October 2, 2025 • 20 mins
BEST OF - Ryan shares a fiery rant on America’s broken health care system as leaders weigh in on the government shutdown, National Correspondent Rory O’Neill delivers the latest on the shutdown, Elon Musk takes aim at Wikipedia, and White House Correspondent Jon Decker explains how this shutdown stacks up against past decades.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the Senate has denied both Democratic and GOP funding measures.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Again.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yesterday, lawmakers held the procedural vote on both bills. Both failed,
and because of a number of senators leaving town for
Young Kapor, the shutdown likely to last until at least tomorrow,
although I'd be pretty surprised if anything got done before
next week. The response from both sides of the shutdown
was what you'd expect. Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson placing
(00:26):
the blame for the shutdown on Democrats.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Democrats could have worked with us in a bio partisan
manner to avert this unnecessary and very harmful shutdown, but
instead they did something that is rather shocking to us.
They prioritized taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens over keeping
the government open for American citizens.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And here's House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, who placed the
blame on the GOP.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
At midnight, Donald Trump and Republicans shut the federal government
down because they don't want to provide healthcare.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
So working class.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
American Republican Senator Ted Cruz says, it's the Democrat's fault.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
The reason we're in the Schumer shutdown is that Schumer
and the Democrats have to show their base just how
much they hate Donald Trump, and so as a result,
they're taking it out on federal workers. They're taking out
on the American people by shutting the government down, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar says it's the Republican's fault. Because
Republicans refuse to come to the table and negotiate with Democrats,
Americans can suffer even more.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I mean, I could do this all day now.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Some members of Congress are asking for their salaries to
be withheld during the shutdown, including Ted Cruz, Tampa Bay
Area Congressman Gus Bill Iracus, and a few others. There's
a constitutional amendment that prevents creating a law automatically withholding
their pay when these shutdowns happen, but they should all
be asking for their salaries to be withheld, and for
most of them it's not gonna.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Matter any Yeah, they don't need it anyway. I think
have plenty of other money, So damn rich.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I do want to note Democrats are responsible for the shutdown,
and that's not even a difficult call to make.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They can claim the shutdown is necessary because the policy
change they're fighting for is that important, but Republicans weren't
looking to cut funding between now and the extended November
twenty first deadline. Democrats they could have kept the government
open and tried negotiating more between now and then. They
might not have gotten anywhere, but they had that option
(02:23):
and chose to shut things down instead. So I want
to spend a second on the issue at the center
of the shutdown because there are a lot of accusations
being made from both sides. Aside from Democrats wanting to
pick a big fight with Trump, which I think is
part of all of this. Republicans are saying that Democrats
(02:43):
want to give health care to illegal aliens. Democrats are
saying it's fake news. Illegal immigrants can't get access to Medicaid,
Medicare or Affordable Care Act subsidies. What's actually going on here,
and I'm going to simplify this as best I can.
Democrats want to end enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were put
in place during the pandemic for about twenty million Americans,
(03:06):
and they want to undo Medicaid cuts from Trump's One
Big Beautiful Bill that recently passed. Now, in the One
Big Beautiful Bill, coverage was narrowed for certain lawfully present immigrants,
I think refugees, SI Lee's parolees who had limited access
to it before. Democrats want to restore that coverage. So
(03:27):
the bottom line here, illegal immigrants can't access benefits from
federal health programs and they wouldn't be able to with
these changes. But some migrants here technically legally, based on
how the Biden administration handled things, they would get access
to coverage restored. Plus then you would have the subsidies
(03:50):
for citizens that would be extended. Now let's put the
issue of illegal immigrants aside for a second.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I'm not dismissing it.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
It's legit, and you know, billion of dollars would go
for again, those specific types of people who came here
to this country, refugees, a societies pearlis they would get
access to certain benefits. But there's something else I want
to focus on, because there's a bigger issue that nobody's
talking about or offering fixes for. Why is there such
(04:19):
a freak out among Democrats and even some Republicans about
those Affordable Care AC subsidies going away? Because if the
federal government doesn't provide that money to help people pay
for health insurance coverage, premiums are going to skyrocket for them,
that's a fact, but extending them that doesn't get to
(04:40):
the heart of the problem. The real problem is how
much healthcare continues to cost, and how much those costs
keep going up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It's like putting a band aid on a gunshot wound here.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
Oh yeah, it doesn't. It's not going to really help
the problems. Just kicking the can down the.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Road, right.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It also doesn't address the chaos that we all experience
when we're navigating our health care system. So let me
through my experience last week when I got sick and
I went to urgent care. So I get there and
asked for my insurance. I thought I still had Blue
Cross Blue Shield.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
So did I when I went to the doctor not
too long ago. Yes, apparently that's not the case. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I give them what I thought was my Blue Cross
Blue Shield card and they're like, that's your dental And
I'm like, wait, I thought my dental was like Delta
Dental or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
No, Now I have apparently United Healthcare for medical insurance,
Blue Cross Blue Shield for dental.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I didn't even Blue Cross did dental.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I had no idea. This was all news to me.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Luckily, the woman was extremely patient with me, so eventually
she gets it all figured out. I go in, I
get treated. I didn't pay anything. Yeah, that's the thing.
