May 26, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 4 of the Monday, May 26,2025 A&G Replay contains:
- Joe New Political Parties & Biden Cancer Farce
- Need Brown People
- Craig Gottwals
- CA Bullet Train Locations
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Ketty.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Armstrong and Getty and he.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Armstrong and Getty Strong. A new week headed into Memorial Day.
This could be a big week for your life today.
Today you're under the tutelage of our general manager.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
The Republican Party, both Houses of Congress and the White House.
And they're going to grow the DEAFA sets and leave
bloated entitlements alone. What's the point anymore? Wow, I'm forming
a new political party. I've given up. Wow, coming out
of angry hot on a Monday exactly well offended, righteously angry.
(01:05):
Not like I lost my temper because I'm drunk angry.
No righteous indignation. It's a stupidity, that hypocrisy, the lack
of principle. I got three names a new party, So
not I lost my temper because I'm drunk angry, Like
that's the only other golf shot. Now I'm helicoptering my
(01:25):
club angry. No, this is righteous, biblical anger. How about
how about the door dash was so slow? By the
time the yogurt got to me, it was all melted
angry which I had. Yet that's legit to me. I
mean that pays for yogurt, you know, I expects it
to be nice and chili. All right, So I got
three possible names for a new political party.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I assume you'll join me on this question.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Angrytarians referencing my being pissed off enough is Enoughocrats?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Or finally, f y'all, that's pretty good too.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'd wear that T shirt and whatever the flag looks like,
I'm flying it in the back of my truck.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
F yolikins.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I thought the general manager would be Joe Biden's prostate.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, no, an old man has cancer. It's no humor there.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's just terrible. Doesn't have to be humorous. It's just
a big news story I adopted for Humer. I'll tell
you something though, interesting wrinkle on this that just happened,
and I want to get to it before you hear
somewhere else. Do tell that came up on Morning Joe
with Joe Scarborough and he didn't state it outright, but
(02:42):
he was.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Certainly hinting at it strongly.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
So it turns out according to the doctor they had, Well,
there's a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I can say about this as a guy who had cancer.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
The reporting on everything that happens in the mainstream news
is so horrible, but as usual that there there are
a number of things I keep hearing over and over again.
They keep saying an aggressive cancer as if that absolutely
means something, and it doesn't at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Having had concert and talk to doctors before, uh, back
in the.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Day, many many many years ago, in general, aggressive was
bad and not aggressive was good, but not anymore. My
cancer was worse because it was not aggressive, because I
found fascinating at the time. Yeah, because it wouldn't take
the bait, as my doctor said, you're trying to poison
the cancer with the chemotherapy, and it wouldn't take the bait,
like trying to catch a rat with you know, brat poison.
(03:34):
It wouldn't take the bait because it was so slow
moving and aggressive cancer. He told me, well, grasp on
to the we're gonna get you, and grasp on to
the poison and die faster. So often that is better,
so that that using that word every single time in
every story is meaningless.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So there you go, let's start there. I'm exciting.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But the interesting thing is that I learned from from
Scarborough's show today, and again this is what they kept
hitting at.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
He's had it for probably.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
A decade at least through his presidency, absolutely minimum several years,
but probably a decade.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And it's impossible they either.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Well almost certainly, they just didn't test for it, or
or or just didn't do anything and or just kept
it quiet, because, as we've said many times, the president
decides what to reveal from that presidential exam, what not
to reveal it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It is the ultimate.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
This tells us nothing possible that they did that, although
you had had to kept it, keep it quiet.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Every year for many, many, many years.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I mean, because the president, you know, gets a yearly
physical and everything like that, And did he get tested
for it every year and keep it quiet throughout his
entire presidency, probably years before his presidency so that he
could maybe run again or whatever, or or this is
what I think Scarborough was him. It's just his overall
medical health, including his brain.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
They just didn't test for things.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They just didn't ask any questions about anything because it
was all gonna be bad news and they didn't want
to have to discuss anything, so better just to not know.
I think that is by far the most likely theory,
and I hate to steal the thunder of our own featurette,
but we got this note from Jacob that I was
going to include in mailbag. Later on in the hour,
he says, Hey, guys, do you remember that speech where
(05:28):
President Biden randomly said I just found I have out
I have cancer or something like that. Then he moved
on and nobody commented on it in the White House
right town?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, that's right, although he accidentally let it slip. Although
there's no way he just found out he had cancer
because he's had it for a very very long time.
But Christmas they just gave him a PSA test for
the first time ever. Possibly although we're going to play
some of the her tapes later. He didn't know when
he was president or vice president or when his sun
(06:00):
died by years, So him saying I just found out
I got cancer, Who knows what that means. That could
have been him remembering from ten years ago. But I'm
talking about his brain. The fact that you know him
having prostate cancer and hiding it or whatever. I find
that kind of a non.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Story actually, But the fact that it fits in with.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Just the overall ignoring everything about his body and brain.
