December 22, 2025 • 31 mins
1. Affordable Care Act (ACA) Subsidies and Alleged Fraud
- Democrats intentionally designed ACA subsidies to expire, framing it as a political strategy to secure votes during elections.
- The ACA was never truly affordable and alleges systemic fraud, waste, and abuse within the program, including:
- Insurance companies benefiting from guaranteed government payments.
- Fraudulent enrollments and improper subsidies (citing a Washington Post report and GAO findings).
- The financial burden of extending enhanced subsidies, estimating costs up to $350 billion through 2035, and criticizes subsidies reaching households earning $160,000 annually.
- the expiration of subsidies could lead to premium hikes (up to 114%) and increased uninsured rates, framing this as a political weapon for Democrats.
- The ACA was a step toward socialized medicine and accuses Democrats of collusion with healthcare donors.
2. Renaming and Revitalization of the Kennedy Center
- The second part is an interview with Rick Grenell about the transformation of the Kennedy Center under Donald Trump’s involvement.
- Key points include:
- Severe deferred maintenance before Trump’s intervention (leaking roofs, broken elevators, collapsing infrastructure).
- Trump allegedly secured $250 million for renovations and initiated fundraising for programming.
- The center was renamed the Trump Kennedy Center, sparking controversy and accusations of partisanship.
- Discussion of programming strategy: moving away from “woke” or niche content toward mainstream, “common sense” performances to attract corporate sponsors and donors.
- Criticism of Democrats for boycotting the center despite advocating for arts funding.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Senate is staring down healthcare in a major battle,
with Obamacare subsidies set to expire on purpose. Why are
they set to expire because Democrats designed it that way. Now,
you may ask yourself a question, why would they design
a program to expire on purpose? It's pretty simple. Democrats
(00:25):
were playing politics. They wanted this to be a political
issue that if you don't vote for them, the Democratic Party,
that then you can't afford your Obamacare, also known as
the Affordable Care Act, which is anything but affordable. They
(00:45):
created a crisis out of thin air, a crisis so
that then when the midterms came around, they could say,
you better stick with us, because otherwise you will lose
the healthcare that we told you we were going to
give you forever. It was a designed crisis. That's how
evil the Democratic Party was with health care, and specifically
(01:06):
with the subsidies around Obamacare. They also knew that Obamacare,
the quote Affordable Care Act, was never going to be affordable.
They knew from the very beginning. But what's happened since
then is even worse. Democrats had figured out that their
best donors could be the health care industry, insurance companies, hospitals,
(01:27):
those that get paid with these guaranteed subsidies of Obamacare,
and they would fill their campaign coffers with cash. Why
because the Democratic Party was filling their bank accounts with
guaranteed government payments at levels that even the insurance companies
could have never imagined. So here we are with a
(01:50):
crisis that was created by the Democrats on purpose, a
crisis that was made for political reasons only and for
reelection camp. And now we're dealing with the fallout. Senate
negotiators are set for a high wire act this week
on healthcare, and this is all happening. Wow. Many of
(02:12):
them are leaving Washington for the holidays without a resolution
on the expiring and hand subsidies, With lawmakers increasingly shifting
into campaign mode as the calendar flips to the new year,
it's an election year. The Chamber has been consumed for
months by a fight over the future of expiring Affordable
Care Act subsidies, which were at the center of that
(02:35):
record breaking government shutdown. It was the Schumer shutdown. We
all know that, with the subject of multiple votes and
extensive negotiations in the week since, so that we don't
have another government shutdown in the new year. Now the
December thirty first deadline is set to come and go.
A bipartison group of lawmakers is trying to keep those
(02:57):
hopes alive that a deal could come together, but they're
now facing numerous problems, chief among them bringing the fraud
that has now been exposed under control, as well as
the rhetoric from the left and those on the right
that say we should never have done this in the
first place. Quote, since the Obamacare passage, any conversation about
(03:23):
anything on healthcare has been a big lift. That is
what Senator James Langfort, a Republican from Oklahoma, said, saying, quote,
everybody sees the problems, and at times my Democratic colleagues
will admit, okay, yeah, that's a problem, but trying to
vote on it has been tougher. So no matter what
we do tweaking this thing, it's going to be hard. Now.
(03:46):
The Senate voted on two competing healthcare proposals on December
the eleventh. Both failed. Four Republicans even crossed the aisle
to vote in favor of a Democratic bill to extend
the subseas for three years, and centers on both sides
of the aisle have spent the days since trying to
pick up the pieces and find a new deal. Now
(04:09):
there is a group now of nearly two dozen members
occupying various political aims across each party, that is convened
with an eye towards, as they describe it, unveiling a
possible deal, with some even indicating that hopes of a
framework agreement could come by the end of the holiday
work period and could be in theory past next month.
(04:32):
Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and then he would
say a Republican in name only, and Bernie Marino, a
Republican from Ohio. We're among the organizers of the big meeting. Now.
Their bill is calling for just a two year extension
of the Obamacare subsidies paired with conservative leaning reforms served
(04:53):
as the basis of the discussion to get rid of
some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that Democrats do
not want to touch. Why because when there is fraud
in the health care industry, it goes directly to the
bottom line of the healthcare providers who are their biggest
donors of the candidates and the Democratic Party running in
these midterms. Now on Wednesday, and this went very much unreported.
(05:17):
There was actually a group of House GOP centrists, so
they're not really hardcore conservative, they're not Maga Conservatives who
bucked their leadership of the Speaker Mike Johnson by signing
into a Democratic effort to force a vote on extending
the subsidies, also met with a group of centers to
try to chart a path to a deal that could
(05:38):
pass in both chambers, because that's part of the problem.
If you get it down the Senate, you still have
to get it done in the House. Now. Democrats in
the Senate have also shied away from trying from tying,
I should say the healthcare battle to the looming government
funding deadline at the end of January, giving talks a
major boost now and it adjourned without reaching a healthcare
(06:02):
framework for Christmas. That is problematic. Democrats present the first
they described it bipartisan meeting last week. They knew that
people were leaving town, so it was pretty much meaningless
and it was a political stunt. And they said they
were initially encouraged, as they described it, by the discussions,
(06:22):
but they indicated that complications made striking a deal increasingly
quote problematic. Quote. There was a simple concept on the table.