In a month, I'll probably get a bill because I
have a high deductible plan. How much my deductible is
it's it's high, or maybe the place was like at
(05:54):
a network or something, who knows. I'm sure a bill
is coming at some point. Then they prescribed me three
different things the present zone, which is amazing, Like I'm
flying high on.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
This stuff right now, good mood today, A.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Nose spray, and some like mouthwash thing like a rinse.
And I'm wondering if it's because they gave me a
strep test and I coughed and maybe they thought my
breath was really bad. They're like, this dude's got other
issues too, we need to prescribe this. But I go
to CVS, I pick it up. I don't really pay
much of anything for the like, I don't know how
(06:28):
all of this stuff works. Meanwhile, you've got these drug
company ads. I keep bitching about this. Every two seconds
on TV there's a new ad. And if you're somebody
that has that condition, you probably think Oh great, there's
a solution to this problem that's ailing me. Then you
go to your doctor, they prescribe it. Then it doesn't
get covered by your insurance. You try to pay for
it out of pocket. You got to take like a
(06:49):
loan out in order to do that, so you can't
get access to the medication. I mean, this whole thing,
it's just a giant disaster. And the confusion is the
point that that's what allows everybody to keep raking.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
In the money. Like nobody knows how to navigate, and.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Nobody and you don't know what anywhere you go, you
don't know car, you go to buy, clue, everything it's
got a price tag on. You go to the doctor,
you have no idea how much it's going.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
To cost, no clue. I don't know what the doctor.
They're probably charging as much as humanly possible. Insurance is
trying to prevent from paying that. They're trying to pay
as little as possible. There's a battle going on behind
the scenes. Who the hell knows what's going on that
whole system. Nobody's talking about that, right, That's why your premiums,
that's why your insurance is costing so much in the
(07:35):
first place, and nobody's looking to address it because it
would require difficult decisions that nobody wants to be responsible for.
You basically have to take this whole thing, toss it
in the trash and start over. I mean, the fact
that you've got people on employer insurance and then you've
got the private healthcare market and Medicare and medicaid, all
(07:55):
these different systems that you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I mean, just think about what we're talking about before.
My medical coverage is with one company, my dentals with another.
I don't even know what my vision is, I.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Mean, and you don't know, and you don't know what
it covers.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
No, I don't know what it covers.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And this is and we have like pretty good insurance
working here for iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, it's just that is the issue that nobody's.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Talking about with this battle, and that's the real problem.
And everybody listening right now, I'm sure has a gazillion
horror stories and can relate to all of this, But
just keep that in mind. While this battle is playing out,
you're not gonna hear anybody talking about that or proposing
any fixes to either side. This is just going to
keep continuing because you got big interests, you got the
insurance companies, you got all these the drug companies, the middleman,
(08:37):
the PBMs, all of them. Doctor. Yeah, they all have
a lot at stake here tied to this confusion, this chaotic, ridiculous, expensive,
inefficient system that we have in this country.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
All right, I'm gonna get off my soapbucks.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Now let's bring in our national correspondent, Roy O'Neil, who
supports brought to you by Mark Spain real Estate.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So Rory.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
The government shutdown continues, no progress. Yes, you've got a
number of senators out today because of Yum Kapor.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Doesn't seem like.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I mean, I'd be surprised if anything got resolved before
next week, could go you know, much longer. But I
think the very least we're heading into next week with
this shutdown. What are some of the storylines, some of
the updates that you've been following, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
I'd agree with that, because really they didn't make any
hay yesterday and some of the talks, and there really
haven't been any talks.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
It's because no.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
One's really being hurt right now, no one's feeling the
pain of this. I think they get to spout off
and give their different talking points whatever. But when you
start seeing you know, the wik program is running out
of money, or you know something being closed affected this
person in this way, you know, when you start feeling
the pain of the shutdown, then I think it's going
to be tougher for them to give their talking points.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think a couple of things. Let's talk about the
politics of all this for a moment. First of all,
I think this is a shutdown brought on by the Democrats.
