Hill Billy Jon Radio Show
The Hillbilly Jon Radio Show is where common sense meets the microphone. Broadcasting from Southwestern Pennsylvania, Jon takes on politics, culture, media spin, and the stories the establishment would rather you ignore.
No talking points.
No script readers. Just real conversations with candidates, business owners, whistleblowers, and everyday Americans who still believe in grit, faith, and freedom.
If you are tired of the noise and ready for straight talk, you are in the right place.
Hill Billy Jon Radio Show
If Government Spent My Money Like This, I’d Ask For A Receipt
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Jon Marietta and Guests Al Buchtan and Bud Cook discussing Politics, what's going on across Pennsylvania, taxes, budgets, casino money, recent public reports on Charleroi from Independent Journalist, Standing for we the People, Save America Act, Faith, Family, Freedom and much more..
Cold Open, Sponsors, And Mission
SPEAKER_00The views and opinions expressed on this program are those of John Marietta and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Fayette County Recorder of Deeds office or Fayette County government. This program is privately produced and funded, and no county resources are used for its production or promotion.
Taxes, Gas Prices, And Party “Unity”
SPEAKER_03Today's show is being brought to you by Burns Cross Funeral Hunter, Thundering Hills Feed Supply, Highline Motorsports, Humbert Sanitation and Septic Pumping, Fayette Structures, Country Motor Sales, Premier Autoglass, Fayette County MAGA Patriots Group, Meisers Garage and Tire Center, Solid Foundation Ministry, the Ink Spot in South Collinsville, JB Market in Dunbar, and HBJ Radio LLC. I want to thank everybody that's been along on this ride with me. It's been a great for all the sponsorship, and I really appreciate everything everybody's doing. Let's get to it. I'll tell you what, friends, from the courthouse to the Capitol, it's the same crowd playing. The same song on your dime. Brothers and sisters, I'm telling you this: I'm John Maretta, and I am the Hillbilly, and you're tuned into the Hillbilly John Radio Show, where we don't polish the truth. We pound it like a blacksmith on an anvil. Our county commissioners and our state senator have been state senators, I want to make that plural, have been living high on the hog, off your hard-earned dollars. Scott, shop till you drop done, and Vince, a name you know and trust, to raise your taxes, Mercedes. Their courthouse buddies and the so-called leadership up in Harrisburg. Yeah, bloated budget, Pat Stefano, and Cameron the Compromiser. And the governor, Josh Capone Sapiro. I'll c y'all remember him. We'll count the votes till we get it right. We can throw them all in a sack, shake it up, and it don't much matter which one falls out first. The story's the same. Spend more, tax more, shrug their shoulders while you're struggle. Let's face it. One of them told me that government wasn't created to s wasn't created to save money, it was created to spend money. And if we don't spend it, some other county will. They don't care about you. Just their ability to play Santa Claus with your hard-earned money, well, bless their hearts. They they keep passing voter budgets like it's a contest to see who can waste the most money, and the prize is always the same. Your wallet. They poured COVID money cash into pet projects and political promotions. They fed the insiders and consultants, and now the free money's gone. They turned around and say, Well, folks, I'm afraid we're just gonna have to raise your taxes again. And that's what they did. But just look at it. Pennsylvania already has one of the highest gas taxes in the whole country, and property taxes are out of control. And these new budgets that are pushing, that burden that burden, and it's only headed but one direction, and that's uh every time you pull up to the pump, you're not just not buying gas with your you're buying you're just not buying gas. You're buying the next photo op, the next mailer. Please remember that when you get a mailer from these state senators in an indirect way, you'll be paying for it the next for the next ribbon cutting also. And it's your tax dollars that got them there while you while your own family is cutting back on meat and heat. They don't they don't feel it, they don't notice it. They ride on government gas cars, sit in government offices, and cash government paychecks, all funded by you. The only pain the only pain at the bump that they understand is when the tax ticket slows down. The answer to every problem is the same. More government, more spending, more taxes, and somehow never never more help for the folks on Main Street. And then, with a straight face, they preach unity. Yeah, we need unity in the party. We all need to come together. What they mean is you shut up. We keep we keep our power and we'll keep our power. Unity to them means protection. The GOP brand is protecting Josh Shapiro's agenda while it suits him by protecting those chosen leadership at the county and state level and punishing anybody who dares to stand up for we the people. Yes, I said for we the people instead of