When we walked in, it was within the range of reason,
but then it got more complicated. There was conceptionally might
be well okay, but maybe or might not. That's how
(06:43):
Senator Tim Caine, the Democrat from Virginia, said, labeling the
meeting a quote productive discussion. He also said there was
quote complicators in the room now. Attendees said that they
expected future meetings, but whether they continued to push the
ball up the field and keep talking during the two
week holiday break remains an open question. Both sides also
(07:08):
have political considerations that could scuttle discussions at any time.
And then you've got numerous Republicans that have signaled that
they have little to no appetite to vote for any
type of extension of the enhanced subsidies, no matter the
reforms that could make the package more palatable. Why it's
a campaign issue, There's a lot to think Obamacare is
(07:29):
well a total lie, and it's filled with fraud, and
they're not going to keep paying for that level of fraud.
They have also indicated that language concerning the High Amendment,
which bars federal funds from going towards abortion and any
healthcare package, also remains a major sticking point. Democrats are
(07:51):
also quick to note that Republicans have, as they described it,
continuously opposed the Affordable Care Act. Well, it's not affordable.
That's one reason to appt owes it. And the Minority
Party has indicated they plan to pen the blame because
this is really all about politics, not about helping you
on the GOP. For the premium hikes that millions of
Americans are set to experience in the lead up to
(08:14):
the midterms. Now, let me be clear, if you have
a massive hike in the premiums going into the midterms,
it will be blamed on the Republicans because people don't
pay attention. We have a lot of idiots in this
country that just love free stuff. They don't realize how
(08:34):
much that free stuff costs, because nothing is free in healthcare.
So here we are at a crossroads what Republicans do,
and the President of United States of America has got
to figure out a way to bring them all together. Now,
before we get to the end of the story here
(08:55):
with Donald Trump and what he has to figure out
and really overcome, I so think there's another aspect of
this that you need to understand, and that is this
part how broken it actually is. And this is why
there are Republicans that do not want to just in
essence auto renew this thing, because the argument is, why
(09:17):
would we reward waste, massive fraud and your tax dollar
is going to insurance companies that are literally, as I
would describe it, stealing from you. Let me give you
some data that you're not going to hear anywhere else,
and you should know this data. But you should also
take this data and take the podcast and share it
(09:39):
so other people hear this. Not only is Obamacare or
the I'm going to probably call it more the Affordable
Care Act, because it's so insane that that's what they
actually called it, the Affordable Care It's just lunacy. It
is heavily subsidized. This thing is being propped up by
your tax dollars at numbers you can't even get your
head around. Now, Donald Trump wants the money to go
(10:00):
directly to you so that then you can spend the
money on healthcare the way that you believe it should
be done, so that these insurance companies don't keep screwing
us through all the fraud and the fake accounts and
the payments that are going right like that's that's the
number one thing, all right. So let me give you
some data here. Twenty four point three million people selected
(10:24):
right or were auto re enrolled in the marketplace coverage
in twenty twenty five. Now a big driver in the
Advanced Premium Tax Credit known as the APTC. The report
notes that twelve point eight million or more receive that
subsidy in twenty twenty five compared to twenty twenty. People
(10:49):
are asking the question where do these twelve point eight
million people come from? Now? These enhanced subsidies are a
massive budget item, all right, and their expiration is a clip.
The Enhanced Premium Tax Credit. It was expanded under COVID, Right,
it's no longer around. COVID's not around like it was.
(11:09):
It was all done during the COVID era legislation and
it was extended and they're scheduled to run out. They
will expire at the end of this year. That's why
there is this like the house is on fire moment.
One major budget estimate, by the way, says that permanently
extending the enhanced substis for COVID, which we don't have anymore.
That's how broken the Affordable carec They need subties for
(11:30):
COVID even though we're not dealing with COVID all right,
could cost up to three hundred and fifty billion dollars
through twenty thirty five. That is insanity. And the analysts
also note that well over fifty billion of that cost
flow two households above five x the poverty level. Let
(11:51):
me give you an example. Some of these substees are
going to families that make one hundred and sixty thousand
dollars a year for a family of four this year.
Is that where we're and this is how you get
closer and closer to just straight up socialized medicine. You
subsidize people at one hundred and sixty k with a
family of four. They then learn to just rely on it,
(12:11):
depend on it, They vote on it because they don't
want to pay for their healthcare because it's going through
the taxes. And then you have this big grand divide,
and you get very close to what I just described,
which is socialized medicine. And we're on the verge of
that just being the reality, which was the whole design
of Obamacare. That's part of what you really need to understand,
Like this was all a part of the design. It
(12:34):
was designed to fail so that the government would just
take over the entire system. Now, without the enhanced subsidies,
the affordability math worsens really fast. Okay, twenty twenty six
premiums modeling finds that the marketplace premium payments would rise
by one hundred and fourteen percent on average, meaning that
(12:56):
fifty percent are above that level if the credits expired.
That's about one thoy sixteen dollars a year. So the
Congressional Budget Office says, look, the expiration not only would
reduce substas in the enrollment, but it would raise the
uninsured rate, which then would be blamed they believe on
Donald Trump. That's why Democrats are willing to play this
(13:17):
game of Russian roulette. They also said that not only
would that happen, but literally millions could lose coverage because
if Congress says nothing, then the money dries up, and
then they're like, why can't afford it? And then the
rates have gone through the roof because the rates that
the insurance companies are charging have skyrocketed since the subseas
(13:38):
came in, because they're like, well, we need to get
our hands on more of this money. So now you're
actually paying a rate that is egregious, that is unrealistic
for the marketplace without the government subsidies. You following me here,
the insurance company said, hey, we can grab billions of dollars.
(13:59):
Let's keep raising the rates every year. The government will
pay the rate increase guaranteed. We'll also have a bunch
of dead people that are enrolling and people that have
died that are still being enrolled in a bunch of
fraudulent enrollment. That's all a fact. We know that as well.
We are getting paid for people that never use their insurance.
