Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 1348 ｜ No Pay for Politicians During Shutdowns, Republicans to Gain Seats After Redistricting, and Advice to Go Debt-Free ｜ Ron Simmons

00:00:00.000 Well, good afternoon, everybody, or morning, whenever you're listening or watching this.

00:00:14.040 It's Ron Simmons, Allie's dad, and a little bit different background.

00:00:18.440 We're not in the studio today.

00:00:19.540 I am traveling, but I'm excited to talk to you about the information that we're going

00:00:26.500 to go over today.

00:00:27.520 There's a lot of good questions, as you always come up with, and there's also a lot of things going on in the world.

00:00:33.300 So we're going to get right at it.

00:00:35.120 Before I do that, I want to remind you to get your tickets to share the arrows.

00:00:39.440 They do have some left, although there's not a lot left.

00:00:42.420 So if you want to get them, go ahead and get them now.

00:00:45.020 If you guys kind of messed up on Mother's Day and you need to, you know, you need to pick up your game because you didn't do as well as you thought you did,

00:00:53.300 then go ahead and get your bride or your girlfriend a ticket to Share the Arrows.

00:00:59.580 That's coming up in October.

00:01:00.640 It's going to be a great event, as Allie's been talking about.

00:01:04.040 We're going to go through several news items today.

00:01:06.640 The first one I want to talk about is all of the talk on redistricting.

00:01:09.840 We've talked about this many times before, but there's been some more news that came about.

00:01:14.920 In fact, kind of surprising a little bit is that yesterday, South Carolina voted, the Senate voted against opening up redistricting, which would have given at least one more Republican seat.

00:01:31.300 Five Republican senators went along with Democrats to, again, these are state senators, went along with Democrats to kill the bill.

00:01:42.660 And they said that they already had ballots that went out to mail-in ballots and ballots that went out to the military overseas and what have you.

00:01:54.540 So they thought that would mess it up.

00:01:56.480 Now, Trump had said, and there's a post of what he had put out Monday ahead of the vote.

00:02:03.740 But essentially what he was saying is that, look, we need to get this done and you can actually move the primary for the U.S. House of Representatives to August.

00:02:14.720 And that gives you plenty of time to resend out those ballots and everything.

00:02:18.760 So make sure that, you know, that they had it done, but they voted against it.

00:02:24.300 Now, evidently, there's still some more ways they might be able to put this back together and pass another bill to redistrict.

00:02:33.180 But we'll just have to keep up with that. The other big news, though, that's come up is information what happened in Virginia.

00:02:40.100 If you remember, we talked about this last time that Virginia passed a bill.

00:02:45.740 Actually, they went to the voters for a proposition to redistrict outside of the way they normally redistrict.

00:02:52.720 Normally, they have a bipartisan commission that does it.

00:02:55.280 But they were slammed through a proposal that barely won voter approval, and it was going to allow them to redistrict with their legislature doing it.

00:03:07.380 And their legislature is controlled by Democrats and the governor's a Democrat, as you know.

00:03:13.980 And that would have gone from six Democrat seats and five Republican seats to potentially 10 Democrat seats and one Republican seat.

00:03:25.160 Well, the Republicans filed a lawsuit against that, and it went straight to the Virginia State Supreme Court.

00:03:33.780 And much to the Democrats' surprise, the Supreme Court in Virginia said this is unconstitutional based on the state of Virginia's Constitution.

00:03:45.440 They missed some of the procedural ways that they needed to do this.

00:03:50.200 There were some very specific provisions in the Constitution on how they would go out for redistricting, and they violated some of those provisions.

00:04:01.860 Now, they the Democrats there have or the state has appealed that to the U.S. Supreme Court.

00:04:08.060 Now, when they appealed it, they've actually they filed the wrong paperwork to start with.

00:04:12.400 They tried to appeal it back to the same Virginia state Supreme Court, which is crazy.

00:04:16.900 And then also I saw where somebody had pointed out that in one of their filings, they even misspelled the state of Virginia.

00:04:23.940 So I don't know what type of lawyers they have working on their team, but it doesn't sound too good.

00:04:27.760 And again, the Supreme Court may or may not take up this case.

00:04:31.020 We'll see. Usually they leave state things to states, but we'll see what they do.

00:04:35.780 So that's a big blow to Democrats.

00:04:37.360 And then they're talking about kicking out the state Supreme Court and packing it in, which I don't even know if they could do that.

00:04:43.540 But they were very, very upset about that.

00:04:47.540 What we have found in doing our research, that there is a lot, there's a pretty good chance that there's going to be more new Republican seats than Democrat seats.

00:04:59.800 All right. But the overall numbers, you know, they, the Republican redistricting efforts before departing to Beijing, Trump had something to say about it.

00:05:11.320 Here's thought one.