the political class. If you fight for the taxpayer, they call you a diverse. If you speak for the populist, for the forgotten, men and women, they say you're the problem. But I'll tell you right now, if standing up for grandma, the farmer, the trucker, the steel worker, the EMS worker, the single mom and the small businessman where the where the folks that pulled and all the folks that pulled all their boots on and went to work and supported our their families and pay their taxes means it means it makes me the problem, and I am proud to be the hillbelly problem in their path. You can swap their names, swap the offices, commissioners, senators, governor, but the spirit is the same. Take more, spend more, answer to the party bosses instead of the people. That is why a challenge of leadership has to come. Not ten years from now, not someday, but right now. At the county level, at the state level, in the party itself. If we're looking living in the era of Trump, which we are, when folks are finally awake to how badly they've been plagued, our forefathers never sit around wringing their hands. They stood up, screamed enough, screamed enough is enough, and that's what they did. They stood up. We don't want revenge, we need a reckoning. We can't cut these budgets and cut these taxes and cut out the corruption right now. When the fire is when the fire is this hot, we may never get another chance. By the grace of Almighty God, and I say that with reverence, by the grace of Almighty God, we will not bow to their fake unity. We will not be quiet so they can be comfortable. We will not stand together. Real unity is what I see. Neighbor with neighbor, voter with voter, until the courthouse and the capital remember who they work for. Okay. I'm a little bit fired up about a lot of things. Um it sounded like a Baptist preacher on a Saturday night. But uh, but you know what? I'm tired of it. I'm tired, I'm tired of people. I'm tired of people telling me that we gotta unite behind somebody that don't make no sense. That don't make no sense. And I'm telling you in the hillbilly way. It just don't make no sense. These people have given us higher taxes over and over and over. They've hid the Republican Party has actually hid things from us in order to keep them in office. And now this is where we're at. It's time, like I said, for reckoning. It's time we change things. I'm not after revenge on nobody, but it's time we do things differently. And that's why I have Butchie here with me today. And I always call him Butcher.
SPEAKER_06I know. It's okay.
SPEAKER_03I kind of got a wasn't sure if Bud was coming in. Uh I kind of got a surprise there. He's he he he isn't dressed in a in a suit though, but uh I don't know what's going on there.
Meet The Guests: Butchie And Bud
SPEAKER_06Well he told me to dress in a suit, and he didn't he comes in with a sweatshirt. Uh is that how it is? I I think it w I got punked. You might have. I think I did get punked.
SPEAKER_03You might have. But uh, but you know what happens? Um they they say you're supposed to dress the part.
SPEAKER_06So I don't like dressing, I'm work boots, blue jeans. That's me. Yeah, I know. You know, I I'm the guy, you know, get in the ditch and go to work. Or, you know, that's that's just me. Uh I'm I hate the office. Um but there's things that need done. That's why we're doing what we're doing. You know, that's why we're running. To your point about, you know, um the same old thing. There's nothing that has been good about the last 12 years. Nothing. Um look at all the stats. The stats will tell you, you know, we're losing our population. We all know that. We're losing our youth. We all know that. Our gas gas prices are through the roof. Um you you go down the line. Or our utilities, you know, Bud and I will still touch base on this. We were at a function earlier today. Our utilities are governed by you know, they think it's the it's the uh the committee. Um you you mentioned the committee, but it's really my friends, the senators are the ones that dictate, they set the laws and they put the criteria together for what the uh the commission can charge. So when people say, well, it's when these senators say, well, it's not us, it's a lie. And that's what I'm tired of. I'm tired of the lies. You know, be straight with us. Um there's no reason. Here here, and I just did this earlier today, just an example. Most people's wages, their earnings go up two to three percent a year. That's a fact. I just got a uh a letter from First Energy. My my power bill is going up six percent. So I'm already losing. And that's not even the only one. You know, uh your material prices, concrete 14 percent, steel six percent. Um it it's it's out of control in this state.
SPEAKER_03And I was gonna ask you this the last time you were on. D do you have a place to s source steel that's made in Pennsylvania or even made in the United States?
SPEAKER_06We do. But um just in this state, I got an increase of six percent, but I didn't get that which we supply in Ma in West Virginia. I didn't get the same increase down there. How is that? Figure that out. Why only in this state, not in that state? It's because the regulations are different.
