these protests. No unifying message beyond Trump bad. Everything makes me feel bad.
And a seemingly well-funded, aggressive propaganda campaign nobody can put their finger on where it's coming from. You can't see it, but my eyebrow is raised intensely. That's it. I mean, it's the outrage, right? I mean, when you can motivate people who would normally, I think, be reasonable, well-meaning people to walk by some random stranger's car. and just key the car because of the make and model of the car.
When they're so outraged, they're willing to do physical damage and to destroy other people's property. That's all about emotion at that point. It doesn't do anything. It's all about emotion. Um... I'm going back here. One thing that would be very helpful, says Richie, is to have the administration show in greater detail where cuts to Social Security is happening. 98% of those cuts are not impacting anyone protesting. They are cutting payments to people that have been dead for 50 years.
or payments to illegals, or fake social security numbers. Someone needs to put an end to the conspiracy theory fear-mongering. But see, they don't want to. And the news media definitely doesn't want to. It's one of those self-licking ice cream cones where the news media shows the ball of fear out on the street. protesting and all the reasons and they never clarify the fact that
Well, they're talking about, they're protesting the cuts to Social Security, not even realizing that the cuts are to people who are dead or receiving it illegally or whatever. They don't counterpoint. Because it gets them more clicks. And when they show that, then the fear is generated in more people who then go in to join the mob of people who are worried and yada, yada, yada.
Cindy said, there were a lot of people at the protest that I didn't even recognize. Well, you don't run in those circles, Cindy. I mean, probably. in a different social strata or different sphere of influence than you are. So I'm not surprised that you don't recognize a lot of people at those protests. I mean, I know Kenai Soldaten is a small area, but, you know, not surprising. But it's 300 people.
300 people out of 100,000 people on the peninsula, right? And that's about what it is. 100,000 people, roughly 90-something thousand on the peninsula. So, you know, not surprising. Fat Ray says fermenting. The media is fermenting these feelings in people. Yes. Yes, yes, they are. That's what Jeffrey Coghill says. Scared of what? Scared of being scared? I mean, scared of the amorphous they, Jeffrey. This is the penultimate. This is like.
This is like when your Pokemon evolves into the final form. This is the final form of that fear. This is what we've been talking about this whole time. When they divide us. And they cause the polarization and the divisiveness, which again is fostered by the news media and others. When we reach its final form. And they don't even know what they're scared of. They can't even articulate it. They just know they're scared of the they, of the them, of the other.
The people on the other side of the fence. That's what they're afraid of. The they. Catherine says, meh, if it helps them feel like they're doing something as long as it's peaceful. I agree. I mean, I'm happy to see them out there. I'm glad that somebody got out there and had their say. Is it going to change anybody's mind? I mean, just look at some of the protests. Look at what some of the signs say.
What Corey said. That's what one of the signs said. Lisa, Dan, and Nick, stand up. Impeach Trump. That was another one. Diversion, equity, inclusion, and accessibility now, because we don't have any of that now? Science is not an alternative. No gods, no masters. Resist. These are the signs. These are the signs. March against tyranny. Hands off voters' rights. Patriots against fascism. Right? This is where they're at.
Public enema number one. Oh, wait, sorry. Enemy. Public enemy number one, which makes more sense. On the other hand, he's a little bit of a pain in the Michael Duke show. We were just talking about the fear. and the fear, and these people don't even understand what they're really protesting. And if you are one of the protesters and you want to call in and articulate what you're protesting about,
I'd love to hear what you have to say. But all you have to do is look at the signs that they were holding up. the signs that they were holding up to protest. True patriots are against fascism. So a legitimate election with a president is fascism. That's what you're saying. March against tyranny. Science is not an alternative fact. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility now because we don't have diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. No gods, no masters. Resist.
Okay. Okay. All right. Hands off public broadcasting. What was the other one? Impeach Trump. what cory said cory booker i think is who they were you know uh what was the other one uh One guy had a had a block of text. It was a quote from CNN's Chris Silzilla.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise, unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and science, and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. An insurgent outlier that captured well over 50% of the electorate, both in the electoral college and in the popular vote. So you're right. You're right. I'm sure, Chris, you're right.
What are some of the other signs? Protect queer youth. Science is compliant. What? Science is compliant. Be anti-racist. Okay, I can get behind that. Be anti-ra... I mean, I'm not... Resist! It's just, these are some, this is the signs that you just go over there and take a look at it. Save our democracy. Hands off our university.
How does that how does one could see? Here's the problem. A government that's big enough to give you everything is big enough to take everything away. Why is it the government's responsibility? to fund our universities. The universities are supposed to be state institutions or local or privately held institutions. You want to know why this is such a problem? It's such a problem because we've been giving federal monies to all these universities have become dependent.
On become dependent on this federal money. And now they're they're crying. Oh, save our democracy. Hands off our universe. I mean, all you have to do is look at the. All you have to do is look at the sign. Your hatred is showing. That was probably my favorite one. Your hatred is showing. How does, how again, it's a bunch of meaningless cycle babble. I mean, the other one that got me, the science is compliance. What? The science is compliance?
I mean, that's the whole basis of science, right? Science knows that it's constantly changing. We're constantly discovering new things, that there's nothing that the science is settled is like the most ridiculous thing that you've ever heard when somebody says the science is settled.