Now they're going to argue that it's worthwhile to do this,
but the fact of the matter is, you had Republicans
offer up the same spending levels that we have been
(10:09):
experiencing for another month and a half, it would have
gotten us to November twenty first, providing more time for
negotiations than Democrats could say, Look, those negotiations weren't going
to go anywhere. The fact of the matter is you
could have tried, and you could have kept funding the
federal government, and then you could have had this fight,
you know, right before Thanksgiving if you want. So, this
is to me, the Democrats shut down. What I think
(10:32):
is interesting. I think Republicans are on solid ground right now.
But this idea that there are going to start to
be a bunch of mass firings. What the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget is looking to do.
There are some Republicans I saw yesterday who are a
little wary of that. It's almost like, we're we're kind
(10:54):
of winning the argument right now. Don't do anything to
take the attention way from the message that we have
that we're winning on. And there's some concern that if
you all of a sudden start firing all these federal employees,
that that becomes the story and not the fact that
the Democrats shut down the government.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Well, and when you fired them in my district right now,
that's probably exactly saw with the eight So they cut
eighteen billion dollars in approved spending for transportation projects to
New York City. Surprise, surprise, they're going after New York
and eighteen billion dollars, and well, Chuck Schumer's home state,
get it. But now you've got guys like Congressman Lawler,
(11:34):
sort of the guy who's in that very purple district,
saying you're killing me, right you know, well, what are
you doing to me? And so this has been one
of the issues. They also identified a bunch of energy
projects in sixteen different states. The sixteen states were all
won by Kamala Harris, you know, but again it's across
sixteen states, and Republicans are like, wait a minute, now,
(11:54):
you know, I sort of liked some of these projects,
and this is where you get the issue to your
point overplaying your hands, Yes, but I think what you
also have to look at is even if the Democrats win,
what do they get?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
They get the status quo?
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Right, So, even if they get the subsidies approved and
it's a trillion dollars and whatever, no one's going to say,
thank goodness, the Democrats whatever. They're just going to say, oh,
the bill only went up three percent this year, okay,
and move on.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
I don't think this is the w that the Democrats
think it is either, because all it does for most,
for the millions who rely on these subsidies is maintained
what they got.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and it very much looks like and I think
this is part of it. I think the healthcare issue,
it's not that it's a non issue. And I went
into this in depth in the last hour, including what
you know both sides are saying about the legal immigrants
getting healthcare and all that kind of stuff. We broke
all of that down. But while that is the issue
that's being brought up by Democrats, is the reason for
(12:53):
all of this? I think, look, common sense would tell you,
and just based on what we've seen over the past
couple of months since Trump was back in office, they
were looking for a big fight and this is that opportunity,
and there's pressure on them from the base to try
to take it to Trump, and so I think that's
playing a big role in all of this as well.
We're joined by our national correspondent Rory O'Neil. Let's talk
(13:13):
about Elon Musk targeting Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right, so this is being called Grockipedia.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
Remember that groc is AI, that for x that Musk
has been developing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
The anti Semitic AI. What is Grokipedia?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What is it going to when when you when you
go and look up Adolf Hitler on Grockipedia is going
to make excuses for him?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Is that what we're about to say?
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Well, yeah, they say they've addressed that issue, Okay, all right,
but their claim is that Wikipedia is Wikipedia, that they
don't allow conservative voices on Wikipedia. That you know, if
you go look up the January sixth articles, they're all
skewed for the liberals, and the list goes on and
on and on.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So Musk has long complained that Wikipedia.
Speaker 7 (13:59):
Favors many liberal voices, silencing conservatives.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Because Wikipedia is supposed to.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
Be all of us contributing to it, so that when
you figure if we all contribute, then it all sort
of evens out right, And that's the that's not the experience,
according to Musk, So he's developing Grockipedia. No timeline on
this when it might actually roll out, but he thinks
that at the if you instead just have the computer element,
you won't get all that that pesky human stuff in
(14:26):
there that could skew some of the articles.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
The problem is GROC has been I think the worst
of the AI models.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It's been.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's been awful on how it functions, in its inaccuracies
and in uh honestly, it's it's craziness, like you know,
it went off the rails, and.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
Like the encyclopedia of the Internet, I.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Don't know, and I constantly have issues with X.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I know, I sound like a broken record, but the
functionality of it, things don't work right. And then the
algorithm recently just showing me a bunch of crowd constantly
hitting this isn't relevant and I don't want to see this,
Like how is it not figured that out?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
By now?