I think got pretty interesting, oh on how widespread the
knowledge was. And I've read a great piece we'll share
it with you later about why this all matters.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
This is not just looking in the rear view mirror
and kicking Democrats for the fun of it. This is
one of the great cover ups in American history.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
All Right.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Mark Alper keeps making it about the media, which I
think is a good thing. It's the biggest failure of
the media ever. Period. I don't know what second place
would be biggest failure of the media period. And again,
I just think it's mostly interesting from me hiding his
brain thing.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And over the weekend, Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, who's.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
The guy they always quoted in the Washington Post, senior man,
We had him on the show when we were out
there in U Chicago. Dad Balls, like some of the
biggest heavyweight hitters wrote some major pieces over this weekend
about how awful it is that this was hidden for
all this time, kind of like they're discovering it, which
is weird but shocking. I mean, it really comes to
(07:29):
the top of everybody's consciousness as a what the hell
sort of story right, Well, more on that later. It's
just it's absolutely amazing. But wow, so I wonder, see
he got crazy Jill involved. You got to go to
crazy Jill and the artist Hunter who's also crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
They might have just been saying, no, Dad, honey, no tests.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Let's just do no tests, no tests about anything, and
then then we don't have to lie, and then we
can just go out there and say everything fine. It
is gratifying and somewhat shocking to look back and see
how right we were about all of this, not that
we had any unique knowledge. Look at the polls at
the time. And I say this not to pat ourselves
on the back, but virtually everything we said about Jill
(08:17):
is the.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Evil doer in this. You can tell doctor Jill not
a real doctor.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Oh she's a crazy person.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
She's say for real crazy person. Yes, she is absolutely unhinged.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But everybody in the cabinet who knew and was silence
or denied it vociferously. Chuck Schumer, who's a congenital liar.
I don't know why anybody ever listens to him on
any topic. He couldn't tell the truth unless he accidentally
did it. You know, mayor Pete. You know, all of
these people who continue to be significant to you know,
(08:49):
persons in American politics.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
We cannot just let them get away with it. They
should never be in office again. They should never be
entrusted with power again. God, who's the guy I don't
remember his name, Democrat.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
He's the chair of the Armed Services Committee, like you know,
a big committee. Never talked to Joe Biden once, right,
which is just incredible. Well because he in previous administrations
that regularly talked to the president as the head of
the important Defense Committee.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, of course you would. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So anyway, there's a lot on that and Joe Biden's prostect.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You know, I hope they get him a treatment and
he's fine and all that.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Oh he's come on, he's on D S D anyway,
true that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Yeah, more Jack Morgoe.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Podcasts and our hotlinks, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You say a lot that's in some of your song lyrics.
You want to tell us what it.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Is to.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
U Mia, it means either live your culture or you
kill your culture.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And there's no in between. So I'm going to get
up every day and I'm going to live my culture today?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
What was that nonsense? He was muttering in the middle.
That was French, Jack, it's a language. That was Jordan Thibodeau,
who was featured on sixty Minutes as part of a
really interesting segment about essentially Cajun and similar music in
that culture. I thought that was a really interesting statement,
you either live your culture or kill your culture, especially
(10:31):
because I was corresponding with a friend of mine about
my upcoming trip to London with my bride and he
sent along some commentary about.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Have you been brushing up in your English to get
ready for it?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Hilarious, And it was a commentary on how Britain and Europe,
having permitted rampant immigration that nobody voted for but the
elite wanted, had caused enormous dislocating cultural problems. And it's
something we've talked about several times. But and pointing out
that like the mayors of most of the big cities
(11:05):
in Britain are all Muslims, inexplicably because they're still a
fairly small minority, but there are hundreds of Sharia councils,
in Sharia courts and the rest of it in Britain.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And I found that really intriguing.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Which way to Buckingham Palace right over there?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Which way over there? Over there? Why are you talking
like that?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So I was for whatever reason that came within twenty
four hours of hearing mister Thibadeau talking about you live
your culture or you kill your culture. I always remember
when I read the giant biography of Pope John Paul
the Second, he was constantly saying languages culture, talking about
that it is they travel together, they just do.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And if the language dies out, that culture has died out.
And if you can and.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
That's why, that's why Russia goes in and forces people
to speak Russian various languages in various areas because use China.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah, you dare speak one of your ethnic languages in China,
you will be hauled into re education. That's why it's
so hilarious that we're so willing in the United States
to like turn over giant swaths of the country to
another language. We just put up signs in that language,
start putting things in that language and say that's fine,
we don't care, we don't need to hang on to
our language. Well exactly, you called it funny, and I
(12:30):
get you're being kind of ironic, but I was just
going to say it is one of the more horrifying
and obscene things I've observed in my life that we
of the West Europe, in the United States and Canada,
primarily the English speaking world and Europe have been convinced
that we have the one culture that not only is
(12:53):
not beautiful and worth preserving or awesome or successful or whatever,
but it's evil and we deserve to have it stamped out.