Because, no, we're always finding new things. Did you see the thing that they just found out? The science, oh, DNA is irrefutable. Oh, fingerprints are irrefutable. Did you see the new thing that just came out? That AI proves that fingerprints are not unique? Potentially upending the entire legal system? That your fingerprints are not as unique as they thought they were? But the science behind fingerprinting is better. I mean, that's just one example. Just one example.
The science, science is compliance, protect queer youth. Are they not being protected? Are they not? None of these, you know, rip to LGBTQ rights. Why? You don't have rights anymore? Or maybe it's just because you didn't have special rights that weren't allowed to, you know, it wasn't an equity thing.
I mean, this whole thing is just it. You just watch this and you realize that there's a bunch of people out there that are just out there protesting, protesting based solely on emotion. And that emotion is fear. Again, they can't articulate exactly what it is that they are so upset about, other than they know they're upset. And God love them. I'm glad they got a chance to go out there and...
And protest and come together and feel some kumbaya and some community and some esprit de corps with those people that believe in the same thing that they believe in. But it doesn't make it true. Fear keeps the flying monkeys in order. You know, just that's exactly it. You know, and and and you're much easier to manipulate. When you're fearful. And this, somebody just mentioned COVID in the chat room. And this is the same kind of thing we saw during the COVID crisis. People being so fearful.
And just upset and... And dividing us and the screaming about you're not wearing a mask in your own car when you're driving around. And how dare you? Or you're outside playing with your kids and you're not wearing a mask outside in a, you know, in a space all by yourself. How dare you? I mean, again, there was a lot of fear that was baked into that as well. That's what they were selling because selling fear works.
If COVID showed us nothing else, it showed us that selling fear works and it is a powerful manipulator slash motivator. It's interesting to watch. It's interesting to watch. And then on the other side of that coin is the fear plus something. And in this case, it's... Self-flagellation. It's self-flogging. It's like the self-harm. You get the same people in this case, we're going to talk about this big town hall that took place in Anchorage where they were talking about education.
And they had the same amount of fear, but their answer to that was, Tax me harder, daddy. That was their answer. That was their answer. And they're again running on the same batch of fear that everybody else is. Oh, our schools are going to crumble and fade away to nothing. They're just going to crumble. And yet their answer to that was tax me harder, daddy. That's that's going to be we're going to get into that here in in just a moment.
But here's my exhortation to you, because we're coming up to the end of the hour, and I know some of you got to go to work and everything else. So let me just summate everything that we just talked about. Whether it's the stock market. going up and down because of the tariffs and everything else, or here's the thing, you're going to make it. In the long run, the markets always go up.
Right. They always grow in the long, long run. And we're talking about a 10 or 20 year window. So you may have to wait a couple more years before you retire. I know that's, you know, that may upend some of your things, but that's, that's, that is what it is. Don't be afraid. Go forward boldly without fear. It's all going to be okay. Most of these things will have no effect on almost anybody. The things that they're fearful of, most of them could not even potentially come true.
And even those things that they are worried about that potentially have some truth to them are not, you know, are not being used in the way that they say they're being used. Now, could they? And live your life. And stop getting tied up in all this other stuff. And, you know, if you're feeling fearful and isolated like Lolita was. Maybe go out and meet some people. Go shake hands with your neighbor.
Go out and have a beer with somebody. And enjoy your time. And maybe you won't feel quite so isolated. We've got more coming up. The Michael Duke Show. Hour 2 today. Yeah. Richie mentioned COVID. And I think he's onto something here. He said, could some of the unhinged fear and anger be some residuals from COVID? No, I think they just honed it during COVID. I think it was there. I think they've just honed it during COVID.
Seems like people completely lost the ability or willingness to have a rational conversation, to have a discussion, to talk about solutions, or to agree to disagree. It's like they're all looking for a reason to take their frustrations out on everyone. Bizarre. Well, it's the righteousness of outrage, right? They feel vindicated in being outraged. I mean, how...
How often have you run into somebody like that? They're just, they're outraged and they're proud. They're proud of being outraged because it's the righteous thing to do. It's virtuous to be outraged. And you're right. COVID just showed them how unhinged fear and anger, what a valuable tool it could be. I don't think it's residuals from COVID. I think it was refined with COVID. This kind of manipulation was refined with COVID. All right. Let me see where I'm at here.
Um, never. See, does Congress follow the leader of Alaska spending? I heard something about a $3,800 PFT. I read it three or four times with my glasses on and came to the conclusion it had to be a mistake. Nope, it's no mistake. $3,900. That's, you know, that's a real thing, Richie. I'm scrolling through.
I'm going there. The Trump administration had briefings showing specifics where the cuts are being made, but it isn't making a difference. People don't want to listen. Yeah. I mean, it was like the discussion on tariffs. Did you see the tariff list? That came out where it showed our terrorist, you know, Trump's proposed tariffs versus the tariffs that these countries are already charging us.
I mean, there was hardly any of them that were where we were even going to be equal to what their tariffs were. We were always lower, in some cases, tremendously lower. Yeah, I don't recall any trucks being keyed back when GM and Chrysler got billions in federal bailouts, said David. Uh-huh. Um, you forget what's, you're forgetting what was supposed to be bipartisan was actually nonpartisan in Fairbanks this past weekend, said Miguel.
