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April 28, 2024 - Stew Peters Show
59:58
Impact Of Inflation On Veteran Pocketbooks
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We all know that inflation is kicking us all in the shorts.
Today we're going to have a conversation about how such inflation is impacting the lives of veterans.
You see, the benefits that veterans receive, not just disability, but across the board, Are static, meaning they don't go up and down with inflation.
Now, there are cost of living adjustments that happen at the beginning of every year that go up just the same as Social Security goes up.
But historically, they're static.
And now, with everything so expensive, and veteran benefits staying the way that they are, whatever they say they are, It's hurting veterans in their pocketbooks, which in turn may hurt them living a comfortable life, trying to just be.
So today Jason and I are going to chat about that.
So stick with us.
Don't go away.
We start now.
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Let's go.
Okay, so, Veterans Benefits.
They're static.
Over time.
The only time they change is at the beginning of the year.
If Social Security gives out a COLA, a cost of living adjustment, then veterans' disability benefits also receive a COLA. But there are other benefits that aren't affected by any cost of living adjustment.
So we're going to get into that.
Let's bring in our good friend, Jason.
And hello, sir.
Hey everybody, how are you?
We're good.
We are good.
How are you?
I'm doing well and I'm excited.
You're excited?
Okay, well that's good.
That's great.
So then, let's get right down to it.
You heard the intro.
You heard what we're talking about today.
What do you got for us?
So benefits stay static, and as I mentioned, not just disability benefits, but there's all kinds of different benefits.
I mean, that's probably a whole other show to list them all.
Right.
But they stay the same, and they have for many years.
Yeah.
Yeah, and they never seem, I don't think they, I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't have any data to support this, but I think they lag behind Social Security, even.
That's what I've heard, that's always been the story that's told, but it's these other things that make life possible for people that are living on their via disability or those that rely on it for the burden that they carry for which they receive said benefit, right?
Right.
And so, you know, a lot of times when these things were hammered out and, you know, you get the opportunity to look back 15 years later, and I'm going to use Minnesota as an example.
And so in Minnesota, we just found out, oh darn it, I'm sorry, I just had to look at that.
The things that haven't happened, they haven't happened over a great enough period of time where we've seen these economic boondoggles and these things that have changed so greatly that very few of the side benefits have actually followed along suit.
And so in Minnesota, we've got that property tax deferral, right?
And so I think the last time they said that was looked at was 2007 or eight.
And it might even have been before that because they were floating the year for like 15 or 20 years since they had been looked at.
And in Minnesota at that time, I did look up the static valuations on housing and an average median or median priced home in Minnesota ran around $200,000.
So if you were 50% disabled and less than a hundred, You were able to defer almost three quarters, $150,000 of your property tax burden.
So you were deferring, I mean, that's a huge percentage, right?
Right, absolutely.
75% of your tax burden every year for that, for which was an earned benefit.
I mean, this isn't something that anybody wants.
But it's there, and especially if you're in a situation where it's more difficult to gain income and do those things, you're kind of stuck.
So the stagnation of those numbers as property value has increased, $150,000 today, is roughly 30% of a median home in Minnesota, which is $435,000.
So if you had this benefit over the past 15 years, what you saw was your benefit decreased by proxy because it didn't keep up with what was going on.
And so you're dwindling and dwindling those resources.
And just think, bro, I mean, we just talked about these veterans who are going to be saved by the VA, which I don't think is a great idea that the VA is going to own mortgage paper.
But how many people are being pressed by this thing right now?
How many people haven't made choices that they wouldn't otherwise have to make?
Well, it's gotta be a lot.
I mean, you're a thousand percent right when you say things like, there's people that depend on this for their monthly obligations.
Some depend on it to pay rent, some depend on it to make car payments.
Whatever that is, it's their grocery money, whatever.
And I suppose that the reason or the use of their disability money really is none of our business.
As you said, it's an earned benefit.
So if Joe Blow is getting 90%, whatever that number is, and that's his beer drinking money for the month, it doesn't matter.
He earned it.
It's due to him.
But the real interesting one to me is the property tax exclusion because the thing about that benefit, and I think that Minnesota is one of the better states in the country for this particular benefit because there's other states that don't offer one.
That is true.
And there's, I mean, we even have, and I've heard in the last couple of years, we have counties that say they're just not going to do it.
Like, it's a state law.
And there's counties that say, oh, we're not going to abide by that.
That exclusion doesn't apply to us.
You know, imagine that you're a gal.
Well, yeah, exactly.
But it's still, just because it's one of the better states in the union, doesn't make it more convenient, right?
I mean, yeah, like, living in Minnesota...
The benefit of Minnesota is better than Wisconsin, let's say, right?
Because in Wisconsin, they do have a property tax benefit.
But you have to have lived, your permanent address had to have been Wisconsin at the time of your service.
