Spending Bill: Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right!
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So we got ourselves a spending bill. Right, right. You know what popped into my head? That song from the 1970s by Steelers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle with You. Remember? Clowns to the left of me, Joke is to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you. That’s where we’re stuck, because that’s what we have.
This is what we have. And I’m going to demonstrate this before we get into the spending bill. I’m not making this up. This actually happened yesterday. This actually happened yesterday in the United States Senate. The Senate passed a resolution. Ooh, did they? They passed a resolution talking about our growing debt.
It’s a dangerously addictive habit that threatens to ruin our children’s lives and undermine America’s national security. And this week, Congress finally acknowledged as much, although it remains unclear if lawmakers have the guts to do anything substantial.
Yeah, the Senate, I’m not making this up. They passed a resolution calling our debt a threat to national security and calling expected future budget deficits unsustainable, irresponsible, and dangerous.
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Remember the film, the 1980s film Arthur with Dudley Moore? And again, you got to go back and you got to appreciate his comedic genius. A scene in the movie where he’s, you know, he’s always drunk all the time and he’s slurring his words and he’s at his future father -in -law’s house and he’s in his little study there and…
Learn his words there. This is a tough room and I don’t know what he has to tell you that you know he He’s the moose he’s looking at the moose you must have really hated that moose there and what was the other one there I am oh Yeah, nobody nobody in my family drinks. It was mr. Johnson’s
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That’s great. You guys probably never run out of ice cubes. And what was the other thing? And he said, why? What did Johnson? Oh, yeah, I don’t. My family doesn’t drink because it affects your decision making. The Dali Moore goes, you might be right. You might be right. I can’t decide. Anyway, it was classic comedic stuff. And I’m thinking about these these members of the Senate, you know, talking about.
our national debt, kind of like slurring their words almost like a bunch of your yeah, cutting out all our drinking, I’m gonna do it tomorrow. You know, what are they going to move on till today? Oh, I should say, what are they going to move on to today? Tick tock? You’re gonna move on to tick tock? How about Hunter Biden? How about we have some more hearings on Hunter Biden? Because you know, Fox and friends need some more things to talk about.
in the morning in between infomercials.
I’m serious. I don’t know. We’ll put up a map. We’re going to talk about Trump’s properties that might be seized or whatever it may be. The national debt is a national security issue. It is our number one issue, period. The end. And this is something that I’ve been talking about for some time.
for some time. And again, it’s like I said, I’m talking to the wall, talking to the wall. We were told and these politicians are told, this is what America we can do more things at once. Yeah. And then you talk about with prioritize and we’ve got priorities, we’ve got priorities. And there was a piece today in the Wall Street Journal. Again, I make fun of the Wall Street Journal editorial board.
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because I mean, they’re ridiculous in and of themselves at this point in time. And again, you got to credit again, never understand Wall Street Journal is a Fox News production too. Rupert Murdoch owns that too. Yeah, I wasn’t too happy when they allowed that news Corp to buy the Wall Street Journal. But anyway, so they talk about who lost the budget deal today is the editorial and the…
They talk about how Congress, oh, we avoided a futile government shutdown and political melodrama, and we should be crediting Mike Johnson for cutting a deal to fund the government. Okay. A thousand page, $1 .2 trillion bill. I can’t tell you the amount of pork that’s in this thing. Again, Democrats got most of what they wanted.
When it came to this, another billion dollars for childcare and head start. You know what the Republicans are touting right now? They’re claiming victories, at the ones that are for this, 496 million to fund 22 ,000 border agents and boosting detention beds to 41 ,500 up from 25 ,000. Woo, like that’s gonna solve the problem.
Does anybody think that’s gonna solve the problem? I got a better suggestion. Why bother? Why bother? Again, if I was running for things, I’d say just defund the border. We don’t need border patrol agents. We don’t need to be spending money on more beds. What’s the point? Honestly, it’s like flush it.
What is the point? It is like flushing money down the toilet. If you’re just going to let everybody in anyway, their story today talking about how 200 ,000 200 ,000 illegals are getting their walking papers again that they’re in because Homeland Security failed to file their, they’re supposed to their reporting requirements and their court dates. So they just here, come on in.
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What is the point? Unless you change the rules, I mean, why have border agents? I’m sure it went viral. Just to see the migrants pushing back the Texas National Guard. Just bum rush the border. We’re not going to stop them. We’re not going to do anything about it. Listen, OK.
I get people out there talking about it. Build a wall. Okay. Again, yeah, you go. We had they had a wide fence up, not a wall. And we actually had guards there and they just ran them over.
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That’s great. You got a wall. You got a wall, yeah. China had a wall too when they still got that wall there to keep the Mongolians out, right? Except they would actually shoot at people who were trying to get in.