We're getting paid for people that don't even know they're
(14:20):
actually enrolled in Obamacare, and so they never come into
the hospital. And we get all that money without having
to offer any coverage or actual service. And now you
understand exactly why Democrats want this to keep going, because
the insurance companies have basically said, we have a blank
(14:41):
check for you. We will write you a check for
you to get elected and get re elected, and we
will write it for you forever as long as you
let us keep getting the billions of dollars in government aid.
These insurance companies are not running a business anymore. I
want to be clear about that. They're running a full blown,
(15:03):
shady as hell, corrupt business with a government check that
keeps showing up. It's bribery. That's the best way I
can describe it is it is bribery. Let me give
you another example. The programs quote integrity and fraud vulnerabilities
(15:24):
have been documented now for the first time. How bad
is it? I'm going to quote for you the Liberal
Washington Post. Okay, are you ready? This is the I'll
say it again, the Liberal Washington Post. The Washington Post
reported at broker scheme has now been tied at least
(15:47):
one hundred and eighty million and in proper federal subsidies,
alongside findings including a GOA test showing weak verification controls
in many cases. Now, this is just full blown fraud.
How many people gone to jail so far that we
know of? I don't think any. Usually when we find
this level of fraud, what usually happens we don't get
any Okay, body that actually goes to jail. This reminds
(16:11):
me a lot of the housing crisis and the fraud
that we found out was going on in the housing market,
in the loan market, and what happened when there was
the big crash in eight One guy went to jail
because all of these bankers and all of these mortgage
lenders that were in on this scheme. This just massive
(16:33):
level of corruption, of waste, fraud, and abuse all got
away with it. So is there any incentive to not
do it again? No, there is zero incentive to not
do it again. This is what President Trump is having
(16:54):
to deal with. And the question that he's going to
have to ask is how much money should go to
subsidize them? Right, Like, there's two big buckets that are
at the center of this subsy debate, right the premium
tax credits, the monthly subsidies, that's the main affordability engine
for the marketplace premiums, which if skyrocketed. And then the
enhancement sub subsy expansion, the temporary larger credits that were
(17:17):
done in the name of COVID that is three hundred
and fifty billion we're talking about right now through twenty
thirty five. I'm going to say it again, we can't
afford this. We can't afford any of it. So how
do you pull back? Okay, how do you pull back
on this? That's the question that everybody needs to ask,
(17:40):
and how do you do it without losing a midterm
election is the bigger question on this. So Rick Gernell
is a dear friend of mine. He is an American diplomat.
You know him as a service to President Donald Trump
and he served as an ambassador. He is now doing
(18:00):
something that's truly incredible, and that is be the president
of the executive director of the Now Trump and John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rick, you and I
were trading messages and I said, this is the perfect
time to have you on because many people are gonna
get to see an incredible night this week on CBS
from the Kennedy Center. The Awards. It happens once a year.
(18:23):
It's a great night. The President's there, we get to
honor Americans have done incredible things in the arts. And
there's been a controversy beforehand as Democrats are trying to
undermine what the President has done with the Kenney Center.
And I thought, let's just tell the story of just
how bad things were at the Kennedy Center, all how
(18:45):
much had been deferred in basic upkeep of that building.
Why the President said I'm going to be on the
board and have great board members and put you to
be in charge because he wanted to bring it back
to greatness. And now they're all losing their minds after
we brought it back to greatness. But talk about what
you inherited before we even get to the added name
(19:05):
of Donald Trump on the building.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, great, well, Ben, thanks for having me. First of all,
Tuesday night eight o'clock, you have to watch the Kennedy
Center Honors, which is now the Trump Kennedy Center. So
Tuesday at eight o'clock on CBS, it's going to be
an amazing show. Look, Ben, when President Trump asked me
to come in and help save the Kennedy Center, I
(19:28):
arrived at the Kennedy Center at the time and we
had no money in the bank. We were paying staff
with debt reserves that we were saving up for a
bond payment. In twenty thirty we had ninety four people
in one department, the fundraising department, and it was truly bloated. Remember,
(19:51):
the woman who had the job before me was getting
paid one point four million dollars a year, and yet
they couldn't keep up up with the maintenance.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So million a year. Who, like, how does that even happen.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
It's crazy. Look, Congress gives a little bit of money
around thirty five million, sometimes up to forty million a
year to maintain the building because it's a memorial to
John F. Kennedy. So there's two things that happened. There's
a huge staff that's paid through fundraising, and then there's
(20:27):
a very small staff that just care takes the building
and the memorial part, and they get somewhere between thirty
five and forty million a year from Congress for that.
They were not using that money to keep the building up.
When I arrived, the roof was leaking, the pipes were
(20:48):
bursting below. We constantly had floods. Most of the elevators
did not work. The water fountains out front did not work.
The seats were collapsing. We literally had infrastructure falling on cars.
When you drive underneath the Kennedy Center, the safetts and
(21:08):
the concrete were falling on cars. The building people actually
suggested that we tear the building down and start over,
that the deferred maintenance was so bad for so long
that we should start over. So I brought President Trump
over the Great Builder and took them through the whole building.
We went to the bottom of the building. We saw
(21:30):
the pipes, we saw the infrastructure, and looked at the roof,
and he said, this is bad, but it can be fixed.
We don't have to tear the building down. And by
the time he left the Kennedy Center and went driving
back to the White House, he had called multiple members
of Congress to say, I want two hundred and fifty
(21:50):
million dollars to save the Kennedy Center. Now, look at
that point, I think Democrats should have celebrated a Republican
trying to save an arts institution, but they didn't. President
Trump then launched the fundraising portion for staff and programming,
which you cannot use any of that two hundred and
fifty million for anything but the building. It would be
(22:12):
a moral to do that. It would be what the
Democrats did of trying to take their little bit of
money that was supposed to be for the building and
not use it for the building. So we wanted to
commit to bringing the building back to a beautiful place.
We've already been doing that in the ten months that
I've been there. We now have more money being raised
(22:34):
for programming, a huge amount of money for the building renovation.
We've started on the renovations. We've already done a tone
of painting. The water fountains are working, the elevators are working.
We're redoing the marble, redoing the seats, redoing all of
the things that should have been done. One of the
things that is crazy to me is that the Kennedy family,
(22:57):
who is complaining now about the money being poured in
from Donald Trump, they're not thanking him. They're complaining that
a Republican has come in and is getting credit, and
the board is giving Donald Trump credit for all of this.
