Hour 1: Battle of the billionaires

The Mike Broomhead show begins now. Yes, it does. Happy Monday. Appreciate you being here with us. Big, big week for us here at KTAR. We're going to talk a lot about it this week. Give-A-thon is upon us. Now, I had originally decided I was going to start the show talking about... giving up the chance of a ceasefire, the pause is over, the 60-day pause is over, what's going to happen. And we're going to get to that. But as always, something distracted me before the show. I was having a conversation with Jim Sharp before we got started as we do each morning before the show starts. And the billionaire war came up, which I planned on talking about later, but I need to address this now, especially with give-a-thon being upon us. I asked the question, and not rhetorically, I would love an answer to this. Why is it that rich people, very wealthy people, fight taxation? And yet they write massive checks to charities. And somebody online, which I absolutely love the interaction on a post that had nothing to do with this. It had something to do with the sheriff being in and flock cameras said that they write those big checks because it's a tax write off. And I thought, that's fascinating. What a fascinating idea to think that's the only reason why people write big checks. You get what if you're in the 37% tax bracket, if you're in the highest tax bracket and your tax at a rate of 37%. If you're a wealthy person, you mean to tell me that wealthy person's motivation is they're going to write a check for a million dollars so that they can save $370,000 in taxes. That's a net loss, right? That's still a net loss of over $600,000.

Am I missing something? Or is it that you have it in your mind that somehow there's nobility in the government taking from you? No, the nobility isn't giving generously. So I'm not, I don't want to mix my political opinions with what's going on this week. But I will tell you this, that we are going to ask you all week long become a. Champion of hope and we're going to hope you'll give generously because we see the work that they do at Phoenix Children's. But we also are going to be partnering all week long. You're going to hear about corporate partners that have the ability to write much bigger checks than you and I do and they give generously. And it's the one thing that when I look at this billionaire tax and I look at. The idea that somehow because they have it, we should take it. That people just dismiss the idea that very wealthy people would gladly and do gladly give generously of their wealth much more than they're taxed because they believe that they can address whatever the issue is. You know, I've brought up someone I've never met, by the way. I've never met Bob Parsons or Renee Parsons' wife. I've never met them, but they have the Bob and Renee Parsons Foundation. And I don't know. I've never gotten any feedback if they've ever heard us talk about it. Because I, from what I understand, Mr. Parsons and Mrs. Parsons are not people that are looking for notoriety because of the giving that they do. And so I don't say this to embarrass them. I just wish that. People like the Parsons would defend themselves more for the greater good, which is I'm sure that they pay accountants lots of knots and lots of money to keep their tax bill to a minimum. And they write very, they spend their days validating needs. validating the charitable organizations that are filling those needs and writing massive checks all year long to support those needs and they're not alone i know many other people i've been blessed to know very many wealthy wealthy people and their benevolence is what i'm envious of And what kills me is that nobody even for a moment, this person that made this comment has gotten ingrained in her mind so much that wealthy people are greedy that even when they give the motivation is to save. And it's ludicrous on its face because you can write a check for a million and only save $370,000 on your taxes. If you just kept the million, it's a net gain of over $600,000. So if they're truly greedy, my issue with all of this is the more involved we are as a company, and I am as an individual, this company that I work for.

is so invested, first of all, in the give-a-thon all week long, which I can't wait to tell you more about as the week goes on and when you start hearing the vignettes. And it is such an amazing place and such a great cause. But the barons of business. that write these massive checks do so because it's the right thing to do. I'll give you another organization, the Thunderbirds, who put on the WM Phoenix Open every year. I know a lot of those guys. Very, very type A personalities, very, very type A. And they pull in the same direction all year long to put on this massive golf tournament. The building begins in October. The tournament's not until February. And the tournament only lasts a week. But there are, there's months and months and months of building preparation before that. And then there's months of tear down. And it's a never-ending cycle. And to a person, every Thunderbird I've ever talked to. has said the best part of what they do is not the party. It's none of that. It's the sitting in a room and writing checks to organizations and telling them that they are going to have this money to keep doing what they're doing. Do you know that the Thunderbirds basically underwrite Special Olympics, Arizona? These are all very well-established businessmen. Some of them are professional athletes or former professional athletes. very successful in their own right, and they donate, donate, donate, donate so that they can donate even more. And so this idea that somehow wealthy people in this country are greedy because they don't want to give their wealth to the government that wastes and squanders it is I wish, I just wish there would be more people. Mark Cuban spoke up and said, that this idea of a billionaire tax is ridiculous. It's getting to be bordering on ridiculous. And he's right. Government is inefficient by nature. They're wasteful by nature. California wants to put in a billionaire tax. Anybody take a look at the high speed rail project to the tune of billions of dollars that's going nowhere. Have you seen the photographs of Northern California in Los Angeles County and the homeless problem they have and the drug addiction problem that they have that they keep throwing money at and they can't fix? Wealthy people get wealthy, generally speaking, if they're super talented in an art form and whether it's music or it's athletics or something. or they're very, very disciplined in business. And those wealthy people throw their money, throw their money at organizations that are efficiently doing things. We have a podcast called Amazing Arizona's, and today we're recording one of those podcasts for the new season. And it is with Lisa from St. Mary's Food Bank. And they are such an efficient organization. And they get.