Anyway, not again, different period of time, arrows and other things, but anyway, we’re not gonna do that. We’re not gonna do that. So again, I’m poisoning this question to everybody out there. I said, what’s the point?
What is the point of even having this? Again, that’s just one thing that’s in there that the Republicans are touting, which is nothing. So here you go. Here is nothing. That’s what Republicans got. But again, the Wall Street Journal talks about, oh, the real accomplishment. Again, this is the Wall Street Journal. Hawks all the time. Military industrial complex. Yes, a 3 % increase for national defense.
Even though that’s insufficient for the world’s dangers. More boogeymen. Lots of boogeymen we got out there. Yep. Oh, they don’t like the, they don’t want to have a continuing resolution. If we actually didn’t pass this and went through another continuing resolution, they would just would have actually cut more spending. But no, no, no, Wall Street Journal. That wrecks our military’s ability to train, exercise.
or start new procurement priorities.
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Ah, yes, it would have made a minute weaker US military. Funding bill includes crucial priorities for US preparedness, particularly bulk buys of missiles in high demand from Ukraine and the Pacific.
just giving them away again. Just given the missiles where we got paying for them. We’re just giving them away. Again, you know, we’re told again, we’re, you know, bogeyman’s out there. Congress blocked the Biden administration from retiring four Navy ships. At least the fleet will tread water while the Chinese Communist Party continues its relentless military buildup. And again, I got to give credit to the Chinese man, you know.
They’re, I guess, according to the Wall Street Journal, buddy out there, they’re, you know, they’re kicking our ass when it comes to the military and boy, they spend a hell of a lot less than we do. And in fact, it’s not even close. Now we spend three times as much as they do, and yet they’re, they’re still kicking our ass. That was communists, man. One would assume that communists are pretty inefficient, but no, geez, they’re doing really well with their military and kicking our butts and they spend, we spend three times as much.
Anyway, anyway, and again, they get into the government shutdowns and all this stuff. Do you remember, remember Republicans, Republican, Limbaugh was all over this. Remember that line by Nancy Pelosi that they kept running again and again and again. We’ve got to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it.
Yeah, it’s what Mike Johnson just did. Yeah, Mike Johnson just did that exact same thing. The bill dropped this morning at 2 32 a .m. 2 32 a .m. is 1012 pages that spends $1 .2 trillion. And the vote on this thing is this morning.
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And again, I’m not a big fan of this young lady, Marjorie Taylor Green, but she’s spot on with these comments. It takes 27 .8 hours for the average reader to read 1000 pages. I guess we’re supposed to just pass it first and find out what’s in it. Like Nancy Pelosi says, this comes after months and months of hardly any effort to pass single issue appropriations bills. While three continuing resolutions, continuing Pelosi’s budget.
were passed. Our Republican majority started this Congress with sweeping rule changes to stop this very behavior, yet here we are on the verge of passing a second minibus under suspension with no amendments allowed and violating the 72 -hour rule. And other members of Congress are chiming in on this as well. And rightfully so. Rightfully so. But it’s going to go through.
and guess who’s gonna, Democrats are gonna pass this.
Democrats are gonna put this through. I’m sick and tired, because again, you get the Wall Street Journal talking about, all right, now we can move on to other priorities. They actually had this on, we can move on to other priorities like funding Ukraine and Israel. You ever think about the word priorities? I think I may have brought this up on one of the shows a while back. There are actually, try to comprehend that word, the word priorities.
Is it fucking oxymoron?
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It is an oxymoron priorities. You can’t have priorities. You can have a priority. That’s it. That’s it. We have one priority at Markowski Investments. One. One. It’s serving our clients. Period. The end. One priority.
See, it’s the thing is that these politicians, they count all these priorities that they are. This is a priority. That’s a priority. That’s a priority. And this is why we’re $34 trillion in debt. If you really actually believe the, how shall I put it? Bullshit resolution that they just passed in the Senate, that the national debt is a national security issue. It is not a national security issue. It is the.
national security issue. Stop with the nonsense about China, Iran, North Korea. This is the national security issue. But no, we got priorities. You see some of the crap that’s in this bill today? I’m finding some of it here and there. And again, I don’t have time to sit down and read a thousand page bill. I don’t.
But hey, yeah, you know, your tax dollars are going to some old some alphabet people group, LGBTQ, RS, whatever group in Wisconsin to buy, I guess, the binding equipment. So girls that want to become boys can make it look like they don’t have boobs for teenagers. And I guess, you know, gay transitional paraphernalia for teenagers.
your tax dollars are going to this. If we actually followed the United States Constitution, which we do not. So we do not. Because again, all of these jokers to the, you know, clowns to the left to me, jokers to the right, whatever, okay. They just want to send money back to their district. They pack themselves.