They were nowhere to be found. I don't want to
call anybody out specifically, but I can tell who's given
(23:20):
money to the Kennedy Center, and it's not coming from
the Kennedy family. And so this outrage is unbelievable in
that they should be thanking Donald Trump for saving the
former Kennedy Center, and when the board says, let's make
it the Trump Kennedy Center because now it's bipartisan. Now
(23:40):
it's a recognition that Republicans and Democrats should both be
making this a priority. They should celebrate this, they should
totally celebrate, but instead they're he you mentioned bipartisan.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's the part when I was on TV the other
night on CNN about this, like and they're losing their minds.
I just laughed because I'm like, this is used to
be The Kenney Center used to be the hottest ticket
in town. When I was there at the Bush administration,
it was. It was a hot ticket. It slowly started
to lose its luster. I mean, I go back to
Charlie Wilson's war if you've ever seen the movie True Story,
(24:15):
he just wanted to be on the board of the
Kindy Center because he wanted the tickets because it was
such a hot item. And then it become an afterthought
and forgotten. And that's part of what you guys have
done at the Kenney Center is turned it into the
hottest ticket in town. By bringing in people that people
want to a go and see. You're also having people
that want to have their events at the venue, which
(24:36):
is so important. It's an incredible venue. It's right there
on the river. It's unbelievable to walk out on that
balcony and just c DC. It's an amazing a truly.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
An underutilized space. Yes, underutilized, because look, one thing to
be clear, when when I arrived, the program was really bad.
The ticket sales were in the tank. Every single arts
institution across this country is struggling with ticket sales. As
a matter of fact, two months ago the New York Times,
(25:10):
which I seldom quote, The New York Times had a
front page paper that said Broadway is dying. Nobody's buying
Broadway tickets. This is a phenomenon that's been happening across
arts institutions. But what they don't realize is that the
reason why arts institutions are struggling is because the programming
is so far left and woke that it doesn't capture
(25:33):
the public's mind or corporate America, who should be funding
these things.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I do love, by the way, before you get back
to the ticket sales, Rick that they were like. The
question they asked me on CNN was, well, I mean,
what's next, You're going to put his name on the
Lincoln Memorial or the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument,
name of the Trump money. The level of Trump arrangement
syndrome over this is truly impressive.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah. Look, my reaction when I get that is, oh,
I think the Jefferson and the Lincoln and the Washington
have been maintained and so nobody needs to save them.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's a that's a great point. So you get there,
and I want to go back to ticket sales. That
was one of the big problems. The building had gone down,
the ticket sales had gone down. You guys inherited a disaster,
and deferred maintenance had never been done correct.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And look, arts institutions are struggling with ticket sales, every
single one across them the country, and it's because most
of the arts institutions push programming that corporate America and
donors don't want to participate in. And so what we
did is we said to corporate America and to our donors,
you're never going to be embarrassed by what we're bringing.
(26:46):
It's going to be big, common sense programming. We're bringing.
We brought in Stuttgart Ballet, We're bringing in the Vienna Philharmonic,
We've got Chicago the Musical coming, we had Ley miz
We're doing the big cop and sense programming. We do
have a problem in that the left and Democrats are
boycotting it right now, which is unbelievable when you think
(27:09):
about boycotting an arts institution, because Republicans are putting money
into it. But we're not going to go backwards. We're
not going to go back to the days where we
can't pay our bills. And what I've decided to do
is not only look at ticket sales, because you can't
pay for programming with just ticket sales. We have nineteen
unions at the Trump Kennedy Center, and that makes every
(27:30):
programming extremely expensive. And so what I say is, between donors,
Corporate America and ticket sales, you got to get me
to revenue neutral in order to do these programs because
we can't go in debt by doing these things.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I believe in arts education, and when we get a
little bit of money, we can do the niche programming
that educates people about the arts, new forms of art
that they haven't quite been accustomed to. But when you
have niche programming, ben you get big donors who say,
I believe in this, and I'm going to write you
a check.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Right. That's my passion, right, that's my passion project, and
this is something that is so important to me. I
want to write a check because I think this should
be expanded and introduced to others. And that's exactly again,
how you run an essence and nonprofit you find people
that are passionate about it, which is something that I
had died at the Kenney Center with their funding.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You can't pay someone one point four million dollars who
then tries to come up with some crazy programming like
an all lesbian cast of a Fellow. You can't do
programming like that because Corporate America says they're not coming.
But since we've been there and we've promised Corporate America
that it's big, common sense programming, we have seen fundraising
(28:48):
shoot through the roof. Again. We still have Democrats who
say we're boycotting with ticket sales, but an arts reporter
that covers you know, arts programming in Washington, d C.
They've never ever done a story about plummeting ticket sales
ever until we came. And then suddenly they are saying, oh, well,
(29:12):
ticket sales aren't doing well. Well, correct, but ticket sales
have been really dying, as the New York Times pointed out,
with Broadway and all arts institutions, they've been struggling. What
we have shown is that when you fix the programming,
Corporate America comes with really big checks, and then financially
you can if you're responsible with staffing you can do
(29:34):
the big programming and arts institutions can work. I think
this is an example. President Trump has given arts institutions
across the country an example be bipartisan fix the programming
so that you invite corporate America in and that is
how you're going to be able to have good theater
and good programming.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, let's talk about that quickly to by person aspect
of this, because I do think that's the part that's
really incredible. You're bringing in an amazing app that are nonpartisan
acts and the Democrats are refusing to show it because
they want this to fail. The same people that demand
more money for the arts. This is the biggest stage
for the arts, and they're saying no all because a
Republican is the one doing it. If that isn't the
(30:15):
definition of insanity and hypocrisy, I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Well I'll tell you one thing. This is a test
for Democrats because if they try and kill a bipartisan
arts institution like this by refusing to participate and refusing
to do ticket sales and refusing to do a long
term buying of tickets like through sponsorships, then they are
(30:39):
going to send the message to Republicans, you're not welcome
at arts institutions. They then will when Democrats take over Washington,
whenever that may be, they are going to make it
far left end and disinvite the Republicans, and we will
be back to arts institutions that pay one point four
million dollars in a salary with bloated bureaucracy and then
(31:04):
deferred maintenance problems. And look, when I arrived inn we
had no money in the bank zero. Today we're financially
doing really well, and we're paying back all of that
debt reserve and all of the moneies that we digged
in that we dug in and spent that we shouldn't
have been spending on Rick.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's an incredible success story. Congratulations. I look forward to
being at the Kennedy Center soon and what you guys
are doing is amazing and I can't wait take my
picture in front of a bipartisan sign with the last
name Trump and Kennedy on it. It's incredible, it really is.