donations from people all the time, big and small, because individuals and corporations and wealthy donors understand that they are so efficient with every penny of every dollar that's donated. If you donate your time, they are respectful of every minute of your donated every single one of them. And so this flippant comment on social media changed my entire train of thought this morning that a wealthy person writes big checks because it's a tax write off. And then she ended the comment with, duh. By the way, Patricia, good morning. Welcome back. Aren't you happy you came back on a damn snarky? Hi, how are you, Mike? How are you feeling? I'm back to be back. I'm okay. I had people wondered where you were. I know. You quit. You gave me the boot. No, no. Listen, they know that I would never want you gone. The chance that you would say I'm done with you is a lot better than me saying. No, I'm not gone. I was very sick. Yeah, I know you were. It was awful. I'm recovering. Yes, it was awful. You sound like you still have a little bit of it. Yes, I do. So we won't make you talk too much. I guess. But this morning, that comment got me. What comment? The comment with, so I mentioned on the air was sharp. Oh, yeah, I was still getting settled in. Yeah, the wealth that, that wealthy people, why do wealthy people fight taxes, but write massive checks to charitable organizations? And this snarky comment was because they get tax write-offs. And then she ends the comment with, duh, Like I'm dumb. And I thought, duh, they get a 37%. They don't get a dollar for dollar right off. Right. It comes off your taxable income. So if you're in the 37% tax bracket, you write a check for a million bucks. You saved $370,000. You still lost over $600,000 that you've given away. So if you were really greedy. Keep the million and net gain is 600,000. Keep it all. Why do it for anything? But to end the comment with, duh, like I'm an idiot, is hilarious to me. The immediate mindset of some people that rich people are just greedy people, it just shows a level of ignorance in some people I just don't get. And probably a very nice lady. I've never met her. She just comments on stuff on Instagram. Probably a very nice lady, but just has this predisposed idea. I was to say that mindset's never going to get you to that. Right. Yeah. Tax bracket. Exactly right. Generally speaking, you're 100% right. By the way, I'm going to say it again. Giveathon is here. This week, Phoenix Children's tune in starting Wednesday, Stories of Hope, brought to you by Madamy Holmes, discover why these kids need champions like you. You can help right now. Text the word give to 620, 620, or call the train phone bank at 602-933-4567 and become a champion of hope.

Today. Coming up in a moment, we're going to shift gears. We are going to talk about, is shoplifting excusable? We'll get to it here in just a second. It's Gatos and why are U.S. sailors throwing themselves overboard on the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East? And why doesn't the President care? We're going to talk to Megan McCain, Mondays with Megan at 3. Outspoken with Bruce and Gatos on the KTAR YouTube channel. All right. Good morning. Happy Monday. Interesting look at crime in our country right now. I want you to hear good news. Let's get the good news first. This is violent crime numbers down across the country. Listen to this report. These days, the sounds of sirens are less frequent in Newark, New Jersey, a city long known for its high crime rate. Recent data shows Newark saw the largest decline in homicides among major cities in the country, down more than 64% for the first half of this year compared to that period last year. While many major cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia are down about a quarter, the FBI says last year, the U.S. saw its lowest murder rate in roughly 70 years. President Trump says his administration deserves the credit. We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crimes. So there are two sides to this story, and I'm going to hear one in just a moment, but I'm going to quote someone else. A New York lawmaker, that is a DSA lawmaker, a Democratic Socialist of America member. Her name is assemblywoman Emily Gallagher from the state of New York says that it is wrongheaded to prosecute people for shoplifting for biological needs. This is exactly the wrong way to talk about crime and poverty. Poverty can help explain why someone commits an offense. Former Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aaronberg told Fox News Digital. It should be a matter of when prosecutors decide how to handle a case, but poverty is not a permission slip to steal. That is absolutely true. And we've used this as an analogy for the border issue. If you cross the border illegally, you've committed a crime. And it doesn't matter if you're coming here to work or if you're coming here to commit other crimes. It is a crime. Now, it's handled differently. There are nuanced ways things get handled, but they're still considered a crime. So if I walk into a grocery store and I steal a rib-eye steak and a bottle of gin and I get caught, I'm probably going to be handled differently than if a single mom gets caught stealing diapers and baby formula. Still a crime. Still going to be handled in a way that it's a crime.