Um... When she said, I always laugh at the various forms when the purple haired Prius pilots talk tough and start to imply they're going to show us a thing or two. The image of something breaking out and a bunch of them waving double-ended dildos vigorously in the air and signs. Yeah, I mean...
I love it when they talk like that. Oh, we're going to, oh, we're going to. You're going to what? You're the ones that said nobody should have guns. And now the world's falling apart and you think you're going to come show us a thing or two? Au contraire, mon frere. Frank said, I had my sign in the protest this weekend, but no one noted mine. Teachers rely on my taxes. Because Frank's just out there trolling the teachers at that point.
Resist. The only thing most of these people have resisted is taking a shower, getting a job, and being protective members of the society. I think that probably is a misnomer. But what exactly are you resisting? What exactly are you resisting? psychobabble is that a word yes it's not spelled like that but it is a word psychobabble that's where a lot of it you know can you please learn to spell keen eye did i who did i not spell what what what um
All right. Elaborate on the PFD error. The accidental PFD. Politics have become the new religion, Rob. I've been saying that for a long time. That is the new religion. Again. What is one of the virtues of the new rule? To be outraged of what your political opponents are doing. That, thus saith the Lord, is that you will be outraged by your opponents. I'm in Homer. I'm in Homer. Okay. I guess that's it. All right. We're going to, um, we're going to, I'm caught up. I'm all caught up.
And we're 30 seconds from the top of the hour. So you guys ready to do this thing? Let's get to it, shall we? Let's get to it. The Michael Duke Show, Common Sense Radio. Whoa, buddy. Put that thing back in its holster. We haven't gone anywhere. I don't understand. Check out themichaeldukesshow.com for information on how to get access to the podcast. Welcome to the party pal.
The Michael Duke Show. The greed and the entitlement is astounding to me. What more could you want from a low-budget radio program? This is a dumpster fire. That was just BS. to get a new perspective. We know just what you need and we've got just the cure. Open wide and prepare for a steaming hot cup of freedom. The Michael Dukes Show, streaming live across the world. And we're back, live around the world on the internet at michaeldukeshow.com and across the state of Alaska on this.
Your favorite radio station and or FM translator. And, of course, also live on Facebook, YouTube and Rumble every morning right here from 6 to 8 a.m. It is The Michael Duke Show. Alaska news, Alaska talk, Alaska stuff all the time, all day, every day. Come on down and join us. Bring a friend. Bring a friend. All right, hour two of the big radio show, and we are getting into it here. We want to talk about the $3,900 PFD, the accidental PFD. Yes, that's what's being proposed.
You're going to get into that 39. I mean, if it happens, I'm all for it at this point. I really am all for $3,900 PFD. Bring it, bring it on, bring it, bring it on. The accidental PFD. We're going to talk about that here in just a bit. But first, I want to talk about the governor. Not this governor, Mike Dunleavy, but the potential future governor.
The potential future governor who is going to be. And we've heard a lot of names, right? We've heard a lot of names being thrown around. Of course, Mary Peltola is always in the mix. It seems like she is going to be the poster child for the Democrats. no matter what happens. So poster child for the Democrats. Some other names that have been tossed around on the Republican side include Adam Crum. Natasha Von Imhoff, Click Bishop.
Somebody even said Peter Machicky from down here on the peninsula. Some other ones. Of course, Nancy Dahlstrom is another name that's been thrown around out there. So we'll. We'll see where it comes out. But Must Read Alaska has got a new one, one that I hadn't heard, one that I would not even have considered. It's super, super interesting. It was a non-scientific survey that was run in the must-read Alaska newsletter. It was a non-scientific survey and it had a space for five names.
And so the names that the Must Read Alaska chose for the five were Mary Peltola, Adam Crum, Treg Taylor, the attorney general, Nancy Dahlstrom, the lieutenant governor, and Bernadette Wilson. Now. For those of you who don't know who Bernadette is, we're going to get into that in a second, because lo and behold, who was the all time by a landslide winner in that five way race? Bernadette Wilson.
OK, now the other five have all run for office. They've all they're all high profile. They've all served in public. I mean, you know. They've all served in the public. Bernadette Wilson is the only one who's never run for office. None of the names have actually filed for the 2026 governor race, but apparently all of them are known to be what Suzanne Downing says. They are known to be kicking the tires. to see if they can mount a credible campaign.
So they sent the question out to 33,000 people who subscribe to the three times a week newsletter. And it ran from March to the 31st to April 2nd. And when it came out, Bernadette Wilson... was 44%. By 44% was the lead winner. The closest was Nancy Dahlstrom at 20%. Adam Crum at 17, Treg Taylor at 16, and Mary Peltola at 4. Now, you would expect that because it's a conservative super voter paper. That's what must read.
Bernadette Wilson, for those of you who don't know, she owns a waste refuge company in Anchorage, and she's been politically active for quite some time. Was a state director for Americans for Prosperity. She hosted a radio talk show with Ethan Berkowitz. I don't know if you remember that. That piece. She's also put the parental notification initiative on the ballot back in 2010. And she's just been all over the place. She's definitely a mover and shaker in the conservative circle.