And I hope everybody will grab this interview shared on
social media. You know the background now of the Trump
(31:44):
Kennedy Center. Don't forget share this podcast wherever you can
with your family and your friends, and I'll see you
back here tomorrow
The Senate is staring down healthcare in a major battle,
with Obamacare subsidies set to expire on purpose. Why are
they set to expire because Democrats designed it that way. Now,
you may ask yourself a question, why would they design
a program to expire on purpose? It's pretty simple. Democrats
(00:25):
were playing politics. They wanted this to be a political
issue that if you don't vote for them, the Democratic Party,
that then you can't afford your Obamacare, also known as
the Affordable Care Act, which is anything but affordable. They
(00:45):
created a crisis out of thin air, a crisis so
that then when the midterms came around, they could say,
you better stick with us, because otherwise you will lose
the healthcare that we told you we were going to
give you forever. It was a designed crisis. That's how
evil the Democratic Party was with health care, and specifically
(01:06):
with the subsidies around Obamacare. They also knew that Obamacare,
the quote Affordable Care Act, was never going to be affordable.
They knew from the very beginning. But what's happened since
then is even worse. Democrats had figured out that their
best donors could be the health care industry, insurance companies, hospitals,
(01:27):
those that get paid with these guaranteed subsidies of Obamacare,
and they would fill their campaign coffers with cash. Why
because the Democratic Party was filling their bank accounts with
guaranteed government payments at levels that even the insurance companies
could have never imagined. So here we are with a
(01:50):
crisis that was created by the Democrats on purpose, a
crisis that was made for political reasons only and for
reelection camp. And now we're dealing with the fallout. Senate
negotiators are set for a high wire act this week
on healthcare, and this is all happening. Wow. Many of
(02:12):
them are leaving Washington for the holidays without a resolution
on the expiring and hand subsidies, With lawmakers increasingly shifting
into campaign mode as the calendar flips to the new year,
it's an election year. The Chamber has been consumed for
months by a fight over the future of expiring Affordable
Care Act subsidies, which were at the center of that
(02:35):
record breaking government shutdown. It was the Schumer shutdown. We
all know that, with the subject of multiple votes and
extensive negotiations in the week since, so that we don't
have another government shutdown in the new year. Now the
December thirty first deadline is set to come and go.
A bipartison group of lawmakers is trying to keep those
(02:57):
hopes alive that a deal could come together, but they're
now facing numerous problems, chief among them bringing the fraud
that has now been exposed under control, as well as
the rhetoric from the left and those on the right
that say we should never have done this in the
first place. Quote, since the Obamacare passage, any conversation about
(03:23):
anything on healthcare has been a big lift. That is
what Senator James Langfort, a Republican from Oklahoma, said, saying, quote,
everybody sees the problems, and at times my Democratic colleagues
will admit, okay, yeah, that's a problem, but trying to
vote on it has been tougher. So no matter what
we do tweaking this thing, it's going to be hard. Now.
(03:46):
The Senate voted on two competing healthcare proposals on December
the eleventh. Both failed. Four Republicans even crossed the aisle
to vote in favor of a Democratic bill to extend
the subseas for three years, and centers on both sides
of the aisle have spent the days since trying to
pick up the pieces and find a new deal. Now
(04:09):
there is a group now of nearly two dozen members
occupying various political aims across each party, that is convened
with an eye towards, as they describe it, unveiling a
possible deal, with some even indicating that hopes of a
framework agreement could come by the end of the holiday
work period and could be in theory past next month.
(04:32):
Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and then he would
say a Republican in name only, and Bernie Marino, a
Republican from Ohio. We're among the organizers of the big meeting. Now.
Their bill is calling for just a two year extension
of the Obamacare subsidies paired with conservative leaning reforms served
(04:53):
as the basis of the discussion to get rid of
some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that Democrats do
not want to touch. Why because when there is fraud
in the health care industry, it goes directly to the
bottom line of the healthcare providers who are their biggest
donors of the candidates and the Democratic Party running in
these midterms. Now on Wednesday, and this went very much unreported.
(05:17):
There was actually a group of House GOP centrists, so
they're not really hardcore conservative, they're not Maga Conservatives who
bucked their leadership of the Speaker Mike Johnson by signing
into a Democratic effort to force a vote on extending
the subsidies, also met with a group of centers to
try to chart a path to a deal that could
(05:38):
pass in both chambers, because that's part of the problem.
If you get it down the Senate, you still have
to get it done in the House. Now. Democrats in
the Senate have also shied away from trying from tying,
I should say the healthcare battle to the looming government
funding deadline at the end of January, giving talks a
major boost now and it adjourned without reaching a healthcare
(06:02):
framework for Christmas. That is problematic. Democrats present the first
they described it bipartisan meeting last week. They knew that
people were leaving town, so it was pretty much meaningless
and it was a political stunt. And they said they
were initially encouraged, as they described it, by the discussions,
(06:22):
but they indicated that complications made striking a deal increasingly
quote problematic. Quote. There was a simple concept on the table.
When we walked in, it was within the range of reason,
but then it got more complicated. There was conceptionally might
be well okay, but maybe or might not. That's how
(06:43):
Senator Tim Caine, the Democrat from Virginia, said, labeling the
meeting a quote productive discussion. He also said there was
quote complicators in the room now. Attendees said that they
expected future meetings, but whether they continued to push the
ball up the field and keep talking during the two
week holiday break remains an open question. Both sides also
(07:08):
have political considerations that could scuttle discussions at any time.