Cost Of Living And Utility Hikes
SPEAKER_03Well, you you think about it, our state has, I believe, the second highest gas tax in the nation. Yes. It is. It's not number one because I used to I used to drive over the roads and I and I can remember you uh the the truck stop before you went into California on the I believe it was on the Nevada side. They'd be lined up for miles back because it because you you could save uh on on a hundred gallons, you'd be saving you you could save yourself fifty dollars, and that was the price of a good dinner. So so you you'd go out of time it's so you could get get fuel before you went into the well you're saving a hundred if a hundred gallons here in Pennsylvania, you go into West Virginia, you're saying a hundred bucks. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06I mean that's that's that's a lot of money. You know, the average person fills up two and a quarter times a week, and you figure you got the average tank's twenty-two to twenty-seven gallons, twenty-five gallons it mean. I mean, it's a lot of money.
SPEAKER_03Add it up over a year. Well, you're filling you're filling your tank up a little bit more often right now, but filling it up a lot. That's one of people don't realize that's one of the biggest spends.
SPEAKER_06I love it though. I love I love getting out. I love meeting people. I want to hear from everyone. We were at an event the other day. There was a whole a few hundred people there for our petition signing, and uh I know Thursday night. Yeah, and um that I the guy, I don't know if I can mention his name, Mr. White, he he was incredible with what he put on there. And you know, uh there was one of the oh I think she's the PCP or whatever, but she's like, it's stump Buck tonight. And they're not gonna stump me. That's this is what I do. I mean, I do research, development, I will be all over everything. Um if somebody needs to know something, I I really want to talk to them and and tell them how it is. I'm not gonna sugarcoat anything. So but and Bud's Bud's been a big help to me. Um, you know, we we're kind of both in the same target, crosshairs, if you will. Um so we were we were at a function today, you know, and it was about um petition signings and stuff, and we were told, hey, you can't put your signs up, you gotta pay a thousand dollars. I'm like, what? This is the Republican Party telling us as candidates in Green County that we have to pay, extort a thousand dollars out of us. It's insane. That's not how it works. The Republican Party is there to facilitate the candidates and raise money for them, not the other way around. So I'm gonna have that investigated because that that right there was uh not good.
SPEAKER_03Get ready. Because because uh if you're not the chosen, if you're not the chosen one of the chosen people, the the they're gonna come after you as hard as they can because that they don't they don't want their gravy train to run out.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, well, it's it's the tracks it's coming off.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_06The train. The train's coming off the tracks.
SPEAKER_03Well, that's what I'm I'm counting on, I'm counting on uh a couple get a couple good senators in uh um down there in Harrisburg, and uh I really would love to see I would really love a state build a railroad. I mean, Christy Gnome build a railroad. And I think why can't we build a railroad in Pennsylvania? I mean, we can make steel here, we can do whatever we need to do to build this railroad. I mean, uh it has to happen.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, we we need to be able to move merchandise out of the state, and we need to be able to make it here too. Yeah. And the manufacturing bases uh I feel like it's just lost.
SPEAKER_06It is it is lost, and and like I said, when I run around, I know Bud runs around. And and Bud, you can elaborate on our dealings that we had today. I mean, we we go in there and there's name tags for everybody, and petitions, there's not even one for him. It it's bizarre.
Regulation Gaps And Cross-State Costs
SPEAKER_02Well, it it you know, John, it's good to be back, by the way. Since you kicked me out of Fayette County so many years ago and sent me to Green County. But uh I I do miss our friends over here in in Fayette. But let me tell you, there is two classes of people. The one class I call the politically connected, okay? And to Butchy's point, if you go along to get along with the politically connected, they won't come after you, they'll support you. But heaven forbid you do what's right for we the people, you know, and it goes against what the politically connected want. That's what we're battling from the top all the way down. Let's see, I won the last election, I think we won by almost 70% of the vote. And I have a primary challenge for my own party this time again. We have never not had a uh primary challenge. John, I'm the first Republican ever elected in Green County. Yeah. So, you know, that we're we're upside down and we need to take it. Now, I will tell you this, and I'll share with your audience, and and I do this with all my constituents. It's like being at a football game. You can sit up in the stands and you can complain about the game on the field and how badly the players are doing. Or you could choose to come out of the stands and at least get on the sidelines with the coaches and along the bench and help with the team, or you can actually get in the game. And to your point, this is the time. We've got to get we the people back in the game and hold all our elected officials accountable.