And the question is, is she down to run for office? Now, again, having never run for office in the past, is that a plus or a minus for you? Well, it's interesting because you can't attribute anything to, she's got no quote unquote voting record. You can't look at her record in the state house and say, what would she do as governor? But I think you can look at her bona fides and say, look at what she's done and what she's supported and kind of get an idea of where she's going.
Now, my question to her, my first question to her would be, would you look at cutting the size and scope of government because. She runs in circles that is frequented by people who have no problem with the size and scope of the government we have right now. That's the only problem that I see right now is that she is run with people and have been associated with a lot of people who are okay with the size and scope of government that we have right now and are happy to do it.
Um, but on the other hand, she was also the campaign manager for, um, uh, she was senior advisor. She wasn't a campaign manager, but she was a senior advisor to Nick Began. And Nick and I are both of one mind as far as this, that we need to cut the size and scope of government. Now, whether or not he can actually get something done there is going to be a question.
You know, maybe, maybe she believes in that, but that would be my first question to her. My first question to Bernadette would be, are you down with cutting the size and scope of government? But I'll be honest, I was surprised. I did not, I had not heard that one, she was kicking the tires to decide whether or not she wanted to run for governor.
And two, it was not a name that immediately jumped to my lips when we were talking about this. We were talking about this the other day, and we were looking at all the candidates, and I was not thrilled by any of the candidates. Bernadette could be a breath of fresh air in there. But again, it depends on what her overall philosophy is. I had high hopes for Governor Dunleavy.
And in fact, even through his first year, I had high hopes bringing in Donna Ardwin, bringing in and fighting that fight over the. over that first big budget where they started to cut. And then he rolled over and wet on himself, and that was the last time we saw it. I mean, just, that was it. He got put off by the whole recall effort. So what do you think? I mean, first of all, was Bernadette even on your bingo card?
She was definitely not on my gubernatorial bingo card that I had set up. But is she better than all the other candidates that have been thrown out there, you know, in the past? Yeah. I mean, I wasn't excited about it. I mean, just again, name the laundry list of candidates that we're talking about. Click Bishop, Nancy Dahlstrom, Natasha Von Imhoff, Peter Michicki, Adam Crum. None of those candidates just give me a warm, fuzzy feeling, right? None of those candidates.
Now, do I think Bernadette could go in there and shake it up? Absolutely. But what is her philosophy? Unknown yet. Unknown. I mean, if I had if I had a chance to write anybody in and make them governor. Well, let's just say that Michelle Schauer would be very mad at me if I had the power to appoint a governor like just on just by myself. Let's just say that Michelle Schauer. would be very upset with me if I had the power of appointment of a governor.
Because, I mean, I would just, you know, I'm interested. I'm interested to see where this goes. Because, again, none of the other candidates. makes me even think that it would be anything but business as usual. anything but business as usual. Yeah, she did. Somebody said she hung out with Lisa. Yeah. You know, and, and I. So I'm interested to see. There's problems with every candidate, but of all the candidates that I've heard so far, she's the one that interests me the most.
So we'll have to see. We'll have to see. 2026, my friends. This race is going to kick off sometime in the next five, six months. You're going to see this start to shape up. And we'll have to see where that goes. But yeah, that was just not a name that I was expecting when they were like, who's on the list for governor? From the Republican side, or I guess from any side, because they included Mary Peltola in there. But those five names are all known to be out there kicking the tire.
So again, Adam Crum, Mary Peltola, Treg Taylor, Nancy Dahlstrom, and Bernadette Wilson. So of that crowd. I think there's only one in there. There's only one in there. but uh you know mike shower okay i i could oh michelle's gonna be so mad at me right now i could just tell you right now she's gonna be so mad All right, we're coming up on the break. When we get back, we are going to talk about the accidental PFD. $3,900. The operating budget passed out of the House Finance Committee.
And it had one little problem. Well, actually it had two. The first one was the fact that it included a full statutory PFD. The second one is... So it's got two little problems, apparently. But, um... I'm all about that. I'm all about that. I want to talk about it. What does it mean? Where does it go? What does it mean? And it's now the time to embrace it. And it's basically, we talked about this the other day.
Should we just accelerate the demise of the state so that we can pick things up later on? I don't know. We're going to discuss this. Phone lines are also open if you want to talk about anything that we've been chatting about today. 319-527-3864. 319-527-3864. It is the Michael Duke Show. It's Monday. Running on 100% pure beard power. Oh, also some coffee. We dip our beard in coffee. Ha, nice beard. The Michael Duke Show. Anthony just beat his chest and said, I am Spartacus.
He said, all volunteers tribute. Make me the dang governor. If you're not a financially solvent institution, gone. If you're doing some shady stuff at the expense of the taxpayers, jail. You're out there being generally anti-American and complaining about the country and how good socialism is. Deported to Canada. All hail Anthony. Interesting. Interesting. Tim says, pretty sure you recently moved to Homer, but why don't you make a run for the governor's house?
You would not want me as your governor. I would not want to be your governor. I feel like we can do more good here on the radio show. And I've actually told people that when they've asked me to run for, because I've been asked to run for different state offices in the past. uh house representative and senators and i was like nope because i feel like i can do more good here
Because I don't play well with others. I don't know if you noticed that. I don't play well with others. And having to cajole 60 other yahoos into my point of view. is not my idea of a good time because i'd probably end up throat punching somebody over something i just you know that you know If I was going to run for any office, if you said you have to run for an office,
It's mandatory. What office would you run? It would be for governor because at least you'd have some decision-making authority and you could point the bus in the right direction. But... I just feel like I can do so much good, more good doing stuff on the radio than I could as a governor. Terry says, Anthony, run. Anthony DeAngelis, run. I would vote for you if Bernadette doesn't run.