And then you've got numerous Republicans that have signaled that
they have little to no appetite to vote for any
type of extension of the enhanced subsidies, no matter the
reforms that could make the package more palatable. Why it's
a campaign issue, There's a lot to think Obamacare is
(07:29):
well a total lie, and it's filled with fraud, and
they're not going to keep paying for that level of fraud.
They have also indicated that language concerning the High Amendment,
which bars federal funds from going towards abortion and any
healthcare package, also remains a major sticking point. Democrats are
(07:51):
also quick to note that Republicans have, as they described it,
continuously opposed the Affordable Care Act. Well, it's not affordable.
That's one reason to appt owes it. And the Minority
Party has indicated they plan to pen the blame because
this is really all about politics, not about helping you
on the GOP. For the premium hikes that millions of
Americans are set to experience in the lead up to
(08:14):
the midterms. Now, let me be clear, if you have
a massive hike in the premiums going into the midterms,
it will be blamed on the Republicans because people don't
pay attention. We have a lot of idiots in this
country that just love free stuff. They don't realize how
(08:34):
much that free stuff costs, because nothing is free in healthcare.
So here we are at a crossroads what Republicans do,
and the President of United States of America has got
to figure out a way to bring them all together. Now,
before we get to the end of the story here
(08:55):
with Donald Trump and what he has to figure out
and really overcome, I so think there's another aspect of
this that you need to understand, and that is this
part how broken it actually is. And this is why
there are Republicans that do not want to just in
essence auto renew this thing, because the argument is, why
(09:17):
would we reward waste, massive fraud and your tax dollar
is going to insurance companies that are literally, as I
would describe it, stealing from you. Let me give you
some data that you're not going to hear anywhere else,
and you should know this data. But you should also
take this data and take the podcast and share it
(09:39):
so other people hear this. Not only is Obamacare or
the I'm going to probably call it more the Affordable
Care Act, because it's so insane that that's what they
actually called it, the Affordable Care It's just lunacy. It
is heavily subsidized. This thing is being propped up by
your tax dollars at numbers you can't even get your
head around. Now, Donald Trump wants the money to go
(10:00):
directly to you so that then you can spend the
money on healthcare the way that you believe it should
be done, so that these insurance companies don't keep screwing
us through all the fraud and the fake accounts and
the payments that are going right like that's that's the
number one thing, all right. So let me give you
some data here. Twenty four point three million people selected
(10:24):
right or were auto re enrolled in the marketplace coverage
in twenty twenty five. Now a big driver in the
Advanced Premium Tax Credit known as the APTC. The report
notes that twelve point eight million or more receive that
subsidy in twenty twenty five compared to twenty twenty. People
(10:49):
are asking the question where do these twelve point eight
million people come from? Now? These enhanced subsidies are a
massive budget item, all right, and their expiration is a clip.
The Enhanced Premium Tax Credit. It was expanded under COVID, Right,
it's no longer around. COVID's not around like it was.
(11:09):
It was all done during the COVID era legislation and
it was extended and they're scheduled to run out. They
will expire at the end of this year. That's why
there is this like the house is on fire moment.
One major budget estimate, by the way, says that permanently
extending the enhanced substis for COVID, which we don't have anymore.
That's how broken the Affordable carec They need subties for
(11:30):
COVID even though we're not dealing with COVID all right,
could cost up to three hundred and fifty billion dollars
through twenty thirty five. That is insanity. And the analysts
also note that well over fifty billion of that cost
flow two households above five x the poverty level. Let
(11:51):
me give you an example. Some of these substees are
going to families that make one hundred and sixty thousand
dollars a year for a family of four this year.
Is that where we're and this is how you get
closer and closer to just straight up socialized medicine. You
subsidize people at one hundred and sixty k with a
family of four. They then learn to just rely on it,
(12:11):
depend on it, They vote on it because they don't
want to pay for their healthcare because it's going through
the taxes. And then you have this big grand divide,
and you get very close to what I just described,
which is socialized medicine. And we're on the verge of
that just being the reality, which was the whole design
of Obamacare. That's part of what you really need to understand,
Like this was all a part of the design. It
(12:34):
was designed to fail so that the government would just
take over the entire system. Now, without the enhanced subsidies,
the affordability math worsens really fast. Okay, twenty twenty six
premiums modeling finds that the marketplace premium payments would rise
by one hundred and fourteen percent on average, meaning that
(12:56):
fifty percent are above that level if the credits expired.
That's about one thoy sixteen dollars a year. So the
Congressional Budget Office says, look, the expiration not only would
reduce substas in the enrollment, but it would raise the
uninsured rate, which then would be blamed they believe on
Donald Trump. That's why Democrats are willing to play this
(13:17):
game of Russian roulette. They also said that not only
would that happen, but literally millions could lose coverage because
if Congress says nothing, then the money dries up, and
then they're like, why can't afford it? And then the
rates have gone through the roof because the rates that
the insurance companies are charging have skyrocketed since the subseas
(13:38):
came in, because they're like, well, we need to get
our hands on more of this money. So now you're
actually paying a rate that is egregious, that is unrealistic
for the marketplace without the government subsidies. You following me here,
the insurance company said, hey, we can grab billions of dollars.
(13:59):
Let's keep raising the rates every year. The government will
pay the rate increase guaranteed. We'll also have a bunch
of dead people that are enrolling and people that have
died that are still being enrolled in a bunch of
fraudulent enrollment. That's all a fact. We know that as well.
We are getting paid for people that never use their insurance.
We're getting paid for people that don't even know they're
(14:20):
actually enrolled in Obamacare, and so they never come into
the hospital. And we get all that money without having
to offer any coverage or actual service. And now you
understand exactly why Democrats want this to keep going, because
the insurance companies have basically said, we have a blank
(14:41):
check for you. We will write you a check for
you to get elected and get re elected, and we
will write it for you forever as long as you
let us keep getting the billions of dollars in government aid.
These insurance companies are not running a business anymore. I
want to be clear about that. They're running a full blown,
(15:03):
shady as hell, corrupt business with a government check that
keeps showing up. It's bribery. That's the best way I
can describe it is it is bribery. Let me give
you another example. The programs quote integrity and fraud vulnerabilities
(15:24):
have been documented now for the first time. How bad
is it? I'm going to quote for you the Liberal
Washington Post. Okay, are you ready? This is the I'll
say it again, the Liberal Washington Post. The Washington Post
reported at broker scheme has now been tied at least
(15:47):
one hundred and eighty million and in proper federal subsidies,
alongside findings including a GOA test showing weak verification controls
in many cases. Now, this is just full blown fraud.