Speaker 6 (15:08):
I told you what algorithms show show me on social media,
like just women with empress all the time, like not interested,
not interested.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Bad algorithm?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Why are we doing that?
Speaker 6 (15:20):
At first I thought that maybe it had to do
with like the Ryan Gorman show page or something that
you were looking at that and it was showing it
to me. But now it's on my data of a
gay page. It's just non stop women with huge, huge.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yes, did you hear the traffic report of the New
York station this week? I'll have to send you the
audience you didn't, Oh, yeah, you'll have to send it
to me. I'll send you that data. I didn't know
you were there. Congrats in the house.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Oh thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it's not home improvement stuff that she's getting.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
All I get a home all I get a home
inspection video.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
So that guy, you know, looking at the badly installed
insulation in the furnace like all the time. But there
it is all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Our national correspondent Rory O'Neil with us this morning. Rory,
thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Let's go back to the hoighline and bring in our
White House correspondent John Dekker. Now, so, John, you've covered
lots of government shutdowns over the years. How do you
compare this one to ones that we've seen in recent history.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Well, you're right about that, Ryan. This is actually the
thirtieth year that I've covered government shutdowns. I covered one
back in nineteen ninety five, my first government shutdown, Bill Clinton.
That's a big one, and Nu Kingrich and Bob Dole
were the big players at the time. That lasted all
the way into nineteen ninety six, so that was a
(16:39):
long one. And certainly I think the upshot of that
is that Democrats benefited from that shutdown politically, Republicans did
not this one. I think the messaging really favors Republicans,
for no one wants to see a government shutdown, and
all that Republicans have put on the table is what's
known as a clean continuing resolution that funds the government
(17:03):
for another seven weeks through November the twenty first. That
is something that Democrats have supported as recently as a
few months ago, and now they're not supporting it. So
it looks very political, and it does impact people, including
those that serve our country in uniform. They're not getting
paid during this government shutdown.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And also, we don't have time to get into the
weeds on this. I broke this down earlier in the show.
But I also think if Democrats had just focused in
on the enhanced Obamacare subsidies and what losing them could
do to premiums for a lot of Americans across the country,
including a lot of Americans in red states, that would
(17:41):
have been one thing. But once they ventured into Medicaid
territory and the one big beautiful bill and opened the
door for this debate over certain migrants, some who the
Trump administration classifies as illegal. They weren't classified that way
at the time. Once they opened that door, it muddied
(18:03):
up the message and I think it put them into
disadvantage there too.
Speaker 8 (18:07):
Oh, I agree with you absolutely. And what I heard
yesterday from the Vice President he came into the briefing
room rare appearance for him, is that he actually expressed
optimism that this will be a relatively short government shutdown.
The last one was during President Trump's first term that
lasted thirty five days. This one, you know, based upon
(18:28):
what the Vice President said yesterday, it could last you know,
a week, two weeks tops, But it really depends upon
Democrats realizing that this is not working for them politically,
and the midterms are next year. You don't want to
get blamed for this. And already three senators that vote
with Democrats had said, you know, let's just keep the
(18:48):
government open. We can argue about these issues at another time,
and we'll see if other debit Democrats join with their
those three colleagues in terms of passing this continuing which
would keep the government open through November twenty First.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Last thing, real quick, these potential mass firings that Trump
administration is looking at. Could we see that begin to
roll out in the next day or two We.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
Could, you know, based upon what the White House Budget
Director has been saying to members of Congress, You've been
consulting with them. So that is also something that needs
to be considered if you're a Democrat and trying to
find an off ramp here to find a compromise to
avoid more pain that's already happening right now with the
(19:34):
federal workforce. This would cause even more pain if you're
talking about not just furloughs. Yeah, furlows you're coming back
to work, but actual layoffs in which you're handed at
pink slip. So we'll see if that factors into their negotiations.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Our White House correspondent John Decker with us this morning. John,
thanks so much, really appreciate it. Thank you, and don't forget.
You can listen to John on the White House Briefing
Room podcast. You can find that on iHeartRadio. Utah Senator
Mike Lee had an interesting comment about Russ Vote, who
runs the Office of Management Budget and has been threatening
these mass firings tied to the shutdown. He said, Russ
(20:08):
has been dreaming about this moment to be able to
reduce the federal workforce like this since puberty.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Okay, that's what he was dreaming about in puberty. That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, so very passionate issue for Russ's vote.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
It's a Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio FLA
So the Senate has denied both Democratic and GOP funding measures.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Again.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Yesterday, lawmakers held the procedural vote on both bills. Both failed,
and because of a number of senators leaving town for
Young Kapor, the shutdown likely to last until at least tomorrow,
although I'd be pretty surprised if anything got done before
next week. The response from both sides of the shutdown
was what you'd expect. Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson placing
(00:26):
the blame for the shutdown on Democrats.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Democrats could have worked with us in a bio partisan
manner to avert this unnecessary and very harmful shutdown, but
instead they did something that is rather shocking to us.