SPEAKER_03I'll I'll use a quote from a good friend of mine. I'm I'm not pretty enough to be a cheerleader. So so evidently, I guess I'm gonna have to we're I'm gonna have to dig in and do what I what I gotta do. And that's what really that's what the that's what I see. If you're not if you're not gonna go along to to get along, then they're gonna do they're gonna do everything they can to to try to make you look bad in whatever light they can. Uh and I think it's time uh and I hate that. I hate that when they say that that that that just infuriates me when they say about party unity. It wasn't that we the people, they we haven't created the problem. We we haven't. It's it's it's the elite in the party that have created this problem. And because they keep running, they keep running it, they running the wrong people.
SPEAKER_06I mean The results the same.
SPEAKER_03And it it's almost like it's bad. It's almost like they run people just because they know they're gonna lose so they can raise money off of their back. I mean, it that's how I feel about it. I mean, if if you're gonna go out get out there and do what you gotta do, I mean they don't they don't want that. Yeah. They don't want that. And and the gas tax and you know the turn turnpike fees are gonna go up. You know the problem. They're gonna go up again. Yeah. Because they got to support this budget. And and uh, you know this budget is out of hand.
SPEAKER_06There's no way to support it.
SPEAKER_03We're gonna run out of, we're gonna we're are we gonna run out of rainy day money on this budget. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's not enough there's not enough money to do it. Yeah. I mean, the rainy day fund, I mean the walk, you know, all that money, it's gone. After this budget, there's not enough money there to do.
SPEAKER_03One of the things that I really really and uh really infuriates me, and I got you here, bud, and and bud and me got crossways more than once. So there's so and revolution's good. But but but um the one thing I want to talk about is is this casino money. Where's it going to, bud? I mean, can we can we track it? I mean, or do we need to do a forensic audit at the state level to find this money?
SPEAKER_02So let me tell you in Washington County in day one, in day one, we go into office and they're they're talking about LSA money, local share account. Okay. I didn't even know what local share stood for. What I did know is not a single entity in the old 49th got a penny. So I go to my constituents and say, hey guys, what's up with this? And they said, it's a rigged game. We're not wasting our time doing it. So we start digging into it, and uh we had a meeting with the commissioners over there. After 30 minutes of them out not attacking and interrogating me, I told them, look, I'm a representative. We're gonna move on here, guys. You know, we're gonna find out, you know, exactly what's going on with this. So we filed the information for right to know. They declined or right to know. We had to appeal and fight it. It had to go to the mid-level courts to get a ruling that they had to give us the files. It took us five years to do that. After about six years of investigation, there was over ten million dollars that was unaccounted for. Now let me say that, share that number again. Ten million dollars that was unaccounted for till this day. We don't know where that ten million dollars is at.
SPEAKER_03We we we were having trouble finding the hotel tax money here in Fayette County. Right. I mean, we don't know where we we we know that somebody's getting four percent, we know that much, but after that, we don't know where where the rest of it's going.
SPEAKER_02This is the money of we the people. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And and we've got to get we the people wasn't the casino money, the money from these casinos, going supposed to go help grandma and grandpa and and and reduce their property taxes?
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no. It was supposed to make it go away. Okay. Not reduce it, not lessen that. And we're still looking for ten million dollars. We're still looking for ten million dollars. And that's just one percent of the of the casino money. One percent. Get your mind around that one.
SPEAKER_03So we so the is the casino money different from the racetrack money? So it's the racetrack money.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, because it falls into different categories. Categories, if you will. Okay. Okay. So yeah, I mean, this is just way too much unaccounted, you know, um follow money the way, you know, that it should be coming. If you and I ran business the way we ran this, we'd be in jail.
Party Gatekeeping And Pay-To-Play
SPEAKER_03Well, I I I I made the comment. I had well, I actually had one of the county commissioners that's in office right now tell me that that you government isn't a business. It's meant to spend money. And they they told me that. They said they said if you think you're going to run this like a business, it won't work. Well, it won't work because they don't want it to work. Now we got a guy in the White House that's trying to run the country like a business, right? And we need we need to follow his lead. Clear down to the dog catcher. Yep. I mean, whoever, I mean, we do. I mean, if there's something way we can save a dollar, we need to do it.