How many people gone to jail so far that we
know of? I don't think any. Usually when we find
this level of fraud, what usually happens we don't get
any Okay, body that actually goes to jail. This reminds
(16:11):
me a lot of the housing crisis and the fraud
that we found out was going on in the housing market,
in the loan market, and what happened when there was
the big crash in eight One guy went to jail
because all of these bankers and all of these mortgage
lenders that were in on this scheme. This just massive
(16:33):
level of corruption, of waste, fraud, and abuse all got
away with it. So is there any incentive to not
do it again? No, there is zero incentive to not
do it again. This is what President Trump is having
(16:54):
to deal with. And the question that he's going to
have to ask is how much money should go to
subsidize them? Right, Like, there's two big buckets that are
at the center of this subsy debate, right the premium
tax credits, the monthly subsidies, that's the main affordability engine
for the marketplace premiums, which if skyrocketed. And then the
enhancement sub subsy expansion, the temporary larger credits that were
(17:17):
done in the name of COVID that is three hundred
and fifty billion we're talking about right now through twenty
thirty five. I'm going to say it again, we can't
afford this. We can't afford any of it. So how
do you pull back? Okay, how do you pull back
on this? That's the question that everybody needs to ask,
(17:40):
and how do you do it without losing a midterm
election is the bigger question on this. So Rick Gernell
is a dear friend of mine. He is an American diplomat.
You know him as a service to President Donald Trump
and he served as an ambassador. He is now doing
(18:00):
something that's truly incredible, and that is be the president
of the executive director of the Now Trump and John F.
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rick, you and I
were trading messages and I said, this is the perfect
time to have you on because many people are gonna
get to see an incredible night this week on CBS
from the Kennedy Center. The Awards. It happens once a year.
(18:23):
It's a great night. The President's there, we get to
honor Americans have done incredible things in the arts. And
there's been a controversy beforehand as Democrats are trying to
undermine what the President has done with the Kenney Center.
And I thought, let's just tell the story of just
how bad things were at the Kennedy Center, all how
(18:45):
much had been deferred in basic upkeep of that building.
Why the President said I'm going to be on the
board and have great board members and put you to
be in charge because he wanted to bring it back
to greatness. And now they're all losing their minds after
we brought it back to greatness. But talk about what
you inherited before we even get to the added name
(19:05):
of Donald Trump on the building.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, great, well, Ben, thanks for having me. First of all,
Tuesday night eight o'clock, you have to watch the Kennedy
Center Honors, which is now the Trump Kennedy Center. So
Tuesday at eight o'clock on CBS, it's going to be
an amazing show. Look, Ben, when President Trump asked me
to come in and help save the Kennedy Center, I
(19:28):
arrived at the Kennedy Center at the time and we
had no money in the bank. We were paying staff
with debt reserves that we were saving up for a
bond payment. In twenty thirty we had ninety four people
in one department, the fundraising department, and it was truly bloated. Remember,
(19:51):
the woman who had the job before me was getting
paid one point four million dollars a year, and yet
they couldn't keep up up with the maintenance.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
So million a year. Who, like, how does that even happen.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
It's crazy. Look, Congress gives a little bit of money
around thirty five million, sometimes up to forty million a
year to maintain the building because it's a memorial to
John F. Kennedy. So there's two things that happened. There's
a huge staff that's paid through fundraising, and then there's
(20:27):
a very small staff that just care takes the building
and the memorial part, and they get somewhere between thirty
five and forty million a year from Congress for that.
They were not using that money to keep the building up.
When I arrived, the roof was leaking, the pipes were
(20:48):
bursting below. We constantly had floods. Most of the elevators
did not work. The water fountains out front did not work.
The seats were collapsing. We literally had infrastructure falling on cars.
When you drive underneath the Kennedy Center, the safetts and
(21:08):
the concrete were falling on cars. The building people actually
suggested that we tear the building down and start over,
that the deferred maintenance was so bad for so long
that we should start over. So I brought President Trump
over the Great Builder and took them through the whole building.
We went to the bottom of the building. We saw
(21:30):
the pipes, we saw the infrastructure, and looked at the roof,
and he said, this is bad, but it can be fixed.
We don't have to tear the building down. And by
the time he left the Kennedy Center and went driving
back to the White House, he had called multiple members
of Congress to say, I want two hundred and fifty
(21:50):
million dollars to save the Kennedy Center. Now, look at
that point, I think Democrats should have celebrated a Republican
trying to save an arts institution, but they didn't. President
Trump then launched the fundraising portion for staff and programming,
which you cannot use any of that two hundred and
fifty million for anything but the building. It would be
(22:12):
a moral to do that. It would be what the
Democrats did of trying to take their little bit of
money that was supposed to be for the building and
not use it for the building. So we wanted to
commit to bringing the building back to a beautiful place.
We've already been doing that in the ten months that
I've been there. We now have more money being raised
(22:34):
for programming, a huge amount of money for the building renovation.
We've started on the renovations. We've already done a tone
of painting. The water fountains are working, the elevators are working.
We're redoing the marble, redoing the seats, redoing all of
the things that should have been done. One of the
things that is crazy to me is that the Kennedy family,
(22:57):
who is complaining now about the money being poured in
from Donald Trump, they're not thanking him. They're complaining that
a Republican has come in and is getting credit, and
the board is giving Donald Trump credit for all of this.
They were nowhere to be found. I don't want to
call anybody out specifically, but I can tell who's given
(23:20):
money to the Kennedy Center, and it's not coming from
the Kennedy family. And so this outrage is unbelievable in
that they should be thanking Donald Trump for saving the
former Kennedy Center, and when the board says, let's make
it the Trump Kennedy Center because now it's bipartisan. Now
(23:40):
it's a recognition that Republicans and Democrats should both be
making this a priority. They should celebrate this, they should
totally celebrate, but instead they're he you mentioned bipartisan.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
That's the part when I was on TV the other
night on CNN about this, like and they're losing their minds.