I can still see that being Anthony's campaign platform, though. If you're being anti-American and complaining about the country, we deport you to Canada. That's a campaign promise. Richie says, I'll run. I have no campaign money or experience, but based on the way things have been run at this point, the experienced people don't have a resume that impresses. Yep. Bernadette is the one, maybe.
She didn't back down for patients' rights during the COVID lockdown in Anchorage. No. Again, she's well-known, and she's out there. Bernadette, the non-politician. Yeah, she had a radio show with the naked mayor of Las Anchorage. Yeah, she and I don't know if you ever listened to her, the Bernadette and Ethan show. I can't I can't I think that was the name of it. But it was hysterical. It was hysterical to listen to. She's sharp. She's very sharp.
Okay. internet is choppy today yeah i noticed that we had a power outage yesterday in homer and parts of the peninsula that last about four or five hours and things have still been a little choppy ever since then, so I don't know what's going on, if it's related to that or not. Uh, yeah. Michael King says click Bishop needs to get out. You'll never have a PFD if he gets selected. That's true. That is true. Cause he is not a fan of the permanent fund dividend. All right.
Rob Myers for governor. I'd vote for Rob Myers as well. Jeremy said, Gary Stevens wanted to see me run. Is that an endorsement? I don't know. Maybe. I mean, Gary's seat, he says he's not running for re-election. So maybe now's the time to put up a conservative alternative to... Um...
Let's continue on here. We're getting ready to jump into it. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Base, Free Thinking Radio. Like, share, subscribe, ring the bell, do all the YouTube-y things. Let's do it. The accidental PFD. Here we, well, it's like more like five seconds from now. I got a little ahead of myself. Sorry about that. Let's try that again. The Michael Dukes Show. Seriously humorous with a pinch of intellect. Pinch of intellect. Sorry. That is humorous. Here's Michael Dukes.
Okay. So they pass the operating budget out of the finance committee in the house. And on first glance, you're like, what? What? Not only is it 14 billion dollars. $14 billion. It includes a statutory PFD estimated to be about $38, $3,900 per eligible Alaska. Now, why? Well, apparently... Andy Josephson, the Democratic rep from Anchorage, who is the chair of the House Finance Committee, apparently he made a mistake and accidentally left it in the budget.
Now, he's no fan of the PFD. He has advocated for taking big chunks of the PFD for years. So the fact that he accidentally left it in and it wasn't discovered until after they had submitted the budget to the committee. Then they were in a conundrum because... He didn't. Nobody wants to be seen. You know, if you propose a budget that's got a thousand dollar PFD.
then it's not that big a deal. But if you propose a budget that's got a $38, $3,900 PFD and you propose to cut it down to $1,000, oh, that makes some waves. And see, there are rural Democrats on the Finance Committee that are... They don't want to have to. They can get behind. If it comes to their desk at $1,000, they could say, okay, yeah, we could try that. But if it comes to their desk at $3,800 and they've got to cut $2,800 of it out.
That's a hard pill to swallow. Their constituency, who in most cases in the rural areas, are more dependent on the PFD than almost anything else as far as their liquid cash flow for the year. They're not going to be very happy. Neil Foster, Nellie Jimmy, they are not going to jump on board with that with both feet. So Joe, Andy Josephson, he, he made a, he made a, he made a serious tactical error. So they had to leave it in. A full statutory PFD.
Now, that means that with that full PFD on top of everything else, that the budget that was passed out of the House Finance Committee... leaves us with a $1.9 billion deficit. For this fiscal year. Remember how we've been saying that this year we were facing a $500 million deficit? Well, that was with the $1,000 dividend and everything else. $3,800, $3,900 dividend, $1.9 billion deficit. So, and by the way...
there's no funding. They didn't, they didn't say how they were going to, they didn't put it, they weren't saying, here's what our expenditures are and here's where the money's coming from. They didn't say that in any event. The proposal has been sent to the House floor for a vote where skepticism remains about whether it's going to be passed in its current state. Josephson mentioned in the finance committee meeting that he had been having
secret talks with the Senate that maybe he'd been negotiating in the background with the Senate. Maybe they were going to come in and save his bacon on this. But I don't know if you should rely on that right now. Again, no mechanism to fund it. This is the same. This is the same finance committee that passed a $79 million cut out of the House committee meeting.
Without directing where the cuts were coming from. They basically just told the governor, here, it's on you. Here, hold this hand grenade with no pin in it. It's yours. Right? It's a political hand grenade. Now the governor will be the bad guy. They passed it out, but they didn't choose where the cuts were going to come from. You see, because now they can go back and anywhere the governor cut.
They can lambast him from afar and say, oh, well, you shouldn't have cut that. Oh, look at the governor. He's cutting all this bad stuff that's good for you. You should be mad at the governor, right? i mean it's literally like here hold this hand grenade with no pin good luck On top of that, they also have the supplemental budget, $200 million. It passed the House on Thursday, but it was also unfunded. So where are they going to get the money to pay for all this? Because...