SPEAKER_02So my first year in to get your mind around these numbers, the first year that I went in was uh 2017, I think was the first budget. 33 point some billion dollars. This proposed budget by this governor is fifty-five point three billion dollars in a 10-year period. It's almost double the size of the state budget. I mean, I just can't get my mind around that number.
SPEAKER_06Your revenue stream is still only$46 billion. That's it. I mean, you can't, it's unobtainable. It's it's it's just gonna be bad. They're just gonna drive more people out of here. There's no way you can get enough infrastructure in here and companies in here to compensate that seven to ten billion dollar shortfall. It's just not high.
SPEAKER_03Well, I'll tell you what was heartbreaking for me. And and I went to Allentown. Bethlehem Steel.
SPEAKER_06Yep.
SPEAKER_03And I I we we we we were invited up there for a Christmas thing, and um my wife wanted to go, and you know, Bethlehem's supposedly the the nicest, you know, it's supposed to be the Christmas capital of Pennsylvania. I mean, you could almost stood in the parking lot and cried when you looked at them mills. When you looked at them mills standing there and they're using them, they're using they're running flea markets out of them instead of and and and I I get it, it it's it's the tourism is the tourism does is not gonna abstain what we need to in in this state. I mean, everybody comes here, and I always say if if if if the politicians had anything to do with the high piles, the falls would fall, uh would flow backwards. But anyways, you we we gotta it just isn't tourism isn't where we're gonna make the money. I mean, we we we have to get businesses in here. And and we have to get businesses in here.
SPEAKER_06We're not business friendly.
SPEAKER_03No, no at all. We can't even get a menor's in pay accounty because of the city.
SPEAKER_06You got your your unemployment tax, your workers' comp tax, your your uh payroll burden taxes, you got your corporate state tax, um uh everything is higher than the states around us. Your gasoline, we talked about that. You're if you have a trucking company, are you setting up shop here? No. No. No, if the tax is higher here than in West Virginia. Well, the I mean I mean i i i everything's higher.
SPEAKER_03You think about it, but I mean, uh, I believe it's Arkansas is probably Arkansas like the uh they have more trucking companies in Arkansas, but but the it's because it's easier with the taxes. I mean, there's big trucking companies all over the country country, but but you you think about it, if I'm buying fuel, do I want to buy it at Pennsylvania or do I want to buy it in Arkansas? And when that guy brings 8,000 gallons, yeah, yeah, I mean, i and it and there's a 75 cent difference, uh more like it's probably probably closer to 80 85 cents difference between the price of gasoline and price of fuel in Arkansas than there is here. Well, I mean we we gotta think about it. The other thing I always say is if if we manufacture more here, then we you you're giving people jobs, they're paying state income tax.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Which which needs to go away too. But that we'll we'll we got to get rid of the property taxes first.
Manufacturing Loss And Business Flight
SPEAKER_06Well, the these these people that are opposing me um and my opponent, um, obviously she's gonna oppose me, but there's other other things at play here. Um, you know, one of my big things is I mean, I'm gonna expose this corruption. There's no way around it. I don't I'm not fear of anyone. And, you know, when you see these grants that are coming out, um nobody knows the total dollar amount of grants given out in this state. Can you never find it? You'll never find it. So these these grants are going, people were in in political positions are having friends open up 501c3s and family members open up 501c3s. And then we got political figures that are sitting on boards of 501c3s that are getting money from grants from the state or from the Fed. And the same same same with the family members and this and that. It it it is a corrupt system, and I'm telling you, that is gonna be heavily investigated when I get in there because the people deserve answers and they deserve justice. Well, and that's what it's gonna be about.
SPEAKER_03Well, grant money still comes from your taxes, no matter what anybody's money. I mean, it's your it's our money. It's our money. It's our money. And and and I get it, there's a whole lot more po people in Philadelphia than there is in in Fayette County. But why are we funding their transit system? Why is the people from Green County, Washington County, E and Somerset County and Bedford County, why are they funding why are they funding the transit system in Philadelphia?
SPEAKER_06Why are they getting our Act 13 impact money? Why are they getting 10% of that? That money needs taken from them and put back into the areas here. I mean, we're we're depressed. This is a depressed area. Demographically, let's talk about that. I mean, we have the richest counties with natural resources, but we're the poorest. And our money from here is being shifted out. Get that money back. I asked the other day, well, it was about a month ago, they need to do an amendment to the Act 13 um law that um changes that ratio. It really it needs to happen. Um that money needs to stay here. We're getting a hundred percent of the impact, and we're getting peanuts. Peanuts, 25 percent.