They prioritized taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens over keeping
the government open for American citizens.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And here's House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, who placed the
blame on the GOP.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
At midnight, Donald Trump and Republicans shut the federal government
down because they don't want to provide healthcare.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
So working class.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
American Republican Senator Ted Cruz says, it's the Democrat's fault.
Speaker 5 (01:07):
The reason we're in the Schumer shutdown is that Schumer
and the Democrats have to show their base just how
much they hate Donald Trump, and so as a result,
they're taking it out on federal workers. They're taking out
on the American people by shutting the government down, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar says it's the Republican's fault. Because
Republicans refuse to come to the table and negotiate with Democrats,
Americans can suffer even more.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I mean, I could do this all day now.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Some members of Congress are asking for their salaries to
be withheld during the shutdown, including Ted Cruz, Tampa Bay
Area Congressman Gus Bill Iracus, and a few others. There's
a constitutional amendment that prevents creating a law automatically withholding
their pay when these shutdowns happen, but they should all
be asking for their salaries to be withheld, and for
most of them it's not gonna.
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Matter any Yeah, they don't need it anyway. I think
have plenty of other money, So damn rich.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
I do want to note Democrats are responsible for the shutdown,
and that's not even a difficult call to make.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
They can claim the shutdown is necessary because the policy
change they're fighting for is that important, but Republicans weren't
looking to cut funding between now and the extended November
twenty first deadline. Democrats they could have kept the government
open and tried negotiating more between now and then. They
might not have gotten anywhere, but they had that option
(02:23):
and chose to shut things down instead. So I want
to spend a second on the issue at the center
of the shutdown because there are a lot of accusations
being made from both sides. Aside from Democrats wanting to
pick a big fight with Trump, which I think is
part of all of this. Republicans are saying that Democrats
(02:43):
want to give health care to illegal aliens. Democrats are
saying it's fake news. Illegal immigrants can't get access to Medicaid,
Medicare or Affordable Care Act subsidies. What's actually going on here,
and I'm going to simplify this as best I can.
Democrats want to end enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were put
in place during the pandemic for about twenty million Americans,
(03:06):
and they want to undo Medicaid cuts from Trump's One
Big Beautiful Bill that recently passed. Now, in the One
Big Beautiful Bill, coverage was narrowed for certain lawfully present immigrants,
I think refugees, SI Lee's parolees who had limited access
to it before. Democrats want to restore that coverage. So
(03:27):
the bottom line here, illegal immigrants can't access benefits from
federal health programs and they wouldn't be able to with
these changes. But some migrants here technically legally, based on
how the Biden administration handled things, they would get access
to coverage restored. Plus then you would have the subsidies
(03:50):
for citizens that would be extended. Now let's put the
issue of illegal immigrants aside for a second.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I'm not dismissing it.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
It's legit, and you know, billion of dollars would go
for again, those specific types of people who came here
to this country, refugees, a societies pearlis they would get
access to certain benefits. But there's something else I want
to focus on, because there's a bigger issue that nobody's
talking about or offering fixes for. Why is there such
(04:19):
a freak out among Democrats and even some Republicans about
those Affordable Care AC subsidies going away? Because if the
federal government doesn't provide that money to help people pay
for health insurance coverage, premiums are going to skyrocket for them,
that's a fact, but extending them that doesn't get to
(04:40):
the heart of the problem. The real problem is how
much healthcare continues to cost, and how much those costs
keep going up.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
It's like putting a band aid on a gunshot wound here.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
Oh yeah, it doesn't. It's not going to really help
the problems. Just kicking the can down the.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Road, right.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
It also doesn't address the chaos that we all experience
when we're navigating our health care system. So let me
through my experience last week when I got sick and
I went to urgent care. So I get there and
asked for my insurance. I thought I still had Blue
Cross Blue Shield.
Speaker 6 (05:08):
So did I when I went to the doctor not
too long ago. Yes, apparently that's not the case. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
I give them what I thought was my Blue Cross
Blue Shield card and they're like, that's your dental And
I'm like, wait, I thought my dental was like Delta
Dental or something like that.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
No, Now I have apparently United Healthcare for medical insurance,
Blue Cross Blue Shield for dental.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
I didn't even Blue Cross did dental.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
I had no idea. This was all news to me.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Luckily, the woman was extremely patient with me, so eventually
she gets it all figured out. I go in, I
get treated. I didn't pay anything. Yeah, that's the thing.