Where? $200 million in unfunded. By the way, did you know in the supplemental budget, they also included the entire VPSO program budget? Like somebody didn't plan for that last year, and so they're going to put it in the supplemental? Or is it for the coming year? Or what exactly are they doing? I mean, this is the kind of gamesmanship that's going on there. You've got a program. The supplemental budget is supposed to be for supplemental items, things that were.
unaccounted for or weren't expected, unexpected costs like wildfire fighting and things like that. But they put the whole program for the VPSO, the Village Public Safety Officer program, they put it all in the supplemental budget. Why? That's a good question. So how are they going to pay for all this? Well, there is the Constitutional Budget Reserve, the CBR. Problem is, the CBR only has about $2.8 billion in it right now. It's supposed to have 10.
Per the Constitution. The CBR at one point had almost 17, 18 billion dollars in it. But over the course of a handful of years, they spent $16 billion out of it over the course of just four or five years, balancing the budget. by drawing it down from savings. Never looking at the potential cost savings or cutting or anything else. Never even once looking at that because the money was there. And since tapping into the CBR requires a three quarters majority vote.
This is where the Republicans have egg on their faces as well, because the Republicans are basically responsible for this whole problem at this point. The fact that they allowed the CBR to be used to balance the budget for all those years. So, CBR, is that the answer that they're looking for? I don't know if there's enough in there for both the full budget and the deficit and the supplemental on top of that. James Brooks over at the Alaska Beacons got an article talking about it.
And he's talking about, you know, looking at having to come to the CBR again to find out what's going to happen. Now, remember, Gary Stevens said not going to happen. Not going to happen. But then at a news conference with reporters, I think it was last week, maybe earlier or late the week before, he said, times change, things change, and sometimes you have to eat crow up here. Which people took to mean, oh, so they are going to vote.
on the CBR. But remember, voting to take money out of the Constitutional Budget Reserve, which is essentially a savings account with a higher threshold of use than the statutory budget reserve, which only requires a majority vote, not a super majority, three quarters majority vote. requires the support of the minority in both chambers, both the House and the Senate.
And the only way you get that to happen is that you have to compromise, which these majorities so far have not shown any interest in compromising at all. Now, people will say, but Mike, you're such a fiscal conservative guy at this point. Would you support a PFD if it was $3,800 and it has to be drawn from savings? Yes. Yes, I would. But why? Well, at this point... We might as well start shoveling coal into the locomotive, folks.
We might as well get it there sooner. Might as well get it there sooner. Because only when we are totally out of money are they going to acknowledge. I mean, maybe, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, but that's how I see it at this point. Okay. We'll get the $3,800 per person. And I'll put that away for a rainy day and wait for the wheels to come off the bus. Because if they do that, that's going to excel. There won't be any. I mean, that will just accelerate. Then there will be no cushion.
There will be no cushion. hardly at all. There'd be, what, $500, $600 million in there? which is the base bare amount. They say you have to have at least $500 or $600 million in the CBR just because they use it for cash flow. They use it to balance for cash flow as money's coming in and out. Essentially, if you have a $2.8 billion balance and a $1.9 billion deficit,
plus the $200 supplemental, that's $2.1 billion. If you take 2.1 out of 2.8, you get, what, $700 million? There is no more wiggle room. That's it. So, and I'm already seeing some of the legislators saying, well, I just can't support that $3,900. It wouldn't be fiscally prudent. I mean, when has that ever stopped anybody in this legislature? I say you give the money to the people and let the government figure itself out.
Because what will happen is then next year, there will be no more. We're going to be faced because, look, the PFD is going away. One way or the other. They'll either slowly, it'll be death by a thousand cuts to the PFD where it gets sliced down every year. Or in the long run, it's just going to be subsumed immediately. Just immediately. They'll take it all at one fell swoop.
And so I say, you know, maybe this is serendipitous. Maybe this statutory PFD, this accidental keeping it in there, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe we should all just support drawing from savings, taking our PFD. and then watch the chips fall where they may.
At this point, we're watching this slow, inexorable death, right? We're watching this slowly. And we've been screaming that the bridge is out and that we should pull the handle back on the train and put the brakes on. And everybody's just like, la, la, la, la, la. I can't hear you. So maybe we get while the getting's good. Sure. $3,800 PFD for every family, you know, three, four people. Put that money away. Hold it for a rainy day because next year it's going to be a whole lot worse.
And there probably won't be another, you know, because I fully expect that if we still have a PFD in three years, I will be shocked at this point, no matter what happens this session. I will be shocked if we have a PFD for the next three years. I mean, I would like it. And you know what it would make them do? It would force them to face it. They wouldn't have that money sitting there anymore to always go, well, we can always just go to the CBR.
Oh, we can always just go to the PFD. We can always just go. Because once that money's gone, then they have to face reality. That's what happened. And maybe we'll look back at this as a turning point. Maybe. I don't know. I'm seeing a lot of conservative politicians and Sarah Vance sent in a little thing for her capital minute thing that said she just can't stand behind a $3,800 PFD because it would.