00:05:12.140 well i think it's been a wonderful process they've been the democrats or as i call the democrats 0.98

00:05:19.040 because they are dumb in so many ways they've redistricted for years and now we took our shot 0.93

00:05:25.020 and it looks like we're going to pick up a lot of seats and that's a good thing 0.99

00:05:28.500 we want voters to have their choice we want fair voting we want fair elections the democrats have

00:05:36.260 been cheating on elections for many years and all we're doing is winning all right well you see uh

00:05:43.740 what uh what president trump said and again the it looks like that based on the information this

00:05:49.800 is according uh this is according to the cook political report it looks like that the democrats

00:05:54.640 might gain four to six seats but republicans could gain eight to 16 seats without that would

00:06:00.560 be a net gain of eight seats or more. Now, according to national polls, the Democrats are

00:06:06.060 still ahead when it says, you know, in general, who you're going to vote for, a Democrat or a

00:06:12.000 Republican in the upcoming elections. Democrats have a slight edge in this, but it makes it much,

00:06:16.060 much tighter. I will remind you, though, that U.S. Congress elections are individual elections.

00:06:22.940 There's 435 individual elections because they all have to run every two years. And so it's really,

00:06:28.480 it's not really a national election as such as it is an individual election. So depending on the

00:06:34.660 strength of the candidate in a particular district somewhere in the United States, that's what's

00:06:40.340 going to win, all right? It's not necessarily a national election like the presidential election

00:06:45.180 is. Now, there's a couple of questions that came in from listeners and viewers on the election

00:06:53.060 process, and there's lots of things going on all over the country. So these are more specific to

00:06:57.320 different states. But Spencer Pratt, somebody asked about my opinion on Spencer Pratt. There

00:07:03.200 is a mayoral election going on in Los Angeles that the current mayor, Karen Bass, is on the

00:07:10.960 ticket, of course. And then there's the actor, Spencer Pratt. Spencer Pratt is a Republican.

00:07:18.180 He's an actor that was on one of the reality shows, I think called The Hills or what have you.

00:07:23.200 And, you know, I think he's a solid Republican.

00:07:25.540 I don't follow that race super closely, but I do believe that he would definitely be a better choice than Karen Bass.

00:07:32.440 In fact, you know, my Labrador retriever would be a better choice than Karen Bass.

00:07:36.840 So I think that's who I would go for.

00:07:40.680 I think that's the best choice.

00:07:41.780 He has the best chance of beating her.

00:07:43.400 Remember, in these elections, when you're voting in a primary election, let's say, you need to look at who in that primary has the best chance of winning the general election against the Democrat.

00:07:55.920 That's really what we have to look at.

00:07:57.800 The other question is, who would you pick to take Mitch McConnell's seat in the Kentucky Republican primary?

00:08:04.400 Mitch McConnell's retiring, and there's several people running for that.

00:08:08.540 I think Congressman Barr is probably the one that's most likely to win and also most likely to be able to win in November.

00:08:19.060 Now, Kentucky is a pretty Republican state, although they do have a Democrat governor or at least have had.

00:08:25.080 I think he's still there. But I do believe that the Republicans will win that.

00:08:29.300 But Congressman Barr is probably the most likely to be able to win in November.

00:08:34.100 So that's who I would support. Again, I try to look at which Republican can win in November.

00:08:39.880 And then the last question on this particular issue is, would I take Steve Hilton or Chad Bianco for California governor?

00:08:47.640 I'm leaning for Chad. Well, you know, California has one of those weird primaries where Republicans and Democrats are all on the same ballot, even in the primary.

00:08:56.600 And I think the top two go to the general election. Again, I think we'll have a Republican as far as the top two.

00:09:06.280 OK, the former HHS secretary, I forget the guy's name, Xavier or something, looks like going to be the top Democrat.

00:09:14.020 And so I want to know who has the best chance of winning in November.

00:09:19.980 Now, the one that that wasn't put in there is Steyer. He is also running.

00:09:26.600 And he has made some headway.

00:09:29.400 But I think either Steve Hilton or Chad, probably Steve Hilton,

00:09:35.260 it looks like he's got the most support, although it's leveled out some.

00:09:39.260 And so we've got to make sure that we get a Republican in the top two spots, okay?

00:09:44.600 That's what's really important.

00:09:45.760 Right now, Hilton is running second.

00:09:48.340 And we need to at least have one Republican in the top two spots.

00:09:51.180 So that's probably who I would vote for because I do think he would have a chance of winning,

00:09:55.260 And although it's unlikely that any Republican is going to win California.

00:09:58.760 But you know what?

00:09:59.380 We live in a crazy world.

00:10:00.460 So who knows?

00:10:01.720 But that's what's going on in redistricting.