In a month, I'll probably get a bill because I
have a high deductible plan. How much my deductible is
it's it's high, or maybe the place was like at
(05:54):
a network or something, who knows. I'm sure a bill
is coming at some point. Then they prescribed me three
different things the present zone, which is amazing, Like I'm
flying high on.
Speaker 6 (06:04):
This stuff right now, good mood today, A.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Nose spray, and some like mouthwash thing like a rinse.
And I'm wondering if it's because they gave me a
strep test and I coughed and maybe they thought my
breath was really bad. They're like, this dude's got other
issues too, we need to prescribe this. But I go
to CVS, I pick it up. I don't really pay
much of anything for the like, I don't know how
(06:28):
all of this stuff works. Meanwhile, you've got these drug
company ads. I keep bitching about this. Every two seconds
on TV there's a new ad. And if you're somebody
that has that condition, you probably think Oh great, there's
a solution to this problem that's ailing me. Then you
go to your doctor, they prescribe it. Then it doesn't
get covered by your insurance. You try to pay for
it out of pocket. You got to take like a
(06:49):
loan out in order to do that, so you can't
get access to the medication. I mean, this whole thing,
it's just a giant disaster. And the confusion is the
point that that's what allows everybody to keep raking.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
In the money. Like nobody knows how to navigate, and.
Speaker 6 (07:05):
Nobody and you don't know what anywhere you go, you
don't know car, you go to buy, clue, everything it's
got a price tag on. You go to the doctor,
you have no idea how much it's going.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
To cost, no clue. I don't know what the doctor.
They're probably charging as much as humanly possible. Insurance is
trying to prevent from paying that. They're trying to pay
as little as possible. There's a battle going on behind
the scenes. Who the hell knows what's going on that
whole system. Nobody's talking about that, right, That's why your premiums,
that's why your insurance is costing so much in the
(07:35):
first place, and nobody's looking to address it because it
would require difficult decisions that nobody wants to be responsible for.
You basically have to take this whole thing, toss it
in the trash and start over. I mean, the fact
that you've got people on employer insurance and then you've
got the private healthcare market and Medicare and medicaid, all
(07:55):
these different systems that you're doing.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
I mean, just think about what we're talking about before.
My medical coverage is with one company, my dentals with another.
I don't even know what my vision is, I.
Speaker 6 (08:03):
Mean, and you don't know, and you don't know what
it covers.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
No, I don't know what it covers.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And this is and we have like pretty good insurance
working here for iHeartMedia.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, it's just that is the issue that nobody's.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Talking about with this battle, and that's the real problem.
And everybody listening right now, I'm sure has a gazillion
horror stories and can relate to all of this, But
just keep that in mind. While this battle is playing out,
you're not gonna hear anybody talking about that or proposing
any fixes to either side. This is just going to
keep continuing because you got big interests, you got the
insurance companies, you got all these the drug companies, the middleman,
(08:37):
the PBMs, all of them. Doctor. Yeah, they all have
a lot at stake here tied to this confusion, this chaotic, ridiculous, expensive,
inefficient system that we have in this country.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
All right, I'm gonna get off my soapbucks.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Now let's bring in our national correspondent, Roy O'Neil, who
supports brought to you by Mark Spain real Estate.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
So Rory.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
The government shutdown continues, no progress. Yes, you've got a
number of senators out today because of Yum Kapor.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Doesn't seem like.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I mean, I'd be surprised if anything got resolved before
next week, could go you know, much longer. But I
think the very least we're heading into next week with
this shutdown. What are some of the storylines, some of
the updates that you've been following, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
I'd agree with that, because really they didn't make any
hay yesterday and some of the talks, and there really
haven't been any talks.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
It's because no.
Speaker 7 (09:27):
One's really being hurt right now, no one's feeling the
pain of this. I think they get to spout off
and give their different talking points whatever. But when you
start seeing you know, the wik program is running out
of money, or you know something being closed affected this
person in this way, you know, when you start feeling
the pain of the shutdown, then I think it's going
to be tougher for them to give their talking points.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
I think a couple of things. Let's talk about the
politics of all this for a moment. First of all,
I think this is a shutdown brought on by the Democrats.