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on the back when they do it. It was funny. One Republican Congresswoman, she’s switching districts because she knows she’s going to lose in her district. And she’s now running in Ken Buckstix district because he’s leaving. They left, I think already. Yeah, she was putting out tweets the other day talking about, oh, that’s this spending bill, you know, this project in this district, this project and that she’s touting it and pat herself on the back. She actually voted against it. And I have, you know,
I’m glad, but she wanted to take credit for sending the money there. I’d like to see some politicians say, you know what? That’s it. That’s it. We’re not sending any more money back to the states. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. You’re cut off.
You’re cut off. Why the flippity flip -flap flip -flop -flop do I have to pay for a bike path in Santa Monica?
That’s not the general welfare, that’s for the welfare of the people of Santa Monica so they can pay for their own damn bike path!
It has to stop, but it won’t. It won’t. Again, I jump it up and down, ripping into Republicans on a regular basis. You can’t do that. The last omnibus spending bill when all these Republican senators were walking on the door, sending money back to their districts. How do you think, how do you honestly, how do you think these politicians become so wealthy? How do you think that they become billionaires?
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Most of them don’t own businesses, and Ron Johnson does. Rand Paul is a doctor. How do you think they become so wealthy?
I mentioned this conversation before here on the program. A late friend of mine, again, he was a surgeon, who’s one of the best and the entire without a doubt, one of the best in the entire country. His company, his firm in Florida is massive in what he does. He’d go around the country, lecture was unbelievable. I surgeon.
and fortunately, he was taken from us way too young. Having a conversation with him and how politicians and coming and banging on his door all the time and we’re kind of lamenting the same thing asking for money and he said, you know, Chris, they’re all whores.
They’re all whores. They come in and they tell me, you know, send me money or this is not going to be approved and this is what your Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements are going to be if you don’t do this. Yeah, yeah, I understand. Same thing. Yeah, yeah, the funny thing is that I have more respect for actual whores than I do these politicians.
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People, at some point in time, you got to put your glasses on. Ever see that movie from the 1980s? They live with Roddy Piper, where you got these special glasses, you can actually see that these aliens are running everything and forcing everybody to be these crazy consumers and obey and do all this stuff. Once you actually start seeing these people for who they really are,
are
I laugh, honestly I do. Listen, I’m sorry if you’re one of these people, I gotta go to a Trump rally. Why? Why are you wasting your time? I’m going to a Republican rally. I’m going to this, I’m going, why?
I’m asking you why.
You think the Republican Party gives a damn about you? Are you taking a look what they just pushed through? You take a look at all the spending that they continue to push through?
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all the promises that they go back on. It’s a unit party. You know, the one thing that I give credit, I give credit to the the donkeys for, at least they’re honest.
At they’re honest in regards to the crap that they push. I don’t agree with them, but Republicans will lie to you.
Again and again and again. I guess maybe what I want to get across to everybody today. Once you start seeing politicians talk about priorities, you automatically know that they’re full. I mean, I even look at it in terms of companies and CEOs when they start talking about priorities. I’m saying, wait a second. OK.
No, you have one priority, one thing. You want to be successful. You focus on that priority. You’re going to do well. We don’t have that.
We don’t have that. We’ve got a mess. And we’re probably going to end up, I don’t know, at this point in time, it’s probably already passed with overwhelming majority of Democrats on board.
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You know, it is what it is. Again, I’ve been railing against this stuff for a very, very long time. And you know what? Why not? Why not? I I pulled this up. You know, I kind of go back and I admit I have been remiss. I’ve been lacking in my writing. I used to write a hell of a lot more, but.
It’s time consuming amongst all of the things that I’m doing and I’ve got to get back into it. I really do. But, you know, can make an excuses, but I guess kind of, you know, they have a cross game here of chasing kids there and all my work that’s involved. But I do have to get back into it. I pulled up a column that I wrote 15 years ago. 15 years ago. This is 2000. 2009.
And the title of the column is my big fat Greek epiphany. Now, again, I want you to from this 2009, this is prior, right? But it was starting to amp up with the financial crisis in Greece. And I was on I was there in Greece. I was on vacation and I was in the Greek National Museum and I was with my wife’s cousin and his bright kid.
And we were debating back and forth or talking about the nuances of ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire and boring nerdy stuff that I like. But and again, you know, it’s kind of, you know, like my big fat Greek wedding where you get that the father figure in there is Gus, you know, talking about how Greeks invented everything. And that’s a bit of an attitude that they have. And there’s nothing wrong with that. They’ve got pride in their culture.
You know, he basically, you know, came out and said we were kind of busting each other’s stones to some degree. And I, I decided to bust back because again, at that point in time, you know, Greece 2009, I was not the Greece like it is today by any stretch of the imagination. I say, that’s great, Stavros. But what have what have you guys done for us lately? And after I said it again, this was the epiphany.