So if I wanted to pack up my house and found a nice property in Wisconsin, I wouldn't get a property tax benefit.
And so, you know, I mean, it is what it is, right?
So I just won't move to Wisconsin if that's something that's important to me.
But the point is this, that you're right.
Over the course of many years, you know, $150,000 value deducted from your taxes at $200,000 is a huge help.
That really alleviates a lot of pressure on your checking account.
Nowadays, it's nice, right?
I'm not going to complain about having not to pay a bunch of extra money to the government of any way, shape, or form, but it would be nice if it kept up with the times,
kept up with inflation, and Because there are many veterans that depend on things like this particular benefit to just to keep their head above water year to year.
Right.
And so, you know, again, as you know, I like the numbers, right?
I like how numbers work because they don't lie.
Yeah, you're a numbers guy.
$1,100 roughly is what a veteran receives in disability payment for 50% disability, for a 50% disability plan.
So that is $1,100, so roughly $1,310, you know, $1,310 every year.
Let's say they bought that house at $200,000 and they were exposed at that point to a 1% tax on $50,000, which is basically $500 and some dollars a year that they were paying in property taxes, right?
That was less than, that was two weeks of their disability.
It was taking care of that nut.
Well, let's just flash forward.
Let's just say that that average house, we're going to use our areas, is now valued and it's being taxed at $400,000.
Well, now they're exposed to about $2,800 in additional taxes.
And that's at one and a quarter percent.
It takes two and a half, almost three months to recover the amount of property tax that they're paying in differential.
So when you really think about it, like obviously all of our money, and I'm not saying this thing isn't just necessarily veteran specific, but this is certainly one where they crush.
The veterans who are stuck in that site, they're stuck in a place where they can't do anything else.
They're limited by income earnings potential.
They're limited by a great number of factors.
And so they really are kind of painted into this corner.
Well, 15 years ago, they could live fairly comfortably.
Obviously, inflation wasn't killing them at the pump.
It wasn't killing them everywhere else and things were working.
But again, it's gotta have some type of beneficial weight.
I mean, to be able to knock out and be at one half of one month to pay your property taxes, that's a wonderful thing.
But think about how much money you make right now.
If you're relying on this for a big portion of that, just imagine what it's like.
You know what your take home checks are every month, everybody out there.
Think about multiplying that by three, and now you have to somehow come up with that money in addition.
To try to put yourself in somebody's shoes who's dealing with this problem.
That's huge.
It is very big.
And I want to make sure that we keep talking about the fact that this is a benefit that was earned.
I wasn't given this.
I didn't stumble upon it.
It wasn't something, some kind of life hack.
These are things that are earned in blood and sweat and tears and hard work.
And so, I mean, because I think, bro, that there's a lot of people out there that are going to go, well, what the hell are you guys bitching about, right?
You get something.
Well, yes, that's true.
And for whatever I get, me personally, I'm grateful for.
But the fact of the matter still remains that if we're going to do it one way for one person, we do it the same for everybody.
That's how the military is supposed to work.
And so if we don't carry those values through the system all the way through, like it's explained that it goes, well then what do we have to go on?
And if I am a person who depends on these benefits month after month and year after year, and I plan for it, and I plan my kids' school shopping, I plan my grocery shopping, I plan my vacations, whatever it is, because these things, right, it comes from the government, right?
So it's supposed to be automatic.
Like, here's your award letter.
This is what you're going to get.
This is what you qualify for.
When and if you use benefit A, B, C, D, or E, this is what it's going to be.
And so when you start using it, and then over time, it stays the same like they told you it would, but everything else in your life is growing exponentially.
Well, this benefit can't be part of your plan anymore.
And so let's also remember that this disability rating and pay that you get is to supplement you for not being able to hold down a job.
In their words, layman's terms, this is to supplement your income from what you would be making had you not had said disability and could work A whatever job, or this is just what you earned.
So, this is what I plan on.
At the end of the day, however it was earned, it was earned.
And so, the idea of the diminishing effect of the benefits is what hurts the most.
And we're fortunate.
Well, some of us are in our early, and some of us are in our mid-40s, you dick.
But we still have the ability to earn.
You know what I mean?
We're not in that place yet.
But there could very quickly become a time where, you know, it's not too far down the road, where our income will be brought down to a static number.
And hopefully we've done a good job of planning our life so when we get to that point, we can run out the clock with a bit of comfort knowing that some of these things will be in place to help us be able to get to the finish line without exhausting our resources, becoming a burden on our family, any of these other things that ultimately end up happening.
So yes, I want to talk about this.
But I'm not talking about it for, you know, just the rank and file.
It's going to be important to them at some point, but there is a ton of people that are being affected by this right now.
You know, it's those people, it's those guys that couldn't afford their note that are going to now have their mortgage paper owned by the VA, who probably were having to make decisions about what bills they were going to pay because this benefit no longer actually carried the weight that it did before.