Now they're going to argue that it's worthwhile to do this,
but the fact of the matter is, you had Republicans
offer up the same spending levels that we have been
(10:09):
experiencing for another month and a half, it would have
gotten us to November twenty first, providing more time for
negotiations than Democrats could say, Look, those negotiations weren't going
to go anywhere. The fact of the matter is you
could have tried, and you could have kept funding the
federal government, and then you could have had this fight,
you know, right before Thanksgiving if you want. So, this
is to me, the Democrats shut down. What I think
(10:32):
is interesting. I think Republicans are on solid ground right now.
But this idea that there are going to start to
be a bunch of mass firings. What the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget is looking to do.
There are some Republicans I saw yesterday who are a
little wary of that. It's almost like, we're we're kind
(10:54):
of winning the argument right now. Don't do anything to
take the attention way from the message that we have
that we're winning on. And there's some concern that if
you all of a sudden start firing all these federal employees,
that that becomes the story and not the fact that
the Democrats shut down the government.
Speaker 7 (11:13):
Well, and when you fired them in my district right now,
that's probably exactly saw with the eight So they cut
eighteen billion dollars in approved spending for transportation projects to
New York City. Surprise, surprise, they're going after New York
and eighteen billion dollars, and well, Chuck Schumer's home state,
get it. But now you've got guys like Congressman Lawler,
(11:34):
sort of the guy who's in that very purple district,
saying you're killing me, right you know, well, what are
you doing to me? And so this has been one
of the issues. They also identified a bunch of energy
projects in sixteen different states. The sixteen states were all
won by Kamala Harris, you know, but again it's across
sixteen states, and Republicans are like, wait a minute, now,
(11:54):
you know, I sort of liked some of these projects,
and this is where you get the issue to your
point overplaying your hands, Yes, but I think what you
also have to look at is even if the Democrats win,
what do they get?
Speaker 4 (12:08):
They get the status quo?
Speaker 7 (12:11):
Right, So, even if they get the subsidies approved and
it's a trillion dollars and whatever, no one's going to say,
thank goodness, the Democrats whatever. They're just going to say, oh,
the bill only went up three percent this year, okay,
and move on.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Right.
Speaker 7 (12:23):
I don't think this is the w that the Democrats
think it is either, because all it does for most,
for the millions who rely on these subsidies is maintained
what they got.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Yeah, and it very much looks like and I think
this is part of it. I think the healthcare issue,
it's not that it's a non issue. And I went
into this in depth in the last hour, including what
you know both sides are saying about the legal immigrants
getting healthcare and all that kind of stuff. We broke
all of that down. But while that is the issue
that's being brought up by Democrats, is the reason for
(12:53):
all of this? I think, look, common sense would tell you,
and just based on what we've seen over the past
couple of months since Trump was back in office, they
were looking for a big fight and this is that opportunity,
and there's pressure on them from the base to try
to take it to Trump, and so I think that's
playing a big role in all of this as well.
We're joined by our national correspondent Rory O'Neil. Let's talk
(13:13):
about Elon Musk targeting Wikipedia.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
Right, so this is being called Grockipedia.
Speaker 7 (13:21):
Remember that groc is AI, that for x that Musk
has been developing.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
The anti Semitic AI. What is Grokipedia?
Speaker 1 (13:29):
What is it going to when when you when you
go and look up Adolf Hitler on Grockipedia is going
to make excuses for him?
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Is that what we're about to say?
Speaker 7 (13:37):
Well, yeah, they say they've addressed that issue, Okay, all right,
but their claim is that Wikipedia is Wikipedia, that they
don't allow conservative voices on Wikipedia. That you know, if
you go look up the January sixth articles, they're all
skewed for the liberals, and the list goes on and
on and on.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
So Musk has long complained that Wikipedia.
Speaker 7 (13:59):
Favors many liberal voices, silencing conservatives.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Because Wikipedia is supposed to.
Speaker 7 (14:04):
Be all of us contributing to it, so that when
you figure if we all contribute, then it all sort
of evens out right, And that's the that's not the experience,
according to Musk, So he's developing Grockipedia. No timeline on
this when it might actually roll out, but he thinks
that at the if you instead just have the computer element,
you won't get all that that pesky human stuff in
(14:26):
there that could skew some of the articles.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
The problem is GROC has been I think the worst
of the AI models.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
It's been.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
It's been awful on how it functions, in its inaccuracies
and in uh honestly, it's it's craziness, like you know,
it went off the rails, and.
Speaker 6 (14:47):
Like the encyclopedia of the Internet, I.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Don't know, and I constantly have issues with X.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I know, I sound like a broken record, but the
functionality of it, things don't work right. And then the
algorithm recently just showing me a bunch of crowd constantly
hitting this isn't relevant and I don't want to see this,
Like how is it not figured that out?
Speaker 2 (15:07):
By now?