This idea that it isn't a crime is a ridiculous idea. I want you to hear something else. This is the, um, a DSA, one of the DSA leaders, Democratic Socialist of America. Her name is Grace Mouser, I think is how it's pronounced. Um, and talks about defunding the police and closing prisons. The movement to defund the cops hurt the progressive movement. I think there was a reaction to that slogan, you know, defund the police. But ultimately, I do believe that many Americans, especially over time, will come to realize that the radical position is not, you know, defund or get rid of prisons. The radical position is that believing that America should have the most people in prison of any country in modern history, which is what we have now. I don't think most Americans, when they think about it like that, actually... support that and so DSA is trying to build alternative closed prisons that's what they say they're about um Not tolerating crime, and we're going to talk a lot more about this later, is that doesn't mean that people are irredeemable. People can change and people do change. The prisons in our state and our country serve two purposes or three purposes. One of them is punishment. You commit a crime against society. You pay a price. The other is separating. Good people from bad people. If you're a dangerous person, we put you in prison. If you're a child molester or a violent offender, then we're going to make sure that you're not among the good citizens. And thirdly, it's rehabilitation. As a matter of fact, the Department of Corrections in Arizona has changed its name to include rehabilitation and reentry. So, but that is largely on the convicted person that they want to change, get a job skill, get on the straight and narrow. But that is a part of it. People can change. But the other two are equally is important. If you have a crime committed against you, you want the offender to pay a price. It's just a ridiculous idea to see things a different way. That's all, in my opinion. The Amazing Arizona's podcast brought to you by Resolution Copper is up and available at the KTAR YouTube channel, our KTAR News app or anywhere you download podcast. Just great Arizona-based stories. More to come. Brand new season starting soon. But check out some of our previous episodes. In a moment, it's Gato's RBQ poll question of the day. The Gato's Big Q poll question. Brought to by your Valley Toyota dealers. Hey, happy Monday, Gatos. Oh, man, we got just a couple more days and it's the weekend. I'm ready to go. That's how you have to see it on Monday. You got to have that outlook on life or it's just, you know, it's going to be a long, hot five days. It is. It is. You know what, though? It is a good week because it's give-a-thon week.

Phoenix Children's, here we go. Yep. It's going to be great. My gosh, we've done it for so many years, so many millions of dollars people have given, you know, to our giveathon. And it's going to be awesome. It's one of the best weeks that we've got. So if you get a lot of work to do. If you remember, the format changed because of COVID and my first year here at the radio station was COVID. So I've never done it the old way. The old way is going to the hospital and doing it in part of the cafeteria. Are you doing that this year? Yes, I am. And you've never done it. I've never. I go down on the final day late in the afternoon, but I've never done the show down there. I've never done what the format we're going back to. I've never done it. I can't wait. Friday will be great. It's a, you know, we have it all week, but Friday is the big, big, big day. So yeah, you'll, you'll, it's different, man. You'll, you'll, you'll find out on Friday. You're, you're in the middle of, uh, just a sea of people and phones ringing and, uh, children passing through. And emotion. A lot. Yep. Yeah, you'll be, yeah, the, the, what we've always said is after you do the show on Friday, you're exhausted. Yes, you are. That is a lot of emotion. Yep. Yeah. You know, speaking of emotion. Okay. Hayden Penitier died yesterday. Yeah. Oh, gosh. So I used to watch a couple of her shows. That's what I was asking on the Big Q. What will she be most remembered for? Because it looks like she was 36. Looks like it was an overdose. Yeah. um heroes or nashville i watched heroes so the first time i ever saw her she was the cheerleader on the show and she was one of the first characters on the show to find out that she had these special powers and she like she went up on like i don't know some platform that was super high up and she threw herself off it broke all her bones got right up straightened out and that was what heroes was about people getting these abilities and Oh man, 36 years old. My memory of her goes back when she was the daughter and remember the Titans. I remember that too. I just found that out today that was her. Yeah, she was so good in that movie as a kid. Very good as the daughter of the coach. Yeah, yep. The assistant coach, right? Yep. Well, he ended up being these. He was the head coach, then the assistant coach. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. It's a sad day. 36 years old addiction is awful. Awful. Yeah, it is. For her family, it's awful. Terrible. Great question. And I will talk with you tomorrow. Okay, man. I'll see you tomorrow. All right. The BQ poll question is brought to you by your Valley Toyota dealers. We are going to talk about billionaires here in just a moment.