I'm like, Sarah, just bring it on. Just let it come. Let it come. Take the full PFD and let the chips fall where they may at this point. Because you know what the other side is saying? Tax me harder, daddy. That's what the other side is saying. And we're going to get into that in a minute. That's literally what the tax me harder, daddy. Common Sense, Liberty-based, freethinker.
We're broadcasting live through a series of tubes. Allowing all of these entities to provide streaming stuff going on the internet. Well, it's kind of hard to explain. Sorry. Streaming live. weekday morning on Facebook Live and MichaelDukesShow.com. Okay. Alright. Oh, man. I know some people are probably losing their minds by by me saying that. But I mean, I really think, you know. I think I should, I think, just give it to us.
You know why? We'll do better with it than they will. That $3,800 per person, we will be more fiscally responsible than the state would be with that $3,800 per person. That's what it is. And I'm okay with that. Just send it to me. Oh, it's going to bankrupt the state. Send it to me anyway. because it could either be fast or it could be slow. It could be fast or it could be slow. We could watch this death by a thousand cuts come, or we could just play like yoink the plug.
Anthony said, I'm with you on running into the wall, MD. At some point, we have to acknowledge we're mopping the floor next to an open sewage pipe and wondering why there's so much crap everywhere. Yep. That's it. Send it in now. um yeah i'm going through here um Tim says it almost sounds like it was done on purpose to finish stripping the CBR. Maybe? If so, let's do it.
Jeremy said, I'd rather see the two billion from the CBR going to the people rather than to a bloated big government. Yes, that's what I'm saying. Um, why am I so irrationally certain says Anthony that the proposed amount was supposed to be $380 and someone just added an extra zero by accident. Uhhh... Just going forward here. every election year they want a full PFD. Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's, it's a thing. I mean, I don't know. What are you guys saying?
Let's take a poll. I wish I could do polls here. I need to be able to do polls, but I can't do a poll, but let's just do a poll. If you would support getting a full PFD, even if it came from the CBR, type one in the chat. If you're against that and you don't want to draw from it, type two. One for take CBR money, two for no. So everybody just, you know, there's 60, 70 people between Rumble and Facebook and YouTube.
One for yes, you agree with me. Two for no. One, take it and give the money to the people. Two for no, we shouldn't draw from the CBR for the, just one or two. Come on, just give it to me right now. I want to know where we're at before we come back from the break. I'm going to do the Jeopardy music for a second here.
there's a lot of ones in there i haven't seen a single two although i think charlie was a two charlie are you a two charlie says no i think he meant no don't don't draw it from the cbr I want to know. Is it all... Is it? We're going to. What was that? Blow is so 80, says Catherine. Blow is. What do you think we're going to use it on hookers and blow? Is that what you're saying? Huh? Even Kevin McCabe is a one on this. Give the money to the people. That's what we can do.
Anybody, anybody who hasn't voted yet, I want to see it. One, to get the full PFD with a CBR draw, draining it down to basically, you know, the bare minimum. Two, if we should just reduce the PFD and exacerbate and draw this out. I just want to hear it. One, if you agree with me. Two, if you disagree with me. That's a lot of ones. Charlie was a no. So Charlie says no. So, Charlie, I want to know, what's your solution to this? Do we just watch it? Do we just watch it slowly but inexorably die?
At this point, I'm ready for them to face reality. And the only way the legislature is going to face reality is if there's no more money left. That's what I think is coming down here. All right, here we go. The Michael Duke Show. Not your daddy. Wait, sorry. Not your daddy? Ooh, not your daddy's. was scared for a second, thought we were going down. Okay. Is there a third alternative? No, Teresa, there's not a third alternative. Welcome back to the program, The Michael Duke Show.
Um, wow. Okay. Um, uh, uh, sorry. I took a poll during the break. Because what I said before we went to break was probably pretty contentious. When we're talking about the accidental PFD, you know, the accidental PFD got left in there $3,800, $3,900. And they passed it out of the Senate House Finance Committee. And but to get to there to pay for it, they'd have to draw from the CBR, which is basically our only remaining savings account. And it would basically tap the fund. Right. It would be.
It would be left with just over half a billion dollars, which is what's needed for the cash flow of the state. You got to have that money in there for the cash flow of the state. So essentially it would drain it down to where it's essentially zero available funds. And I said, surprisingly, probably to most people, I would say yes, I would advocate for that. Because what we're watching right now is the death by a thousand cuts. We're slowly watching the PFD die.
And it's a slow, inexorable slog. And it's all we're fighting about. It's all we're talking about for every year for the last eight years. That's all we've talked about is what's going on with the PFD. And so I said, yeah, I'd vote for it. Why? Because number one, the people would do more and do better with that money than the government would. $3,800 per person. And two, it would accelerate the problem in the state to the point where the legislature would have to face the music.
Now, that may lead to taxes. It may lead to some other things that we are not happy about, but at least they would face the problem because there would be nothing else left. Now, next year, that just means they'd probably take all of the PFD, but it's. It's inevitable that the PFD, like I said, I'll be surprised if the PFD is here in three years. So we took a poll in the chat room.
And of all the people that voted, and I don't know how many, that's probably 10, 20, 30, 40, there's probably 40 people voted in the chat. And they all agreed with me except for one. Charlie didn't agree with me. Charlie said no. And I said, okay, Charlie, I respect your, you know, respect your thing. But so then how do we fix it? And unfortunately, Charlie is... basically giving us the same answer that we have been crowing on for the last 10, 12, 15 years on this program.