00:10:03.620 You know, there's already been this was all part of this was a result of the Supreme Court case that Louisiana brought to them to get rid of racial gerrymandering.

00:10:15.740 It's and there's the article, article two of the Voters Act talks about this.

00:10:21.560 And so you can gerrymander for political purposes.

00:10:24.880 The Supreme Court said that time and time again, what you can't do is gerrymander for

00:10:29.760 racial purposes.

00:10:31.520 And now the funny thing is, or funny, when I say funny, ironic thing is, is that Democrats

00:10:37.520 have used that for many years to actually get racially gerrymandered districts because

00:10:45.120 they've said, well, if you don't let us have our racially gerrymandered district, that

00:10:49.020 means you're discriminating against us. 0.99

00:10:50.700 So what's happened is, it's so funny.

00:10:53.440 If you and I didn't vote for Kamala Harris, and a lot of people called us a racist, right, in the last election.

00:11:00.460 However, they absolutely want to elect people based on skin color.

00:11:05.600 A lot of black Democrat Americans are wanting to make sure that they have people that, based on their skin color, are going to be elected. 0.65

00:11:15.560 And that just shouldn't be the way it is.

00:11:17.400 That's, you know, one of their great leaders, Martin Luther King, talked about many, many times, you know, we want to be elected on the content of our character, not the color of our skin. 0.98

00:11:28.080 So it's just totally hypocritical, totally hypocritical. 0.97

00:11:33.020 And but the problem that they're running up against, see, is Republicans aren't playing nice anymore. 0.98

00:11:37.720 The Republicans used to let all this stuff slide.

00:11:40.440 But when President Trump came along, they decided we're not going to play nice anymore.

00:11:43.680 We're going to fight fire with fire.

00:11:45.680 And I commend them for doing that.

00:11:47.840 And we'll see how we'll see what happens over the next few months.

00:11:50.900 But I believe it's going to be a very close November between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House.

00:11:58.020 And we've got certainly a better chance of holding the Senate.

00:12:00.960 But it's going to be close.

00:12:02.340 I mean, and even though President Trump isn't on the ballot, in some ways he is on the ballot because Democrats,

00:12:08.340 Democrats, their number one strategy is demonizing President Trump and and attacking any Republican to to associate them with everything about President Trump.

00:12:20.520 So we'll see in a few months how all that turns out.

00:12:24.060 The next thing I want to talk about, though, is President Trump is headed to China as we're recording this where he's headed to China.

00:12:31.500 By the time this comes out, he'll have already had the meeting and you'll I want you to follow that so you can see what happened.

00:12:37.320 And it's an interesting, and I don't remember if President Biden or previous to him, if

00:12:43.900 President Trump in his first session had gone back, had gone to China or not.

00:12:47.360 But President Trump's going to China and they're going to discuss trade policy.

00:12:51.880 They're obviously going to discuss the Iran, discuss the Iran war.

00:12:55.500 And, you know, really looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

00:12:59.380 SOT 2 is about the meeting.

00:13:02.700 What is your message to President Xi as it relates to the Iran war?

00:13:07.320 Well, I think, number one, we're going to have a long talk about it.

00:13:11.040 I think he's been relatively good, to be honest with you.

00:13:15.120 You look at the blockade, no problem.

00:13:17.920 They get a lot of their oil from that area.

00:13:20.020 We've had no problem.

00:13:21.160 And he's been a friend of mine.

00:13:23.240 He's been somebody that we get along with.

00:13:26.100 And I think you're going to see that good things are going to happen.

00:13:29.780 This is going to be a very exciting trip.

00:13:31.160 A lot of good things are going to happen.

00:13:33.420 You know, I always like when President Trump, he's an optimist.

00:13:37.320 He really is an optimist at heart.

00:13:39.560 And he's also has a lot of confidence.

00:13:41.820 He believes in himself and believes what he can get done.

00:13:44.140 And we'll see.

00:13:44.620 You know, I thought it was interesting when you look at some of the people that were on

00:13:47.980 the list going to China with President Trump, of course, you know, Secretary of State Marco

00:13:54.200 Rubio, which there was this thing going around on X about the jogging suit that he was wearing.

00:14:00.280 There were some pictures about that, which if you're on that long of a trip, you're not

00:14:03.200 going to sit there in a coat and tie, even on Air Force One, I wouldn't think.

00:14:06.560 And I'm sure the president was OK with that, but I thought it was fun.

00:14:08.860 But he's he's on the trip.

00:14:10.500 Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth is on the trip, obviously, for the Iran war discussions.

00:14:14.980 Treasury Secretary Scott Bissett is on the trip as well.

00:14:18.160 Trade be a big deal for him and some business leaders, including Elon Musk.

00:14:23.620 Now, see, that's that's what you have to understand about President Trump.