And again, We all feel all of the other inflationary pressures out there.
I don't have a get gas free card, do you?
Just imagine yourself in that situation where This dependency that you have with this consistency in this plan, and you're starting to go through it.
And, you know, as I would say this about myself, not about you, buddy, but I'm an idiot.
Like, I'm a full-blown moron.
Like, I don't pay attention to the stuff that's kicking my ass until it's kicked my ass so badly that I have to acknowledge the beating I took, right?
And a lot of veterans can find themselves in that same dogma, that same experience, where, oh man, yeah, I'm just going to make it work.
Pretty soon you go from eating steak to hamburger to mac and cheese, and now you're splitting a ramen once every three days.
But you're still working, right?
Like, I got enough.
I made a turd.
It's going to work.
I'm okay with it.
But that's how it diminishes.
And those are the simple decisions that need to get made for somebody to continue living the lifestyle that they're living.
And I don't think many of these veterans who have these disability ratings that are aging have luxurious lifestyles.
No.
We're not talking about the two-star tag retirement.
You know, these burgers are pulling in 10, 12 grand.
They're not doing a thing anymore.
You know, feel-grade officers, they're fine.
Yeah, some of them didn't do a thing when they were still wearing a uniform either.
I mean, they're entitled to the exact same thing as this, and I'm not talking about the retirement side of it, but quite frankly, if you have that type of money rolling in and you've got that, you know, basically that annuity, you know, paying the bills, that does a lot.
But the vast majority of veterans really aren't in that position.
They're not.
You know, how many generals do you have for every, you know, 10,000 enlisted?
Three.
You know, whatever.
We've gone through those numbers before.
So, it's all these enlisted guys.
It's the guys that spent four, six, eight, twelve years in, you know, and had to get out for a number of reasons.
Now, here they are.
You know, and we're all broken toys.
You're, well, we're broken.
We're broken.
I don't know.
Are you a toy?
Well, you know, the Land of Misfit toys from the animation.
Well, I thought we were going down a different path, baby.
No, I'm not.
I'm not a toy.
I am just a monster turd.
You know, and that's the thing.
That's the difficulty because a lot of people, too, like...
And again, I'll speak for myself, but I think there would be people out there that this would resonate with, that because of these things that I deal with on a daily basis, I've got problems that normal people just don't get.
And I hear them complain about certain things and I have empathy.
And I just never really realized that there were problems until you finally have that acknowledgement point where you're like, oh, normal 30-year-olds don't feel like this.
Normal 40-year-olds don't feel like this.
Well, here's my theory about that.
Yeah, what's that?
It's really funny that you bring that up because I was thinking about that not too long ago.
I was asked by some, so I got this whole I thing going on, right?
Yeah.
So I was asked by somebody, well, how come you never really talk about it and it's like, you know, it sucks and the medication sucks and this and that and blah, blah, blah, but you never really talk about it.
And so, like, I really thought about that question and I think that it plays into exactly what you were just talking about.
Like, I'll just embrace the suck.
Yes.
Until I just can't anymore.
And then I'll either figure out how to get myself out of the suck and give it a shot maybe too and then I'll ask for help from somebody close to me like my wife or my parents or whatever.
But we get so far down the road just because there's so many people around us I mean, maybe not you, but there's so many people around me in my day-to-day life that all have problems.
You know, like everybody's got a lot of things going on.
Everyone's got tragedy happening in their lives and everybody's got something going on.
And I think that Like, for me, sometimes I don't feel like it'd be helpful for me to pile on top of that.
Right?
Like, you have these things happening and you feel some type of way about whatever it is.
No.
Why would I put on top of all that, well, I got this eye thing going on and the medication really sucks and I might be blind and I can't see close anymore and this and that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
When you just got done talking to me about how you feel like you get your ass handed to you every day and you're not happy with life right now and the way it's going.
Why would I talk about that?
Because I know that at some point I'll have either had enough And I know where to go to get the help that I need.
Or I'll figure it out.
And if it's somewhere, if it's going to take me a lot of pride swallowing to go get the help I'll need, I have apparently, I think, that I have this unique way of, like, subtly mentioning things to get, like, my wife, for example, to go, well, do you want me to go with you?
Well, you know, maybe it would be helpful.
Do you think, you know, it's...
If it's a big deal, no.
I don't want you to take up your day and I can go and I'll report into you.
We'll talk about it and everything, I promise.
But if you really want to, when really I want to just say, yeah, I would love for you to come with.
But in day-to-day stuff, man, everyone's got all this shit going on.
And a lot of people make it sound like the sky is falling and there's no help in sight.
And so I just feel at times where it's like, well, I'm not going to talk to you about it because you got a lot of work to do there, Charlie.
I don't know about you, but I don't commiserate with normal people.
Like with civilians.
