The Progressive Fantasy List and the True Cost of Government Spending

On September 24, 2021, Kim Monson welcomes Rick Turnquist back to the studio for another Turnquist Friday to dissect the massive $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill working its way through Congress. Hal Van Hercke of Castlegate Knife and Tool joins to encourage conservatives to reclaim their voice against government overreach.

The Reconciliation Bill and Its Progressive Wish List

Start listening at 01:32 – Hour 1

Rick Turnquist describes the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending package as a “progressive fantasy list” that threatens to balloon the national debt beyond sustainable levels. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that inflation has eroded wage gains for lower-income workers, the very people Democrats claim to champion. Turnquist calculates the staggering cost: approximately $25,000 per taxpayer on top of existing obligations.

The bill includes universal pre-K, free community college, expanded child tax credits, and what Turnquist calls a “civilian climate corporation” reminiscent of Soviet-era youth organizations. He warns that such programs foster government dependency rather than productive employment. Meanwhile, the national debt has grown larger than the entire U.S. economy, creating conditions for a potential sovereign default.

“You may theoretically be a free person, but if you can be put in jail for not giving the government X percentage of your income, and if it gets close to all of it, that’s very close to slavery.”

Rick Turnquist, Featured Author

Tax Burden Reality Check

Start listening at 46:40 – Hour 1

Turnquist presents data showing the top 1% of earners already pay 40% of all income taxes, while the bottom 50% pay just 3%. In high-tax states like California, successful individuals face combined state and federal rates exceeding 50% of their income. He argues that sin taxes and sales taxes disproportionately burden lower-income Americans, while the wealthy find legal ways to minimize their tax exposure.

The 2017 tax cuts, Turnquist notes, actually reduced taxes more for lower-income Americans (10%) than for the top 1% (0.04%). Yet progressives continue pushing for higher rates on the successful, ignoring the economic principle that taxing something produces less of it.

Standing Up for Freedom

Start listening at 22:56 – Hour 1

Hal Van Hercke, entrepreneur and owner of Castlegate Knife and Tool, challenges conservatives to stop feeling cornered and start pushing back against government overreach. He points to the Biden administration’s attempt to use large employers to circumvent constitutional limits on vaccine mandates as the latest example of rights being stripped away.

Van Hercke shares the story of a friend whose sublease was threatened over vaccination status, drawing parallels to other forms of discrimination. He argues that conservatives have voices in alternative media, podcasts, and shows like Kim Monson’s, and must exercise them rather than assuming defeat.

“So we just need to start standing up. And if you look at the statistics, there’s just as many of us who are frustrated with this contingent encroachment on personal freedom than there are that keep pushing it.”

Hal Van Hercke, Castlegate Knife and Tool

Incoherent COVID Policies and Inflated Data

Start listening at 16:30 – Hour 1

Kim Monson highlights the inconsistency of Colorado’s health care privacy law, which protects personal health decisions from government coercion in cases of abortion, yet apparently does not apply to vaccine mandates. Turnquist observes that the left lacks a coherent philosophy, operating instead on “chaotic emotion processing” that produces contradictory positions on bodily autonomy.

The discussion turns to COVID hospitalization data from KDVR showing one in four COVID hospitalizations are not actually due to COVID. Kim recounts the story of Grand County coroner Brenda Bach, who discovered the state counted a murder-suicide as COVID deaths. Grand County’s COVID death count was inflated by 500%, including two people still alive. Governor Polis declined to correct the data, citing other states’ similar practices.