00:14:27.120 I think President Trump is one of these people that in a lot of ways is transactionally oriented.

00:14:32.320 So whatever issue he and Elon Musk had before, that's passed.

00:14:37.040 He doesn't, I don't think he holds grudges on scenarios like that, okay?

00:14:40.560 Obviously, if he thinks you've wronged him, as we know, he generally doesn't let that go until he's satisfied.

00:14:47.320 But he's on the trip.

00:14:49.060 Also, soon-to-retire Apple CEO Tim Cook is on the trip.

00:14:53.220 And also, Jensen Hong, who is the CEO of NVIDIA, is on the trip.

00:14:58.060 And that is the most valuable company in the world worth $5 trillion.

00:15:02.680 That's hard to believe.

00:15:04.400 But anyway, should be a good trip.

00:15:06.900 You know, the trade war kind of went on where we put, you know, they've always had tariffs on us.

00:15:12.320 So we reciprocated with tariffs.

00:15:14.120 And then, you know, everybody bumped them up back and forth.

00:15:17.320 And then we suspended it in October.

00:15:19.060 Had a truce in 2025.

00:15:21.540 So we're going to be talking about that.

00:15:23.480 Semiconductors is big.

00:15:24.480 They're going to want to talk about Taiwan.

00:15:26.820 Obviously, that's been a goal for them for a long time.

00:15:31.320 And we are legally, under agreements that we have, we are legally required to help Taiwan maintain its ability to defend itself.

00:15:40.320 And so the U.S. military is, if China makes a first offensive move, then we're required to help them.

00:15:49.260 I'm sure there'll be some discussion on Taiwan, because that's been a very big issue for China over the years, since 1949, actually.

00:15:59.080 And also, of course, they're going to talk about Iran.

00:16:02.800 Iran is an ally of China.

00:16:05.740 China buys a lot of Iran's oil.

00:16:08.640 Some people have said they buy up to 80% of the oil that Iran sells is bought by China.

00:16:15.920 So we'll see about that.

00:16:17.160 Now, we can also supply oil to China, and that'll probably be some of the stuff they talk about.

00:16:23.880 You know, we already export 8 million barrels of oil a day sold on the world market.

00:16:29.340 And some people claim that that's the reason U.S. gas prices are high.

00:16:32.920 We should keep all that and just have a closed market.

00:16:36.120 You know, that's a good discussion.

00:16:38.380 I need to do more research on that.

00:16:40.060 I'm not sure that's true, whether or not that would be good for us long term or not.

00:16:44.360 Another, and we talked about this before, another reason that we have trouble here in the U.S. is because that it's so hard to build a new refinery here in the U.S. because of environmental regulations that have gone awry.

00:16:58.880 I know they're trying to fix a lot of those, that we have to ship some of our oil out to get it refined, and then we have to buy the refined product back like gasoline.

00:17:07.500 So it's a complicated scenario, and hopefully President Trump will do something about it.

00:17:13.920 And some of the governors we're talking about, we'll talk about that in just a minute.

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00:18:40.500 slash Allie, code Allie. Let's kind of move on and talk a little bit about Iran war. Just an

00:18:50.260 update on that. I know some of this may get a little old, but it's important. I just read a

00:18:56.660 book, and somebody asked me what book I'm reading. I just listened to a book by an author named Joel

00:19:02.440 Rosenberg that was written several years ago called The Tehran Initiative. I would recommend

00:19:10.700 that. It's a little bit eerie because it really is very similar to what is going on right now with

00:19:18.800 Iran. But again, this was written several, several years ago, but it's very entertaining. It's a

00:19:25.420 novel, but it's really good. Joel Rosenberg is a messianic Jew. And so there's always a Christian 0.99

00:19:33.220 element to it as well. But the intrigue from just the geopolitical battles that are going on within

00:19:41.840 this book are so similar to what is going on now. It was kind of eerie when I was listening to it.

00:19:48.180 And so what's happened since then, you know, what we're trying to do is negotiate with them.

00:19:56.480 Senator, I mean, Secretary of State Rubio has been talking to the people in Qatar about it.

00:20:01.260 You know, we've had the Pakistans be involved in trying to get to a resolution.

00:20:04.580 But every proposal so far that Iran has sent to us, they do not allow inspectors to come in to make sure that they don't have any enriched uranium.

00:20:15.020 Now, they're saying it's at the very deep, deep bottom of where we bombed several months ago, and that may be true, but we need to have inspectors in there to make sure, and they just will not allow that as part of their proposal.

00:20:29.240 So that's going to have to be – we're not going to relinquish on that.

00:20:34.120 We're going to have to be able to put inspectors in there to make sure there's no enriched uranium.

00:20:38.760 The other thing is the Strait of Hormuz.