I don't sit there and, you know, just like you're saying, they bring up their problems.
A lot of times, you know, normal people, you know, if somebody's got a problem and you're a sympathetic ear, then you kind of lay a little bit on them and they're hopefully a sympathetic ear.
It's kind of a way of dealing with it, right?
Yep.
And, you know, I hear that and I, you know, and I'm just apologizing in the rears and the forwards for all the times I call you and I'm all pissed off about something.
No, man.
And see, but that's it right there.
I'm sorry to cut you off, but that's it right there.
Exactly what I'm talking about.
Like, I'm really sorry to call you and F up your day with my bullshit.
Yeah, just bitch.
Yeah, exactly.
But you know what?
I love it.
Yeah, well, it's funny, because, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love my wife, and I tell her a lot of this stuff, too.
But sometimes, I'm not looking for the answer, I just want to prank out about it.
And I'm not going to do that when somebody else is telling me about their stuff.
You know, I hear it, and I'm like, oh yeah, that's bad.
Like, literally, and I don't, and I, weirdly enough, like, somebody mentioned it to me, actually, this afternoon, we were grabbing a bite to eat, and they're like, how's Richie's eye?
And I'm like, you know, shit.
I try to bring up things and be thoughtful.
And I hadn't even asked you about your eye in two weeks.
I thought back to the exact moment the last time I asked you how everything was going.
And I don't even notice that.
It doesn't stick in my mind.
And maybe this is a big difference, bro, between men and women, too.
Like, ladies would probably be every other day.
Well, how is it?
Can you see?
And is everything okay?
Like, what's going on?
And do you need, like, do you want me to bring you flowers and cookies and all this other shit?
Right?
When dudes are just like, well, it seems like he can see, right?
And then we don't think about it anymore.
Not dead yet.
Right.
He's still driving a truck.
He pulls up on a motorcycle.
Right.
Must be alright, right?
Everything seems to be working.
Yeah, right.
And again, I know we did start strolling off of that whole thing, but you can take the exact same thing that we're talking about.
And now start to look at, you know, how does this really affect veterans who, when things don't stay up to a compensatory rate to which they started.
And so somebody can start down a path and they can, you know, live a, you know, a modest, decent life.
They kind of get forgotten about.
And then, you know, in Minnesota, we argue about, you know, our 95th license plate.
And nobody's taking the time to deal with things that are truly important.
Like, how that didn't get picked up in Minnesota as a piece of legislation this year is beyond me.
And I really hope that, you know, more states follow suit and do those things.
Because it's kind of a...
I don't know.
For a lot of those guys and gals who are in the position where they would never ask for it, but they need it, to give them a little relief.
They've already earned that benefit.
I don't know all the backstories.
Don't need to know any of them.
Doesn't matter.
Yeah, and I don't think there's a normal person amongst us because we all still pay taxes.
When they start bringing these things, like, I'm good.
We waste an awful lot of our tax dollars on a bunch of other bullshit that shouldn't exist.
This is something that should.
I don't think anybody would ever stand there and be like, oh, you know, that crazy man Johnson down the street, I really don't think he deserves any more benefit.
Bullshit.
That doesn't happen.
Like, everybody can understand that we want to take care of our veteran population, certainly as they age, certainly as things become predominantly more difficult.
And that's all of these things, right?
Like...
90% of the stuff that really affects the VA disability compensation for veterans is like the back nine.
Well, probably the back four holes, right?
You kind of hope, even if you have a pretty bad disability, that you're going to have some type of earnings potential.
You're going to be able to do something.
You're going to be able to help speed that up.
But once a lot of these wounds Fully take hold?
Like, you're out.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, dude, because then you're up forever playing catch-up.
Well, yeah, but you're done.
You know, let's just say you've, you know, maybe you're an 80 percenter and I just dropped down this chart and I think it's like 2,500 to 3,000 a month.
And let's just say, you know, you no longer because your knees are shot and your back is terrible and you can't breathe, you know, if there's any wind, any sun, any pollen, you know, whatever respiratory illness that you have from the, you know, from burn pits or whatever it is, you just now are completely beholden to the program.
There's nothing else.
You can't go earn your cigarette and beer money, as you were talking about, or your Harley payment money.
Now this is what you have.
And so the things that you have in your life, now you're gonna have to completely reassess what that's gonna look like, make sure that you have enough coming in to keep a roof over your head, make sure that you have enough coming in that you can afford transportation because you're gonna have to go to the VA because you have problems.
And you still have to feed yourself.
You know, and hopefully clothe yourself and some other things.
And, you know, for somebody with a disability rating at 80 or 90% that are, you know, $3,000 a month mark, which is fantastic.
If you were a homeowner and had a note and your property taxes had picked up over time, And now you were spending that two months on the property taxes, I'm gonna say there's gonna be a change in your lifestyle, you're gonna sell the house, you're gonna do this, you know what I mean?