Speaker 6 (15:08):
I told you what algorithms show show me on social media,
like just women with empress all the time, like not interested,
not interested.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Bad algorithm?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Why are we doing that?
Speaker 6 (15:20):
At first I thought that maybe it had to do
with like the Ryan Gorman show page or something that
you were looking at that and it was showing it
to me. But now it's on my data of a
gay page. It's just non stop women with huge, huge.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yes, did you hear the traffic report of the New
York station this week? I'll have to send you the
audience you didn't, Oh, yeah, you'll have to send it
to me. I'll send you that data. I didn't know
you were there. Congrats in the house.
Speaker 6 (15:44):
Oh thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Yeah, it's not home improvement stuff that she's getting.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
All I get a home all I get a home
inspection video.
Speaker 7 (15:52):
So that guy, you know, looking at the badly installed
insulation in the furnace like all the time. But there
it is all the time.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Our national correspondent Rory O'Neil with us this morning. Rory,
thanks so much.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Thanks guys.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Let's go back to the hoighline and bring in our
White House correspondent John Dekker. Now, so, John, you've covered
lots of government shutdowns over the years. How do you
compare this one to ones that we've seen in recent history.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Well, you're right about that, Ryan. This is actually the
thirtieth year that I've covered government shutdowns. I covered one
back in nineteen ninety five, my first government shutdown, Bill Clinton.
That's a big one, and Nu Kingrich and Bob Dole
were the big players at the time. That lasted all
the way into nineteen ninety six, so that was a
(16:39):
long one. And certainly I think the upshot of that
is that Democrats benefited from that shutdown politically, Republicans did
not this one. I think the messaging really favors Republicans,
for no one wants to see a government shutdown, and
all that Republicans have put on the table is what's
known as a clean continuing resolution that funds the government
(17:03):
for another seven weeks through November the twenty first. That
is something that Democrats have supported as recently as a
few months ago, and now they're not supporting it. So
it looks very political, and it does impact people, including
those that serve our country in uniform. They're not getting
paid during this government shutdown.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And also, we don't have time to get into the
weeds on this. I broke this down earlier in the show.
But I also think if Democrats had just focused in
on the enhanced Obamacare subsidies and what losing them could
do to premiums for a lot of Americans across the country,
including a lot of Americans in red states, that would
(17:41):
have been one thing. But once they ventured into Medicaid
territory and the one big beautiful bill and opened the
door for this debate over certain migrants, some who the
Trump administration classifies as illegal. They weren't classified that way
at the time. Once they opened that door, it muddied
(18:03):
up the message and I think it put them into
disadvantage there too.
Speaker 8 (18:07):
Oh, I agree with you absolutely. And what I heard
yesterday from the Vice President he came into the briefing
room rare appearance for him, is that he actually expressed
optimism that this will be a relatively short government shutdown.
The last one was during President Trump's first term that
lasted thirty five days. This one, you know, based upon
(18:28):
what the Vice President said yesterday, it could last you know,
a week, two weeks tops, But it really depends upon
Democrats realizing that this is not working for them politically,
and the midterms are next year. You don't want to
get blamed for this. And already three senators that vote
with Democrats had said, you know, let's just keep the
(18:48):
government open. We can argue about these issues at another time,
and we'll see if other debit Democrats join with their
those three colleagues in terms of passing this continuing which
would keep the government open through November twenty First.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Last thing, real quick, these potential mass firings that Trump
administration is looking at. Could we see that begin to
roll out in the next day or two We.
Speaker 8 (19:14):
Could, you know, based upon what the White House Budget
Director has been saying to members of Congress, You've been
consulting with them. So that is also something that needs
to be considered if you're a Democrat and trying to
find an off ramp here to find a compromise to
avoid more pain that's already happening right now with the
(19:34):
federal workforce. This would cause even more pain if you're
talking about not just furloughs. Yeah, furlows you're coming back
to work, but actual layoffs in which you're handed at
pink slip. So we'll see if that factors into their negotiations.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Our White House correspondent John Decker with us this morning. John,
thanks so much, really appreciate it. Thank you, and don't forget.
You can listen to John on the White House Briefing
Room podcast. You can find that on iHeartRadio. Utah Senator
Mike Lee had an interesting comment about Russ Vote, who
runs the Office of Management Budget and has been threatening
these mass firings tied to the shutdown. He said, Russ
(20:08):
has been dreaming about this moment to be able to
reduce the federal workforce like this since puberty.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
Okay, that's what he was dreaming about in puberty. That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Yeah, so very passionate issue for Russ's vote.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
It's a Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio FLA
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