00:20:40.520 They want to basically use that as blackmail against other countries and businesses so that they can raise money to get revenue out of that, to charge a toll through there, so to speak, even though they don't own the waters.

00:20:55.220 OK, so it's really interesting.

00:20:57.680 And we're going to have to get that opened as well.

00:21:00.580 I mean, there's no question about that.

00:21:01.940 And I believe that Trump will commit our Navy to making sure that happens.

00:21:07.240 We've kind of put things on hold while we're still trying to negotiate, and I don't think

00:21:12.200 anything will happen while President Trump is in China.

00:21:15.100 But I do think that within the next couple of weeks, you're going to see some type of

00:21:19.700 breakthrough.

00:21:20.360 Either we're going to be more aggressive militarily in the Strait of Hormuz, or there's going

00:21:26.040 to be a negotiated agreement.

00:21:28.560 I do believe that'll happen because it does have an effect on U.S.

00:21:32.040 You mean the gas prices are up 40 to 50 percent, depending on where you live, and that has

00:21:36.540 an effect on our pocketbook. Although I will say that that is a pretty reasonable price, in my

00:21:43.740 opinion, to pay for making sure that a country that has said death to America for over almost

00:21:50.100 50 years don't have a nuclear weapon. And I don't like it any more than anybody else does. I just

00:21:56.960 was on a long trip and to fill up my truck was $80. And it probably used to be somewhere around

00:22:02.600 you know, $50 or $60. But it's a big difference. And I don't like that. But I'm willing to

00:22:08.120 sacrifice for that for now, for a better long term gain for my kids and grandkids. And I hope

00:22:14.040 that you'll look at it that way, as well. So that's kind of what's going on in Iran. Well,

00:22:20.040 again, I encourage you to keep pay attention to that it is important long term for what we're

00:22:24.320 doing as a country. There's a couple of questions on that that I wanted to answer, though, it says,

00:22:29.180 if Iran has no Navy left, how do they control the strait? Well, the way the strait works,

00:22:36.400 and maybe sometime we can put a map up there at some point in time. We've done that in the past,

00:22:40.140 and maybe they can put that in here. But it's very narrow, and they still have a bunch of

00:22:48.020 drones, okay? So they do some attack drones, and they may not have any big naval ships,

00:22:51.840 but they got some smaller ones that can kind of be like a gnat and shoot. And so that does create

00:22:57.840 an increased element of risk for these ships that are going through there because all these

00:23:05.960 ships need to be insured. They want to insure their cargo and insure the ship itself. And as

00:23:11.220 we talked about in the past, insurance companies were unwilling to write that insurance given the

00:23:16.660 risk that was taking place. And therefore, we'll need to make sure that it's safe in order for the

00:23:25.240 insurance companies to be willing to write those policies. And if that requires the U.S. Navy

00:23:30.340 being kind of the, you know, guiding people through there, then I think that we'll end up

00:23:37.220 doing that. Hopefully we won't have to, but I think that we will. And then the next question,

00:23:41.720 will gas prices go down anytime soon? Well, gas prices usually are a little higher in the summer

00:23:45.940 anyway. And so I don't know how much they're going to go down soon, but I do think this is a,

00:23:52.560 in the big picture, it's a short-term problem, not a long-term problem. And they really do need

00:23:58.640 to go down, as far as Republicans are concerned, politically before the midterm elections. And

00:24:04.140 we'll see what happens. President Trump's been talking about maybe getting rid of the federal

00:24:08.200 gas tax. That'll take the action of Congress. I expect somebody's going to file a bill for that

00:24:13.880 to happen. We'll see if that occurs or not. And I think that we get bipartisan support,

00:24:19.540 But, you know, the Democrats may want to use that against us in the election, so they may not agree to doing that.

00:24:27.180 So we'll see.

00:24:28.740 The next thing I want to talk about today is, this just came up in the last couple of days, and it's been out there a little bit.

00:24:35.340 As you know, the U.S., the Constitution actually requires that Congress and the president get paid during any government shutdown, which is really kind of interesting.

00:24:48.500 I'm not sure what the reason is behind that.

00:24:51.980 I need to do a little research, or if somebody out there that's listening knows, tell us why that was in the Constitution.

00:24:57.520 It's very interesting.

00:24:58.520 However, we still have this shutdown where we've moved some money around to help pay some of the Department of Homeland Security people,

00:25:08.020 but we don't have full funding approval for the entire DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol and

00:25:17.240 TSA. And we need to get that solved. But Democrats are the ones that have stopped that every single

00:25:22.200 time. They're unwilling to pass it because they want to basically defund ICE. And one of the great

00:25:30.180 successes of this administration has been to essentially shut down illegal immigration,

00:25:38.300 to shut down the open border that President Biden had before. And that's been a tremendous

00:25:44.140 accomplishment. And we've also been removing a lot of the criminal elements of the illegals that came 0.62

00:25:49.620 over during the Biden administration years. We've done it. It's not as much in the headlines now,

00:25:56.040 but that's still happening every single day out there. Now, Senator Rick Scott actually

00:26:04.480 has filed a bill called the No Budget, No Pay Act. We have that on SOT3.