Do anything that you can.
But at the end of the day, you're still only gonna have that nut coming in.
That's it.
And then we're gonna go and you get forced into a transitional care center or maybe it's a VA old folks home or another old folks home.
It didn't have to happen that early, because lawmakers could be more forward-thinking.
And I think they really are.
I just don't think sometimes that, you know, the voices that we have in the state of Minnesota, the ones that are created, that are there, that are, you know, hopefully lobbying, that are actually talking to the policymakers, are bringing up the things that are truly important.
You know why?
You know why that is, in my opinion?
Let's hear it.
In my opinion, things like this don't get picked up by our lawmakers because I don't think that they believe that doing something like this legislation will win them their next election.
Oh, for sure.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think that that becomes...
True across all forms of government.
Our legislature, our senate, our school boards, our city councils, our judges.
Well, maybe not our judges.
I don't know enough about how corrupt that system is, if any.
And I'm sure it is.
But our U.S. Congress, our senate, the presidential election.
It seems like...
They take a stand and they work really hard to craft and pass legislation that they think is going to get them to their next victory in two or four years.
And if that's true, which I hope it's not, but it would make sense if it is, that's bullshit.
Because that's not the way that the system is supposed to work.
Right?
What do they teach you?
They've been telling us since we were knee high to a grasshopper, some old guy would say.
Right?
We put those people there.
They work for us.
We put them there because they're the purveyor of our message.
Right?
To the higher power, to the higher branch of government, what we want, what we need, what we'd like to see in our community, how we want to be treated, how we want our roads done, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff.
And at the end of the day, the choice is really left up to the lawmaker, the legislator.
To pick what legislation they're going to draft, what they're going to co-sign, what they're going to introduce, what they're going to present, what they're going to support, what they're going to co-author, all that junk.
And I believe that a large part of the decision is made about, unless maybe there's something that you know is going to pass, right?
And you know you're going to have this victory.
And so, well, then we can focus on something else because we know we have this coming.
Right.
And I don't know that there really is a focus on what the best thing is, right?
I hope that that's wrong.
It's not.
I mean, it's not wrong.
I mean, that's the way it is.
I mean, everything is always narrative driven, you know?
I mean, how many millions of dollars do we spend on homelessness at the same time that we create more homelessness?
Right.
So what is it?
Are you going to solve homelessness?
You know, strictly non-mental incapacitation homelessness, but just legitimate homelessness from a bad series of events to put safety nets in place to protect people.
Actually solving the problem of affordable housing, for crying out loud, I just said $435,000 for a median home in Minnesota, which means at the current interest rate around 7%, you need to be knocking out $130,000 a year in combined household income with a good debt to income ratio to get that note.
And you're going to be spending, you know, let's just say you had $100,000, so you had $350,000.
You're servicing at $300,000, $21,000 of your income every year.
You're surrendering that to pay the interest on your debt.
That is a sizable number.
So it's happening all the time where people are just checking out.
Where does that go?
Where the hell does that money go?
That's gotta be a disgruntled conversation.
That's the whole space aliens thing, right?
Well, it goes back into the treasury to get burned up.
Not all of it, but that's the federal, excuse me, your prime interest rate?
Yeah.
Right, so interest rate for Prime, what that is, let's say it's set at 4.5%, the idea is that for every dollar that's being loaned out, they're gonna take back from the bank that 4.5% to dwindle down the overall money supply in our country or in the economy to get inflation under control.
Because right now there's just too many dollars.
You've got dollars competing against dollars.
So at this time where they're crushing us, The inflation is caused by the exact same thing that they have put in place.
That's why there's always hesitation to drop the rates.
We think, well, if you just drop the rates, things are gonna happen.
It is a delicate balance, but you can do certain things.
But if you don't stop spending, who gives two shits?
So at the same time that our government over the past few years has been taking back three and a half, four and a half percent from every dollar being loaned out, we've added more money to the economy through spending.
It's not.
Number one, it's never been a sustainable thing, and it's how all empires fall.
But something that simple, and people just don't know about it or can't look at it and see what the root causes are, because they go and they snowball you with bullshit.
They're like, well, we can't drop that because inflation.
We're going to go for the soft landing.
And all the other nonsense verbiage that they throw out there, the adjectives they use to describe it, it's all bullshit.
Because you're continually creating more in the spending than you're burning back in on the rate hike.
Yeah, man.
I mean, basically, space bucks.
Who gives a shit?
It's just the U.S. dollar.
You know, it's just the thing that every American needs to survive each and every day to pay their bills, to buy their food, to do all the things that we do to live in the society that we have.
And it just...
I know that has nothing to do with what we were talking about, but it's bullshit.
Well, but it all plays in because this, I mean, we could even loop this conversation into the veteran suicide numbers, right?