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After I, you you ever say something and you’re like, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. You almost feel like, ah, man, that’s bad karma. Maybe I’m jinxing ourselves or something like that. Um, I got jolted at a vacation mode and back to reality. And again, at that point in time, Greece, the financial crisis, things that were going wrong. And I realized that. Yeah, we in the United States could be in the position.
Greece at some point in time. And I thinking about it, you know, when I wrote this down, when I and my fellow Americans become like the ancient Greeks, Romans or the Egyptians societies whose glory days have passed them by. We would be telling our grandchildren about what it was like to be truly free. As Ronald Reagan foretold in a 1961 speech about universal health care, you know, the funny thing is, that’s already come true. I’ve already told my kids I talked to my kids.
about the way things used to be in this country when I was growing up. And it was better!
It was better. I challenge anybody to tell me, okay, that conditions on the ground in the United States were not better. I don’t care. People talk about the 70s and the Carter is baloney was better. 70s, 80s, 90s, way better.
Anyway, would the United States cease to be that shining city on a hill? A once great nation whose ideals and freedoms allowed for the greatest wealth creation in world history. A nation who gave birth to some of man’s greatest inventions. The nation who put the first man on the moon, cured diseases, built superstructures, and defeated some of history’s greatest monsters. Would we become nothing more than another chapter in a history book?
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again, and I listed reasons at this is 2009. Number one, fiscal policy. You know what the headline was in 2009? US must raise debt ceiling to 13 trillion. 2009, 13 trillion.
34 trillion now. I wrote about the rise of big government and the nanny state and it’s getting worse instead of better and how the government injects itself into every aspect of the free market for crying out loud. Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, and I gotta give credit to this guy, Greg Ip, America is sliding towards Chinese style capitalism. Yep.
Destruction of small business. Destruction of a number one employer in the United States is not government motors or general mother earth electric. Again, this is 2009. It’s a small business owner. And talking about how the small business is the lifeblood of this country and how it’s constantly being attacked by government. Now more than ever. This again, this is 2009. I’m gonna write this other point that I made. Divide and conquer.
The tool of the nefarious politician is their desire to divide us into groups and categories of Americans and classify and define each group based upon some grievance or victimhood. I’m so sick and tired of hearing from Latin American, African American, Irish American, Italian American, gay American, Wiccan American, blah, blah, blah, blah. Are you here or are you not here? If it’s so horrific here in the United States that you feel the need to
fundamentally change the country. Remember that? That’s Obama’s words. Get out and don’t let the door hit in the buttocks on the way out. Plenty of countries that love to have you. And then what are their tool for divide and conquer? Class warfare. Class warfare. Politicians wield envy like Jack the Ripper, slicing America up into a bloody chaos. And the end result?
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is hey, this is 2009. 2009, I’m telling you right now, okay? One can’t make the argument that the past several years and then some have been much worse than it was in 2009 when it comes to division.
And I went back, you know, we were talking about my big fat Greek epiphany of a read, you know, through cities to talk about the Peloponnesian War and what happened to ancient Greece. They destroyed themselves. 30 year war against themselves and politicians dividing the country into camps with disgusting atrocities.
And I’ve talked about Rome here on the program, a republic that ended up becoming an empire. And even though they had an emperor, business and capitalism survived for a while. And then what was it destroyed by? Excess government power, oppressive taxation, political connections. And that’s the only way you were able to get ahead. The rule of law being bought and sold. We talk about that all the time. Inflation, debasing their currency. Does this? sound remotely familiar.
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Okay, you look at these people, I said, you know, clowns still left to me, jokers to the right. These people are so smart. Why are we in so much debt? You know, at the time I wrote about, you know, how is it that Fannie and Freddie, how did that implode? Why? And again, this 2009, why is Medicare and Social Security going bankrupt? Yeah, why can’t these people leave Washington and go get a real job if they’re so smart?
Again, this is bringing back memories. Chris Dodd. Chris Dodd at the time was in charge of banking, banking committee. He never worked in a bank, never worked finance. Charlie Rangel was in charge. Remember Charlie Rangel? Charge of ways and means, which is taxation, who got caught cheating on his taxes. Again, I can go on and on and on. I take a look. I’m usually not doing.
podcasts at this length. But again, again, this is who we’re dealing with. Okay. At some point in time, people, you’re going to have to start making better choices when you go into that, that voting booth or just don’t go at all. Okay. Let’s go at all. I’m spending my time. Okay. And on our weekend radio show.
In particular, we cover financial topics and working with our clients and trying to protect everybody from what’s coming. And you don’t believe me? Okay, don’t believe me. Might wanna take a look at the crap that I’ve called over the past 30 years though. Just saying. Watchdog on wallstreet .com.