00:26:10.360 I'm a business guy. I always pass budgets. And by the way, if you didn't do your job in business,

00:26:15.200 you didn't get paid. You don't show up and do your job. You don't get paid. Why are we getting

00:26:18.680 paid? We shouldn't get paid if we don't do our job. We need to figure out how to work together

00:26:22.760 to get our budgets done. It's as simple as that. So you're going to offer legislation to not get

00:26:26.620 paid during lockdowns? Absolutely. I already have a bill. We've got a bill that we don't get paid

00:26:33.700 during the shutdown. Ron Johnson's got a bill that will never have shutdowns. That should pass also.

00:26:40.060 But on top of that, what are the Democrats doing? Hey, that's a very good question. What are they

00:26:46.460 doing to help open the government? Rick Scott also wrote on Exidy, and it's coming up on your

00:26:51.440 screen. I'm sick and tired of D.C. politicians holding hardworking American paychecks hostage

00:26:56.500 while they take home a paycheck because they have bills to pay. It's time for accountability.

00:27:02.220 Fully fund DHS and pass my No Budget, No Pay Act. Amen to that. I agree 100 percent.

00:27:09.360 And there are other members of this would prevent members of Congress from receiving their salaries

00:27:13.360 until all government funding bills are passed for the fiscal year. It would also block lawmakers

00:27:18.300 from receiving back pay once a shutdown ends.

00:27:20.800 Now, that's a big issue right there, because right now, you know, when a shutdown ends,

00:27:25.080 all federal workers get back pay.

00:27:27.020 But this says that if you do do a federal shutdown, that Congress will not get the back

00:27:32.280 pay.

00:27:33.020 Very interesting. 0.98

00:27:34.260 Other Republican lawmakers have supported the proposal, including Kat Cammack, Katie

00:27:39.660 Britt, and they argue that Congress should not be paid while federal employees go unpaid.

00:27:43.960 Bernie Marino also promoted a similar idea and shared the poll that 92% of respondents

00:27:49.080 on the poll agreed that lawmakers should lose their pay during shutdowns.

00:27:55.600 And also, lawmakers from both parties have already voluntarily asked for their salaries.

00:28:00.380 And I've got a few friends that have done that.

00:28:02.220 They said, hey, don't pay me while government workers aren't being paid.

00:28:08.020 But also, Ted Cruz is one of the ones that have done that, and also a Democrat representative,

00:28:12.580 Louis Carrera. So I applaud them for making sure that they don't get paid while federal employees,

00:28:20.800 hardworking federal employees getting paid. Some of these people are sleeping in their cars. They've

00:28:24.560 had to take second jobs. They've had to quit in order to be able to do this. So come on, let's get

00:28:30.700 to an answer of all of this stuff. All right. Let's get to an answer. All right. A few questions

00:28:36.600 coming up from our members or from our listeners. I always really appreciate those. You guys are so

00:28:42.320 good and the private ones that you sent me and remember you can email me anytime ron at ronsimmons.com

00:28:47.720 i certainly don't have all the answers and if i don't know i'll tell you uh or if it's just an

00:28:52.640 opinion i'll tell you that as well but feel free to email we've gotten a lot of sweet questions

00:28:56.880 about our uh episode that my wife and i did a couple saturdays ago on autism and a lot of people

00:29:04.820 out there have real challenges in their families with that and we recognize that and feel free to

00:29:11.680 reach out to us anytime. We're happy to walk you through our experience and let you know what we

00:29:17.340 know, what we don't know, which is probably a lot more than we know. But feel free to email me

00:29:21.740 anytime on any subject. Here's a few questions here. Number one, what can a family do to create

00:29:28.360 more income to pay and to pay off debt? Well, the first thing you would do is there are some

00:29:33.460 debt consolidators out there that do a really good job. I really like Crown Financial. They're

00:29:39.380 a ministry that really teaches financial intelligence and what have you.

00:29:44.160 So I would, because the first thing, it's kind of like when you're digging a hole.

00:29:47.660 The first thing you got to do is stop digging, all right, if you don't want the hole to get

00:29:52.320 deeper.

00:29:52.780 So make sure that you stop digging, but get in touch with Crown Financial.

00:29:56.620 My friend Chuck Bentley, who runs that organization, he's got people that can help with that scenario.