I mean, when we are effectively taking money out of the pockets of veterans who depend on it for their daily goings-ons, Gradually over time and the situation just gets worse, that puts you in a whole different mindset.
It puts you into a whole different category of, I don't even want to call it mental illness, but a whole different mindset.
Then you go into survival mode.
I believe that when people make that transition from like, man, things are shitty, but I'm able to get by.
I got maybe 40, 50 extra bucks a month to mess around with.
Maybe I can buy a bag of weed, or maybe I can go get a case of beer, or whatever, go to dinner with my parents or my girl, whatever that is.
And then over time, that ends up leaving.
And you go from, man, life kind of sucks right now, but I'm making it and I'm going to figure out how to make some moves, blah, blah, blah, to I need to now survive.
That's not a good spot to put people in.
People in general.
But now we're going to put people who we've trained to fight for their survival.
And then eventually...
They transition into desperation mode.
And that's where it really snowballs.
And so I think that's where we get to overdosing on substances and drinking to excess and all these things that are super, super dangerous and destructive behaviors.
And then we end up losing people.
And so I think that it all plays a part.
And what I will say...
Is that I believe that this is a very delicate balance, kind of like you were saying with interest rates and all that.
Like this whole thing is a very delicate balance.
And I believe that having a way to alleviate this pressure.
Because, man, having a way to alleviate this pressure is paramount.
And just to follow up what you said earlier, the guys and gals that are using these benefits to get by are the folks that probably would have...
I don't know that it knows rank, right?
I believe that you're right.
So when we get to the higher ranks and stuff, but when we talk about the Joes, these are the guys that are coming from nothing, and they do 6 to 12 years in the military, probably more like 6 to 8, and then they come out and they go back to nothing.
Well, they try to figure out how they're going to use their military experience to their benefit because maybe they didn't have leadership that was telling them, hey, start constructing a plan.
Think about what you're going to do when you're done wearing this uniform.
How can you use what you learned here when you leave here?
Right.
To ensure that you have some kind of good life, some better life.
I don't know, man.
I think it's a very delicate balance.
But once again, as usual, we went way over time.
We got to take a break quick.
We will be right back.
Stick with us.
Hey folks, welcome back.
We had a potty break.
We're doing good.
For you, it was real quick.
For us, it was a few minutes.
Anyway, Jason, we went long, of course, on the first segment, which is good.
It was a good conversation.
I'm good with that.
We got about 13 minutes left to fill the show.
Okay.
And as usual, I like to offer an idea for From us, when we start bitching about stuff or we...
I don't even know that we were bitching about it.
I think we were just trying to have a conversation and bring it to light.
I think that it's good that we offer some sort of proposed solution or at least an idea of one.
Right.
Do you have anything that you would offer as a solution to the static benefits that are over time dwindling the pocket money that Or the bank account of veterans who depend on these benefits.
Right.
Well, number one, if you are in a position or you know somebody, talk to the politicians and make sure that these conversations are happening.
If you are in the advocacy or the lobbying position, start to pay attention to what veterans really give a shit about.
We don't care about nonsense.
There might be a fringe minority that care about goofiness.
Like the, I don't know, the vanity of a special license plate for left-handed infantrymen who can do 54 push-ups.
Like, we're getting to that point.
It's going to be that specific of a license plate.
And start to deal with the shit That really is going to affect veterans in real time today and affect their lives for the better in the future.
And these are not difficult things to do.
People want to make sure that veterans are taken care of.
I don't think there's a person walking.
Well, there's a few.
That was kind of a dumbass comment.
But there's a few.
But on a whole, veterans are appreciated.
And it seems like our politicians want to talk more about narratives about other things other than American problems.
And we have a ton of problems in this country, there's no question about it.
But this is one where the mechanics are already put in place.
We need to kick these guys in the ass to make sure that they keep things moving the way that they were.
I assure you they're all voting for their own pay raises.
Absolutely.
Hey, you got to take care of the people that are in the social fabric that this country has sworn to take care of.
We got to take care of the elderly, take care of the disabled, and take care of veterans.
And there is nobody who's going to sit there.
Do you think anybody's going to argue with those three pillars?
Of our social fabric?
I mean, that's kind of the thing, right?
Yeah.
I think there are people that will argue with it.
But it'll be a horseshit argument.
Well, yeah.
And whatever.
That's the thing.
But nobody gets all that mad about it.
Like, that's not a thing.
It already exists.
All you gotta do is make sure that, you know, you put some new fenders on the car.
You know, the fenders got beat in.
Yeah, and if for nothing else...
Just for, I mean, it'd be simple, right?
It wouldn't take, like you said, the framework is there, right?
All it takes is a few strokes of a pen to outline that the, I guess my suggestion would be to make it a percentage.
Instead of a dollar figure.
Like for the property tax exemption, right?