I just laughed because I'm like, this is used to
be The Kenney Center used to be the hottest ticket
in town. When I was there at the Bush administration,
it was. It was a hot ticket. It slowly started
to lose its luster. I mean, I go back to
Charlie Wilson's war if you've ever seen the movie True Story,
(24:15):
he just wanted to be on the board of the
Kindy Center because he wanted the tickets because it was
such a hot item. And then it become an afterthought
and forgotten. And that's part of what you guys have
done at the Kenney Center is turned it into the
hottest ticket in town. By bringing in people that people
want to a go and see. You're also having people
that want to have their events at the venue, which
(24:36):
is so important. It's an incredible venue. It's right there
on the river. It's unbelievable to walk out on that
balcony and just c DC. It's an amazing a truly.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
An underutilized space. Yes, underutilized, because look, one thing to
be clear, when when I arrived, the program was really bad.
The ticket sales were in the tank. Every single arts
institution across this country is struggling with ticket sales. As
a matter of fact, two months ago the New York Times,
(25:10):
which I seldom quote, The New York Times had a
front page paper that said Broadway is dying. Nobody's buying
Broadway tickets. This is a phenomenon that's been happening across
arts institutions. But what they don't realize is that the
reason why arts institutions are struggling is because the programming
is so far left and woke that it doesn't capture
(25:33):
the public's mind or corporate America, who should be funding
these things.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I do love, by the way, before you get back
to the ticket sales, Rick that they were like. The
question they asked me on CNN was, well, I mean,
what's next, You're going to put his name on the
Lincoln Memorial or the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument,
name of the Trump money. The level of Trump arrangement
syndrome over this is truly impressive.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah. Look, my reaction when I get that is, oh,
I think the Jefferson and the Lincoln and the Washington
have been maintained and so nobody needs to save them.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's a that's a great point. So you get there,
and I want to go back to ticket sales. That
was one of the big problems. The building had gone down,
the ticket sales had gone down. You guys inherited a disaster,
and deferred maintenance had never been done correct.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
And look, arts institutions are struggling with ticket sales, every
single one across them the country, and it's because most
of the arts institutions push programming that corporate America and
donors don't want to participate in. And so what we
did is we said to corporate America and to our donors,
you're never going to be embarrassed by what we're bringing.
(26:46):
It's going to be big, common sense programming. We're bringing.
We brought in Stuttgart Ballet, We're bringing in the Vienna Philharmonic,
We've got Chicago the Musical coming, we had Ley miz
We're doing the big cop and sense programming. We do
have a problem in that the left and Democrats are
boycotting it right now, which is unbelievable when you think
(27:09):
about boycotting an arts institution, because Republicans are putting money
into it. But we're not going to go backwards. We're
not going to go back to the days where we
can't pay our bills. And what I've decided to do
is not only look at ticket sales, because you can't
pay for programming with just ticket sales. We have nineteen
unions at the Trump Kennedy Center, and that makes every
(27:30):
programming extremely expensive. And so what I say is, between donors,
Corporate America and ticket sales, you got to get me
to revenue neutral in order to do these programs because
we can't go in debt by doing these things.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
I believe in arts education, and when we get a
little bit of money, we can do the niche programming
that educates people about the arts, new forms of art
that they haven't quite been accustomed to. But when you
have niche programming, ben you get big donors who say,
I believe in this, and I'm going to write you
a check.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
Right. That's my passion, right, that's my passion project, and
this is something that is so important to me. I
want to write a check because I think this should
be expanded and introduced to others. And that's exactly again,
how you run an essence and nonprofit you find people
that are passionate about it, which is something that I
had died at the Kenney Center with their funding.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
You can't pay someone one point four million dollars who
then tries to come up with some crazy programming like
an all lesbian cast of a Fellow. You can't do
programming like that because Corporate America says they're not coming.
But since we've been there and we've promised Corporate America
that it's big, common sense programming, we have seen fundraising
(28:48):
shoot through the roof. Again. We still have Democrats who
say we're boycotting with ticket sales, but an arts reporter
that covers you know, arts programming in Washington, d C.
They've never ever done a story about plummeting ticket sales
ever until we came. And then suddenly they are saying, oh, well,
(29:12):
ticket sales aren't doing well. Well, correct, but ticket sales
have been really dying, as the New York Times pointed out,
with Broadway and all arts institutions, they've been struggling. What
we have shown is that when you fix the programming,
Corporate America comes with really big checks, and then financially
you can if you're responsible with staffing you can do
(29:34):
the big programming and arts institutions can work. I think
this is an example. President Trump has given arts institutions
across the country an example be bipartisan fix the programming
so that you invite corporate America in and that is
how you're going to be able to have good theater
and good programming.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Well, let's talk about that quickly to by person aspect
of this, because I do think that's the part that's
really incredible. You're bringing in an amazing app that are nonpartisan
acts and the Democrats are refusing to show it because
they want this to fail. The same people that demand
more money for the arts. This is the biggest stage
for the arts, and they're saying no all because a
Republican is the one doing it. If that isn't the
(30:15):
definition of insanity and hypocrisy, I don't know what is.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Well I'll tell you one thing. This is a test
for Democrats because if they try and kill a bipartisan
arts institution like this by refusing to participate and refusing
to do ticket sales and refusing to do a long
term buying of tickets like through sponsorships, then they are
(30:39):
going to send the message to Republicans, you're not welcome
at arts institutions. They then will when Democrats take over Washington,
whenever that may be, they are going to make it
far left end and disinvite the Republicans, and we will
be back to arts institutions that pay one point four
million dollars in a salary with bloated bureaucracy and then
(31:04):
deferred maintenance problems. And look, when I arrived inn we
had no money in the bank zero. Today we're financially
doing really well, and we're paying back all of that
debt reserve and all of the moneies that we digged
in that we dug in and spent that we shouldn't
have been spending on Rick.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
It's an incredible success story. Congratulations. I look forward to
being at the Kennedy Center soon and what you guys
are doing is amazing and I can't wait take my
picture in front of a bipartisan sign with the last
name Trump and Kennedy on it. It's incredible, it really is.
And I hope everybody will grab this interview shared on
social media. You know the background now of the Trump
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.