00:30:02.380 But I think also the other thing that you have to do is you have to look at, you know,

00:30:06.700 can I, you know, can one of us take a second job? Is there something that we can do to take a second

00:30:11.920 job or is there a business? You know, we drive for Uber. Can we, you know, work part time? I know

00:30:17.920 that my mom, after my mom and dad divorced and she used to had two kids at home, my sister and

00:30:22.700 little brother, she taught school and then she worked at, you know, a hospital sometimes at night

00:30:29.740 as an administrator type person. So we have to do, and again, it should be for a short-term period

00:30:36.520 because what you should be able to do is once you quit digging the hole,

00:30:41.500 you've got this debt still out there,

00:30:43.640 you take an extra job or whatever to pay off that debt,

00:30:46.780 but you don't dig the hole anymore.

00:30:48.300 So once you have that done, you've learned now to live within your means,

00:30:52.860 and hopefully you'll be able to do that.

00:30:54.780 But good question.

00:30:55.720 And Lisa and I have been on that road in the past when we were young married,

00:30:59.940 so I can empathize with you for that for sure.

00:31:02.940 It says, what did you prioritize as a dad to raise godly children?

00:31:08.920 Well, I've talked about in the past, Lisa was a very, very big part of that and still is today.

00:31:16.900 Her faith walk has been incredible.

00:31:20.040 I've watched her ever since we've known each other for almost 50 years now, and it's been very, very consistent over the years.

00:31:26.480 But I think that's the key is what I think that we did is consistency.

00:31:32.520 I was the same person at home as I was outside the house.

00:31:38.100 All right.

00:31:38.500 And I wasn't different on Sunday than I was on Saturday.

00:31:41.660 I was the same person.

00:31:43.160 Now, I wasn't perfect by any means.

00:31:45.720 OK.

00:31:46.120 And lots and lots of lots of mistakes.

00:31:48.600 But I think people and your kids, they appreciate consistency.

00:31:52.080 What they don't want is hypocrisy.

00:31:54.260 So being consistent is key.

00:31:56.180 The other thing is coming up with a list of family values.

00:31:59.580 I actually meant to pull it out, but I don't have it.

00:32:01.980 I wrote something, oh, I don't know, probably 10, 15 years ago,

00:32:08.260 and it was called What We Live By as a Family.

00:32:10.520 And it just kind of lists our values.

00:32:12.300 And, again, there's not a lot of them.

00:32:13.560 When it comes to values, you're only going to have four or five key values.

00:32:17.300 But making sure that your kids know what they are,

00:32:20.300 that they see you acting out those values,

00:32:22.720 and that you're reminding them and encouraging them

00:32:27.140 and congratulating them

00:32:29.480 when you see them acting out those values.

00:32:33.240 That'd be something I think would be really important.

00:32:36.000 How to navigate parent that cuts you off with no contact

00:32:39.120 and will not respond to calls, texts.

00:32:41.260 Well, I don't know why this has happened.

00:32:43.640 I need to know a little bit more detail.

00:32:45.720 I hear that now over political things,

00:32:48.680 which is crazy to me

00:32:50.280 because if you've got a political difference and we have those in our, not in our immediate family,

00:32:56.200 but in our extended family, is you just have to figure out how to not discuss political things.

00:33:03.300 I mean, if the relationship is really important to you, then, and politics is where it sticks or

00:33:09.940 even religion, if that's where it sticks, you have to maintain the relationship and let them

00:33:16.200 see your values and why you believe in your, say it's your faith or why you believe in a particular

00:33:22.860 type of government. Let them see in your values and how you act as to why that's a good idea,

00:33:29.860 as opposed to lecturing. Now, as far as your parents concerned, if there's no way to get to

00:33:36.500 them, I would actually go see them face to face. I just drive over or fly over or whatever. And I

00:33:42.400 would have to confront the issue and say, mom, dad, you know, whatever the issue is, if we can't

00:33:49.000 solve it, let's agree not to talk about it so we can have a good relationship on the rest of the

00:33:53.940 things. That's what I would do. Next, how to honor your parents. This is kind of similar.

00:34:00.160 How to honor your parents who consistently try to undermine your marriage and parental role.

00:34:05.160 Well, that's a little bit different. Well, I think you have to have a talk with them. You have to sit

00:34:09.880 down and have a hard-to-hard talk with them, and that might mean you have to limit the exposure

00:34:14.240 of your family to your mom and dad if they're going to be that way, because that's not their

00:34:21.080 role. Now, if they have an issue that they think is important, they want to talk to you about,

00:34:25.740 sure, you need to be able to listen to that, and maybe they have some good advice,

00:34:29.140 but it's not fair for them to continually try to undermine the role that you have as a parent

00:34:35.620 or as a spouse and you you're going to have to just have the hard discussion with them face to

00:34:41.600 face and if they can't live by that then you're i would certainly well i wouldn't cut them off but

00:34:47.660 i would limit my family's exposure to them because that's just not right um and this one says my dad

00:34:54.120 was quit talking to me since trump he's not a believer how do i handle this i answered that

00:34:58.360 just a second ago uh just you're gonna have to you know you already have to sit down and agree

00:35:03.960 to disagree and then not talk about that subject and talk about the other subjects that are

00:35:09.660 important to you, whether it's anything else outside of that. What book are you reading?