So if you're between this percentage and this percentage, it's 60% of your property tax is out the window before you pay the tax.
Something like that.
Or maybe that's, I don't know, maybe that's not fair because some people have more expensive houses than I don't know.
I'm not a numbers guy.
I think it needs to be on static averages.
I mean, Whatever a median home cost is, that has to be that nut that you use because some of us are more blessed than others.
Some of us have opportunities to have nicer things because of the way that the cards have played in each of our lives.
There's no question.
And so, you know, you start to do that.
Well, then that's where things become problematic because somebody can look at it and be like, hey, You know, I get this guy is disabled.
This guy is crushing it.
You know, he's making $450,000 a year.
He lives in a $4 million house and he pays for $500,000 worth of his property taxes.
That, you know what I mean?
That ends up being the conversation, right?
Because that's the one thing, that's the one antidote that you would have to offset the conversation.
And that's all it would take.
And then the whole thing would just get absolved because politicians run from anything that appears to have any type of kickback.
But again, but again, so what?
Yeah, but that's the problem.
You gotta play the game that they're playing.
Well, yes, right.
But I'm saying just in theory.
So what?
That he makes a bunch of money, lives in a nice home.
You know, he chose to get educated.
You know, maybe it was generational wealth.
He didn't choose that.
He was born...
I mean, there are a lot of, of course...
Of course, people are more well-deserving, in quotes, than others.
But the fact of the matter is this.
The percentage of men and women that actually walk into a recruitment station, sign the paperwork, then go through the underwear Olympics and the ASVAB test and whatever other bullshit they make you do at MEPS nowadays, Put their left hand on the Bible and raise their right one should qualify for the same amount of benefits as any other veteran that did the same thing.
To me, it's not about how much you have or how much you've built.
It doesn't matter.
You did something that less than 5% of our population or whatever that number is, it's an extremely small percent, is doing or has done.
Same with people like, you know what?
If Donald Trump was a veteran and he served in Vietnam and he got all screwed up from something to do in his service and he came home and built a $50 trillion wealth, give him his property tax exemption for Christ's sake.
He earned it.
Right.
But that's what I'm saying, right?
That's all these conversations.
I'm saying we have to play the same games that they play.
I'm not saying we have to play their game.
Right.
But if that's the conversation, right, and it was percentages, and this veteran gets $3.5 million off their property tax exclusion, this veteran only gets $175,000, and that's that equity, equality, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Yeah.
It's a static number.
Like, hey Richie, you and I, same situation, same thing.
This is the dollar figure and let's just say it's X amount.
We all get X amount.
It doesn't matter your personal resources or your wealth or anything else.
That's what you get.
But it won't be proportional to what you can afford or buy.
You have to go into that basic hole.
Because then that's a conversation.
Again, nobody can really buck against and argue.
And that's what ends up happening.
Every time that I hear something that's being floated around, what ends up happening is, by design, Or by default, they do something or they tweak the verbiage just a little bit to throw enough innocuity into it where you have that type of problem you just talked about.
Where they say, well, it can disproportionately affect these people in this way, this way, this way, or it can over affect somebody's situation this way, this way, and this way.
So thus, because we can't figure that out because they make it complicated, we're just going to shelf it until next year.
And so we appreciate, you know, your thousands of voices, you're being heard, but we just couldn't figure out the vehicle to put it together.
Give them simple vehicles.
If you've got a great idea that can be articulated, get in front of your politicians and start to have those things.
Inundate them with phone calls, with letters, with emails.
Pound on them.
If you're a veteran out there that you're watching, reach out to your local politicians and start that echo up.
We need to be proactive in dealing with these problems because if we don't push on them, they're not going to do anything.
You don't go through life getting a raise without asking for one in a job.
Period.
The old school philosophy of rewarding your employees for 20, 30 years of service are over.
They're going to keep you as cheap as they can for as long as they can.
And so that's why you see the younger population moving.
This situation is no different.
If the wheel isn't squeaking, they don't need to address it.
So get involved, say something, do something, and certainly present viable ideas so they have to hear these things time and time and time again and just kill them with...
Frequency.
You can probably kill them is a bad terminology.
And boy, I paused at the wrong time there.
Come with the frequency, right?
Oh, yes.
Overdoing.
Boom.
I'm a strong veterans advocacy group.
You know, understand what the temperature is in the room because you and I did it, bud.
Yeah.
We know more than I knew a year ago.
I'm not saying it's good or it's bad.
I like being at the table, being able to hear what's being talked about.
You know, you can hear the voices that have, you know, valid concerns that sometimes don't get heard because they can't amp up the frequency.
They can't get enough people to emanate the same thing that they're putting out.
So do that.
Well, and I think that I think that this is also important.
If in your travels or talking to your local politicians, you find one that agrees and thinks that this is a good idea, then keep pushing them to do something.