SPEAKER_03Well, I there's there's just so many things going on, and and uh I seen it um today, and I I didn't get to maybe you can even elaborate on it, or both of you can, a little bit about uh the what happened down in Charleroi with uh I mean the I I think I think we need to address this right now.
SPEAKER_06Well, here's the thing down there, I toured it, Bud Lip, you know, down that way and everything. I've been down there a lot. Um, I know a lot of people down there. Um so this reporter, he's a very well-known reporter, he was on Newsmax um when he gave the tease on this about a week ago. Um he spent a couple weeks down there, and what had happened was you know, you stumble on things. And, you know, criminals think they're smart and they're not. That you're gonna get caught sooner or later. So what had happened was they just did a thing on the on the um immigrants coming in, and all of a sudden it blew up into this. Okay, they're paying cash under the table, they're they're not using the legal documents, the I-9s and everything. They're, you know, it it's a whole scam, a whole network, but it's just not that. There's a lot of people involved, and from what he's saying, there's hundreds of people involved, and it could even be implicated into political figures, but there's where are these Haitian companies getting the money to start these businesses? They're getting money from the feds, they're getting money from the the state. That's where they're getting money from, but they're paying out cash. How do you pay out cash? Who's who's recording this? Where's the records? My opponent says they're paying taxes, they're doing this, they're doing that. They're not. Three of them admitted to it right on right on TV. They're not doing that. This whole thing is just the beginning of the iceberg down there, and you're gonna see it spread through the surrounding areas, the surrounding cities. I bet it'll go into um Washington, Cannonsburg. It's gonna spread like crazy. You're gonna see it.
SPEAKER_03So um uh like I said, I I say I seen the I it came up on my feed, and I didn't I haven't had time to do it. Uh we had a little bit of problem this morning with a couple different things, but uh like I said, uh we we gotta start thinking about this. We gotta start thinking about you know uh America first. I mean it has to be. I mean, it does. I mean Green County first, Faye first, Somerset first, Bedford first, I mean, and Washington County. I mean, there's you feel bad for you think about some mother that goes to work to support their children, and she's getting scammed. And and she's worried about whether she's gonna be able to buy I mean, you know, peanut butter for for their lunches next the next week. I mean, or are we gonna are we gonna stay warm? I mean, that that's just exactly where we're at. I mean, yeah, I got I got this, I got this uh young lady here she's going like she's going, she's she's she's shaking her head up and down. And they know I'm right. I mean, uh I'm I'm just fed up with it. I'm fed up with the whole thing.
SPEAKER_06It's amazing how it's unaffordable for everybody that's here busting their asses, working hard, trying to get their kids through college, saving money, whatever they can, if they can, and everybody that comes in, it seems like they have more rights than we do.
Budgets, Rainy Day Funds, And Shortfalls
SPEAKER_03Well, you think about you think about the veterans.
SPEAKER_06They all get yeah, you got homeless vets uh homeless vets. And I uh it it makes me so mad we got homeless vets, but yet we have immigrants that are here by the thousands. We have two hundred thousand in the state. That's two point four billion dollars in subsidies they're getting federally and state. So you want to talk about getting rid of the death tax of 1.7 billion? There's your money right there. And change left over. It's it's a scam. The whole thing is a scam, and and we'll expose it. We really will. I mean, I have five things, five things I want to get done in there in four years.
SPEAKER_03Well, Butchie, the thing of it is I w I want to tell you this. The problem is, is we can't go backwards. No. We we got to look at history to figure out what happened, but but we're never gonna find that money. We're I mean, that money's gone. I mean, it's i if they they might have stood they might as well stood in front out in the middle of Main Street in in uh in front of the courthouse here in Fayette County with$1,000 bills and just left to go and win because it's gone. We can't we're never gonna find it. But we have to confined to players that that did this. Exactly. And then and that's what we have to expect.
SPEAKER_06We have to make sure it never happens again. Like I said, I have young kids and I want them to stay here. And at this rate of the corruption and the wages and the cost of living, it's not gonna be able to be sustainable for them at all. And and they're elderly. Elderly sh it's it just amazes me that in in a blue state like this, it seems like they're more um more prone to be sympathetic to outsiders than they are their own people. And that really blows me away. And and and I'm not just talking about the Democrats, I'm talking about the Republicans, too. I mean, there's gonna be some call-outs on them as well.