00:35:14.760 Well, I just told you about the Tehran Initiative book. I would recommend that you get that if you

00:35:18.900 like novels like that. But one of the things I'm doing this year is the Bible in a year.

00:35:24.360 And I'm doing it a little bit different this time. And that is I am each day and I'm doing the

00:35:30.960 one-year Bible. And each day what I'm doing after I read the section that's assigned is I try to

00:35:37.860 think of one precept or one thing that it has spoken to me about. And I write it down in a

00:35:44.240 journal because hopefully one day my grandkids can get that. And so I write down, it's usually

00:35:49.480 just one sentence. And then I reference the verses and the book and the verses in the Bible that I

00:35:55.420 got it from. So like, I think, let's see, what was it today? Yeah, well, I forget what it was.

00:36:05.080 But anyway, if you will think about that, because that leaves something and it leaves a memory. And

00:36:10.360 it also, as I go back and look at it, reminds me of what that particular part of the Bible is about

00:36:16.680 and how it spoke to me. So I think that would be a good idea to do that. The last question for

00:36:24.120 today is how do we stand out in an interview to get the job? And this is for her husband, okay?

00:36:31.500 This is called asking for a friend, right? But well, I think the first thing you do, it depends

00:36:37.400 on what type of job they're going for, but let's assume right now that he's going for a job in an

00:36:41.620 office setting, all right? Or a white collar setting. Blue collar could be a little bit

00:36:46.220 different than this, but white collar setting. And first of all, make sure that you're not,

00:36:51.400 there's nothing about your physical appearance that's distracting, right? Like if for whatever

00:36:59.580 reason that he happens to have tattoos, make sure those aren't visible. And they may not be

00:37:05.160 offensive to anyone, but here's what's not offensive, is not having tattoos, okay? And

00:37:12.320 at least not any visible ones. So if he happens to have tattoos on his arm, I would make sure I

00:37:16.760 wore a long sleeve shirt. All right. The other thing is, is to make sure that I had a friend

00:37:22.500 do this one time when they said, well, what's your, what's your goal? Uh, well, and the goal

00:37:27.060 and the person said, uh, well, my goal is to have your job in five years. Well, you don't ever want

00:37:31.120 to do that. I think what you want to do is you want to be positive about the skills that you

00:37:37.140 have. What are the skills and what is your dedication? Are you loyal? All right. Are there

00:37:42.940 someone that you can depend on. All right. And so that's what I would focus on. And that's what

00:37:48.700 would make people send up people this day in time. And it's hard to find good people. If people this

00:37:53.520 time are looking for people that aren't extreme either way, one way or the other, certainly

00:37:58.660 wouldn't talk about politics during an interview. And they're looking for people that they can

00:38:03.400 depend on, that they're Lord. So if there are things in your background that show you being

00:38:08.300 a loyal person and someone who they can depend on and dependable, those are the things that I would

00:38:13.980 bring up. And that will definitely set you apart, right? Also, make sure, obviously, you show up

00:38:18.180 early. Don't be late. Show up early. Dress nicely, again, conservatively. And, you know, good luck.

00:38:24.500 I hope it works out for you. So anyway, thanks, everyone. It's a good day. And this will come out

00:38:29.760 this weekend. If you have any questions, please let me know. Also, if you're looking for good

00:38:35.360 books to read. There's a couple behind me. Obviously, Allie's New York Times bestseller

00:38:39.880 list, Toxic Empathy, which is very important right now. And then my book on Life Lessons

00:38:45.220 from the Little Red Wagon. I think that especially coming up on Father's Day,

00:38:48.680 be a great gift to get your sons and fathers. It's a lot of good stories. It's my story

00:38:54.580 in a lot of different ways. But it's not just about telling my story. It's about taking my

00:38:59.600 life experiences and using those as teaching moments. And I think that you'll find it enjoyable

00:39:06.740 and you'll laugh. You might cry a little bit, but I think it's a good book and I've got a lot

00:39:12.060 of good comments back. So anyway, thank you for supporting Allie's podcast and we'll look forward

00:39:17.480 to seeing you next time. Take care.

00:39:29.600 You

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 16, 2026

Ep 1348 ｜ No Pay for Politicians During Shutdowns, Republicans to Gain Seats After Redistricting, and Advice to Go Debt-Free ｜ Ron Simmons

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