Because in the event that we get one politician or two or three around this country to start invoking some people, some change in their local legislature, that's going to set a precedent for the rest of the country, right?
And maybe it'll catch fire nationally, which would be great.
I mean, so let me ask you this, though, real quick.
Okay.
Let's say, Jason, that you get elected to the United States Congress.
Oh boy.
You do one term, two years.
Okay.
What is it that you receive after for the rest of your life?
Mind you, you made $186,000 or $196,000 in salary for the two years you were there.
Isn't it some kind of pension?
Yes, and medical care.
And all you have to do is serve two years on Capitol Hill.
And so these men and women who served four, or maybe even just two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, eighteen, twenty, twenty-four years are fighting just to get by.
Where some of these honyucks, they decide, they get a wild hair up their ass and they want to run for Congress.
And they do it, they get elected once, great.
And then for the rest of their lives, they get some sort of pension, I think.
And they get medical care.
And they serve for two years.
And most likely, most likely in the two years that they served, didn't do a damn thing.
Except breathe the air on Capitol Hill and drink a bunch of scotch.
And had some hard conversations.
Now maybe there are some rookies, if that's what you want to call them, that did some good things that are exuberant and real excited to really help people.
Yeah.
But we are in a situation, traditionally, veterans are in a situation where if you're not going to fight for it, you're not going to push, you're not going to We'll never get it.
These are not issues that we can say, well, you know, my senator isn't going to do shit, so what's the use?
Well, you never know if you don't talk to them.
You never know if you don't talk to them three, four, five times.
You'll never know.
But have these conversations.
Like you said, Jason, it's just starting the conversation and the buzz around the office or around City Hall or wherever.
Wherever it is.
The rib joint you're eating dinner.
Whatever.
It's all important because you never know whose ear you're going to catch.
You never know what kind of fire you might start that can explode into something that really helps a lot of people.
Right.
And nobody's going to do it for us.
There's a lot of legislators out there that say that they're, hey man, we're going to do what we can to help the veterans.
It's at the top of my list.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Well, they haven't done shit.
And so if they've tried and they got shot in the foot and they got shoved aside, well, thanks for trying.
But at the end of the day, All the words don't mean shit because either they say it and don't do it or they say it and try and get shot down and they get canceled or whatever the case may be.
I don't know that people are out there actively canceling members of Congress because they support veterans, but who knows?
Who knows?
Right.
Well, I don't think they do, and then half the time...
You know, the veterans that we do get that get to the pinnacle.
You know, in the military, if you take the hill, you make sure everybody comes with you.
Right.
Why is it that our veteran politicians get to the hill and leave everybody at the bottom?
Yeah.
You know, they're there.
They're a token.
They're a namesake.
And that's the saddest part is when we see it.
And you and I have discussed those things offline, and that's another show in its entirety.
Well, it's always fun to get a little glimpse of what their former service mates have to say about their service, when and if you ever get to talk to them or they talk or whatever.
But anyway, we've run out of time.
Jason, if you'd like to give a couple words before we end.
No?
Nothing?
You're just going to stonewall our audience?
Yes.
All right.
Well, fine.
Perfect.
You did kind of do final thoughts, though, when you did your solution.
So we'll take that.
I hope that the audience is as forgiven as I have been with your defiance of final thoughts.
Anyway, folks, here's what I think.
This is an interesting topic.
It is something that not a lot of people probably ever even think about more than a couple seconds.
But it makes sense.
It makes a lot of sense that these types of things are things that really contribute to a whole litany of other issues that veterans may have.
When we talk about gradually over years Inadvertently taking money out of the pockets of people who plan to use this stuff.
They make plans on where and how to spend it.
And for what?
I believe is none of our business.
It doesn't matter.
They've earned it.
So they should be getting what they've earned.
And let's be clear, in many cases they are getting what they earned.
The problem is that what they've earned was established 15, 20, 25, 30 years ago, and now everything costs quadruple what it did.
So the idea that these benefits don't keep up with the economy to help offset some of that hurt of inflation as it sits right now in today's economy That hurts their pocketbook, which hurts their overall well-being, maybe.
And so, as we discussed, have these conversations, talk about it, and ping your legislators, ping people that work for legislators, ping people that work in the building with legislators, if you know these folks.
Nobody's going to do it for us.
We have to stand up.
We have to talk.
We have to push a little bit.
We have to get some answers.
And if they're not going to do it, we need to ask why.
And we need to demand an answer as to why this cannot be done.
Because at the end of the day, these are things that were promised to us.
We didn't ever ask for them before they were promised to us.
So if it is something that we're not going to get, and it's not going to be as promised, then don't even tell us that it's available.
Because then that makes you look like a liar again.
Anyway, have a great evening.
We will see you next week.
Be safe.
And maybe next week, we'll get some final thoughts out of Jason.
Take care of yourselves.
Have a good night.
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