SPEAKER_02John, one of the programs that we have going that we're very, very fond and proud of, is we have a program called Student Advisors. And what we did is we went into every one of the uh high school school districts and asked them if they could seek out two or three students, uh senior sophomores, you know, in that area. And and their task with identifying assets, attractions, and activities that would attract a new family to come and move into our area because that's our biggest challenge. I mean, we're losing all our young people and families and all that. I mean, they're just not here. Uh, I could tell you we we had to shut it down because of COVID, and then we brought it back last year. Those kids are amazing with the pride they have of what's available in their communities and how they want to present it and invite people in. So it's here. Uh it's a challenge, it's an uphill climb. Shalroy, I can remember growing up seven shoe stores in Shawlroy along. The inside joke, it wasn't Shalroy, it was Schulleroy. And um, you know, we we can bring this back. We all have to get engaged, and uh the political go-along, get along has got to be addressed. We've got to get the right people in there to get it going.
SPEAKER_03Well, I know I know we gotta I know we got a lot of things we gotta do. And um with uh with with the new thing that uh the president has put in front of us, and um with uh the that they passed, I guess they passed it in the House of Representatives already. And I I know that there's a number, bud. I know there's a number that you have to and you can't reach that number right now because you don't have the power to do it. But the the voter ID has to happen in this state. And we need we need to we need this guy and Harry Cochran and and and the to do the the to push this because right now we have we have this Act 77, which has caused caused more problems since 2019, October 2019, than any and like I said, we've had it's a good way for a cheat. It it is. It's it's i I mean, there's there I actually had somebody sit at Fayette County to see if they verified one signature. No. Not one signature was verified. Not one. So and there was there was seven thousand mail and ballots. So let's think about this.
Casino Money And Missing Millions
SPEAKER_06But here's the amazing part. When we go to turn in our our signatures for the Oh, yeah, there's gonna be hundreds of people. They're gonna go through every one of those. Yeah, nope, no, this was look, that's why we're getting three thousand. I I don't let 'em play for a month. I don't care.
SPEAKER_03Guaranteed. They're gonna they're gonna sneak in there and then they're gonna wait till the the clerks' backs turn and they're gonna be taking pictures of them. And then then and then then you know I'm I'm telling you, I know I know, I've seen it done. I mean, and and guess what? It was and and get guess who uh uh did it to me? It was it was the state representatives to the Republican Party. I know, because I was told they said they they they thought they were getting away with something. And I had uh I mean 250 signatures and I had twelve hundred.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Here's my thing. So you know, we were talking about the budget and everything like that, and then with the uh the rainy day funds that everybody has, which everybody pretty much spent the rainy day funds, what they're doing is they're using the Act 13 money, the impact fee money money to shore up their budget for the counties. And if they didn't have that, they would be running they would be running red constantly. Constantly they would be running red. And and here's the thing. I don't mind being in debt when you're in debt and you have positive assets. Like, say my company we're six million or six million, we're six hundred thousand dollars in debt. It's a bad thing, right? No, it's not a bad thing. That's business. You need that, tax credits, there's a whole other thing. Six hundred thousand dollars, but we have a couple million dollars in equipment. So are you really in debt? No, you're not. You're 1.4 million to the good. So a lot of people don't understand basic business 101, basic economics, and that's where this is a problem. We're spending all this money, we're spending$53 billion a year. Where's our equity at? Where's it at? Where's our new bridges? Where's our rail system? Where where's the new locks?
SPEAKER_03Where where where is the where is everything? Where is it at? Yeah, and and where and w the one thing that's that and you can mark this down and you can say John Marietta said this. The one thing that's gonna happen in this state, right? We are blessed with water in this order. But here's what's gonna happen. We we are we are selling water everywhere. Yeah from out outside our county, uh outside all the counties, and and we need to take care of our water systems. Yes. I mean, that's the one thing the government needs to take care of.
SPEAKER_06I mean uh pretty much everywhere here, everywhere, everywhere Fayette, Green, Washington, Beaver. You have water, you got rail, and you got major interstates. But what don't you have?
SPEAKER_03No place for people to come to work.
SPEAKER_06Major infrastructure. You have nothing else. Nothing.