He said his answer is cut, cut, cut the budget. Saying we can't cut is BS. Oh, I'm not saying that we can't cut, Charlie. I agree with you. I think in an ideal world, and if I was king for a day, that's what we would do. The problem is, is that there's no political will to cut. We could cut. We could. But politically, it's not going to happen. And until we, and here's the thing, we've been talking about this part of it for the last couple of years now.
Until we acknowledge that there is no political will, we can do two things. We can try and find a way to bolster and get other people in there who have the political will to cut. which we've been trying to do for the last couple, three years. Or we can just acknowledge that it's just not going to happen until we hit rock bottom.
I mean, this is like working with the alcoholic or the drug addict who's just in denial. Every legislator in there that is not willing to cut is in denial because that's what needs to happen. And what happens with an alcoholic or a drug addict? What has to happen to them? They have to hit nine times out of 10. They don't just wake up one morning and decide, I want to be better. and they turn their life around. They have to hit rock bottom.
And that's what has to happen in the state. And I would much rather the money go directly to the people. and have them have it in their hands rather than in the hands of the government and drag this out for another five, six, eight years. If you're going to take the PFD, take it next year and then live with the consequences. See, that's the other thing. They don't want to be the one. You don't want to be known as one of the legislators that wiped out the PFD.
So cut, cut, cut the budget, saying we can't cut is BS. I never said we couldn't cut. I said that the political will to cut is not there. And we've been trying to change it here on the program for the last handful of years. These people are in total, complete denial that there's anything wrong.
And remember, we've been talking about deficit spending for the last three years of this program, looking at the governor's budgets and saying, look, there's going to be a deficit. There's going to be a deficit. There's going to be a deficit. What happened this year? They get in there all of a sudden. They're like, oh, my God, there's a deficit. Right? We knew! So, yeah, Charlie, I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think it's going to happen.
So what do we do? If we can't cut, we starve the beast. And by taking that money out of that account and leaving just enough for the cash flow, they have no other choice. Their next choice will be the PFD for next year. But when that money's gone, that's it, baby. That's it. When that money's gone, it's gone. And with oil today, by the way, current price of oil, it pegged out low this morning at $58, $58.95 a barrel.
It's still sitting at $60, just under $61 a barrel. And they're factoring these budgets based on, what, $70, $71, $73 a barrel? overwhelmingly in the chat room just just just take just take it just take it all out Randy's asking me, he said, I thought you said you wanted the CVR savings account replenished. Yeah. I mean, by law, it's supposed to have $10 billion in there. We're supposed to pay it all back. But Randy.
They're never going to acknowledge that there's a problem until they hit rock bottom. Never. Never. I'd rather have that money in our hands than in the hands of the legislature. Armed Alaska says since the state has been subtracting from the PFD, just how much money per person has the state government stolen in total? I mean, I don't know. I would have to look at that. I mean, the PFD in 2017 was, I think, $3,200, something like that, is with statutory amount that year, about $3,000 maybe.
So they've stolen about $2,000. I mean, just roughly, if we're doing rough math, I don't have all the numbers in front of me, but you figure $2,000 per person since 2017. So eight years times two, 16,000 roughly per person. So roughly 16,000 per person is what they've stolen over what they've taken out of our pocket. I mean, I'm all about that. And then you've got this other critter here, which we didn't even get into because we're running out of time.
But then there's this other crew. They went out to Anchorage and they had that school district meeting, the rally cry. And what did they say at the rally cry? This rally on education? We also heard, what was the other thing? We're not, we're not failing. We're starving, which was exactly, I mean, it was like boilerplate. What you're hearing from, we're not failing. The schools aren't failing. We're starving. And at the end of the article, what do they come up with?
Pat Higgins, member of the Anchorage School Board, excoriated lawmakers for refusing to levy taxes that would allow the state to more easily send the districts the money that they need. Aaron Doherty Lynch, an attorney who lives in Anchorage, says, I demand to be taxed now. Tax me now. It's patriotic to pay taxes. Tax me harder, daddy. They're going to spend every available dollar, people.
If you just give them more revenue, they never have to face the reality that they're spending more than they take in. That's the problem. I'm willing to pay an income tax. I'm willing to pay a sales tax. You just give and give and give. And like an addict, they will take and take and take. All right, we got to go. The Michael Duke Show. Common Sense, Liberty Based, Free Thinking Radio. We'll see you tomorrow.
i'm willing to pay an income tax i'm willing to pay a sales tax and this guy was like you know revenue fixes everything it's an old business adage revenue fixes everything well yeah if you're in a business Where you can't spend more than you take in, yeah. that's true but if you're in a government you could spend all kinds of money that you don't take in and expect that it's going to be okay revenue is not going to fix this because this is a spending problem
Sorry. Get spun up all at the end of the show. Text me harder, Danny. Yes, Tax Me Harder is my OnlyFans name. Absolutely. Go over there and check it out. Pictures of my feet. All right, we got to go. Thank you guys for coming on board and joining us. We will see you tomorrow. Be kind, love one another, live well. We'll see you then. Have a great day. We've shed our terrestrial radio skin, and now we are slimy lizard internet people. It's the Michael Duke Show.