SPEAKER_02I love sharing this. Not only do we have access to water, we have access to very good water. There are ten school districts in the 50th district. Every one of those school districts have a trout stream in it with trout in that stream. Now, those are clean, vibrant, healthy streams. So it's not only the water, it's quality water at the same time. And and again, it's you know, what do we do? How do we kind of uh take what we have and build it into that attraction?
SPEAKER_03Well, I've got to be I I I've been blessed. I've got to be I've been in all but one state in the country, uh Idaho. Don't ask me how that happened. You missed that one. I I just I didn't I've never been to Idaho. But anyways, I I've seen I've seen different places and when a lot of people don't realize like Wyoming ha there's desert in Wyoming.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03People don't re realize that. Uh and and water, water in California as gold or oil is here. Yeah. But but we need to take care of the water in this state. We need in it because I really believe that that's going to be one of the biggest commodities that we we have. I mean, it really is. I mean, we have natural gas. I mean, we're between Green County and Washington County and Fayette County and biggest on the planet. Yeah, I mean we we it's it's unbelievable. And what the one thing I keep telling everybody is we the other thing I want to see happen is we need to be producing power, electric, right here with our coal, with our gas, and sh selling it across the country.
SPEAKER_06You need both. Um and that's one of my things. Um I'm going to a meeting in Washington County here, I think next week. They have a kind of a moratorium to where it's like 500 feet. They can't drill and this and that. Um actually it's it's not 500 feet, it's 3,000 feet. And I think they're trying to change that. But I I'm gonna lobby those people that are on that uh supervisor committee. They they need to cut that back. I mean, these farmers, I mean, this this is how you start an ecosystem, you know, uh, and they don't understand that, or there's an ulterior motive to it. So you always have to think about that ulterior motive because that's just the way they are. So, but we'll expose it and uh we'll push forward. And if I get in here, I want to be drilling, baby drilling, I want to be doing more coal mine, I want to be power plants, I want to get Mitchell back online, I want to get I want to get them going.
SPEAKER_03Um we we have to the biggest mistake that happened, and I uh we left we left them down Hatfield. I I uh I I mean it that was that's a sin. Yeah that's a sin. And and I I didn't realize it at the time, but you know what my dad my dad did. He said, This is crazy. He said, This is crazy. He said, uh all the coal we have, all the natural gas we have, he said there's no way Hatfield should have ever left us. Ever.
SPEAKER_06No, you know that they put almost a billion dollars in those scrubbers two years before they shut it down. I think it was about two, two and a half, three years. Then they shut it down.
SPEAKER_03Then I think we sold it then I think they sold part of it to the Chinese.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
Grants, Nonprofits, And Conflicts
SPEAKER_03Which which that's that that's my next topic. I wanna get I w I we'll we'll talk about but we don't have a lot of time for that, but but but uh There's no way the Chinese should uh any Chinese entity should own any part of the Chinese.
SPEAKER_06That's a national security issue to me, in my mind. I mean, if you're relying on a foreign country that is uh you know, it's bad.
SPEAKER_03So I think we're about out of time. I think uh what what we got, about a minute left?
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, she just sent me she sent me over and there. We need to create some pipelines and uh and and and put good legislators. And uh that's that's um that's you're right. We need pipelines. We need pipelines. Pipelines don't you can you can plant you can plant corn on top of pipelines. Yep. So, but anyways, um I want to thank everybody for coming in today. I really appreciate y'all. Um uh could kind of uh um this was kind of a throw-together thing. I wasn't uh I like it. I like spontaneous. But uh yeah, and uh I know I know BuckDitForPA.com.
SPEAKER_06Okay. Bucked it for Senate on Facebook.
SPEAKER_02And Bud? Info at for we the people, hyphen cook, we'll get it done. Google search on my name, a lot'll come up and uh we're gonna be bad. I'm an equal opportunity of fancy.
SPEAKER_06We have the people ready to make the changes.
SPEAKER_03Well, Churchill said if you're not making any money mad, you're not doing the right thing. So hey, uh, I want to thank everybody for tuning in. Uh and uh I appreciate y'all. But uh, like I close all my shows. On the on this road called life, you have to take the good with the bad. Smile with the sad, love what you got, and remember what you have. Always forgive, but never forget. People change, things go wrong. Just remember the ride goes on. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America. I am John Marietta, and I am the Hillbully.