And anybody who doesn't participate in that stamping out enthusiastically
is an awful person and should be shamed or forced
out of their job or what have you. And you know,
(13:14):
if you just look at England, never mind the United States,
look at England. They've practically brought us democracy. It's existed
in different forms in different places, but my god, the
Magna Carta and the emergence of the Parliament as a
counter to the king and working with the monarch and
just over hundreds of years hammering out the details of
(13:36):
how does a people self govern hm and then that
giving birth to the United States. I mean, you want
to talk about a culture worth being proud of and preserving.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
About British culture, and it's off shoots.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So you have more you want to say on that
topic before I get to my next This all came
together like in the last three minutes in my head.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So why would those who were browbeating us to flush
our own culture down the toilet, hate our own history,
hate our own people?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Why would they do that?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I think a lot of you are probably a little
bit ahead of me at this point. But I came
across this this morning. It's a piece in the National
Review and let's see. Oh, it's by the notorious MBD
Michael Brendan Doherty, who came across some audio of Hillary Clinton,
of all people, doing an interview at one of those
never ending Look how smart and cool and rich we
(14:33):
are speech athons.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
God who goes to those things? Well, it's a certain
class of people, but I've never heard of most of
these things.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
This is the ninety two and Why, part of the
Newmark Civic Life series. Oh yeah, the ninety two Street
Why is a huge deal in New York. If you're important,
they have those all the time with Yeah, I see
those on YouTube videos regularly.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I've never been so. Hillary was jabbering about.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
She launched into the screen and the audio, but it's
better to shorten it because, you know, ramble a little bit.
She launched into this mocking the idea of the Trump
administration or anybody else trying to get Americans to have
more babies, and she's right in that it's ultimately going
to fail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
But she launches into a screed in which she says.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
The quiet part out loud that the progressive, the affluent
progressive lifestyle, however you want to describe it, lifestyle liberalism,
certain forms of feminism. It's the privilege of affluent Americans
and is supported by mass immigration, legal and illegal. Progressivism
(15:44):
is not economically or socially sustainable, except if we import
brown people and foreign people. She said, it's crazy trying
to make America great again by returning to lifestyles and
the economic arrangements of not just the fifth I mean,
let's keep going back as far as we can. The
nuclear family returned to being a Christian nation, a return
(16:06):
to producing a lot of children.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
These are quotes, even though she says they alleged.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Particularly offended her throwing out the nuclear family as something
to give up on easily. Wow. Then she takes a
shot of Republicans say that they have no interest in
paid family leave or funding quality childcare, their cutting head start.
But she said, it's sort of odd because the people
who produce the most children in our country are immigrants,
and they want to deport them.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
None of this adds up. This is all a quote.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
In fact, one of the reasons why our economy did
so much better than comparable advanced economies across the world
is because we had lots of immigrants, legally and undocumented,
who had a larger than normal by American standards family. So,
quoting Doherty, taken together, Clinton says that immigrants make the
American lifestyle of today add up in part because of
their higher birth rates. And she's right, although he later
(16:56):
points out within two generations, certainly three, immigrant birth rates
plunge down to Native American birth rate. Also to point
out the reality, any neighborhood you ever lived in, Hillary
become primarily a different language speaking in the restaurant you
used to go to, become a food and language that
you don't know in your school. The teachers she couldn't
learn in schools because there are so many languages. When
(17:19):
you go to the emergency room, a lot, a lot
of Spanish speaking or whatever. That really slows things down
that it doesn't happen to you. It's funny, it happens
everybody else.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
See Armstrong and Getty Show, Yeah or Jack your show
podcasts and our hot links the arm Strong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
They literally are trying to take healthcare away from millions
of Americans at this very moment in the dead of night.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Oh my god, Oh my god. It's a party of monsters.
That's why they're having a republic wells, they're monsters. That's
why they're having the one am vote tonight on the
big beautiful bill to try to slide through in the
darken night, the cutting back on Medicaid, and so the
Republicans who are actual vampires can come out to vote too,
(18:17):
because you know, the sun is down. So Craig Gottwalls
originally Craig the Obamacare lawyer, because when Obamacare was in
the works and passed, Craig would talk to us about it,
longtime friend of the show, and everything he said was true,
and virtually everything he predicted happened, in contrast to most
of the coverage of it, which was garbage. Well, Craig
is now Craig the healthcare guru, and we're going to
(18:39):
talk a little bit about Medicaid, among other things. Craig Gottwals,
how are you, Craig, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
How are you, gentlemen? Terrific? Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So what do you make of Hakeem Jeffrey's quote there
and what is the reality of medicaid?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Well, it underscores just how we can give anything to
the government. This is this is why we can't have
nice things. Right. So, in nineteen sixty five, the federal
government passed Medicaran Medicaid, and specifically with respect to Medicaid,
the whole idea was, man, we need a safety net
for like single moms with disabled children who are falling
(19:20):
through the cracks. We need we need this, this mechanism
to just capture the most disadvantaged among us, to help
them out and to give them to give them a lift. Right,
So we did. And back when this was passed in
nineteen sixty five, it was designed to cover two percent
of Americans two percent. Today it covers one in three
(19:43):
Americans and forty one percent of all babies burst in our.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Country, whoa forty one percent of babies born.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So originally forty one line, the disabled, the utterly unable
to help themselves, and now it is approaching half of us.
Is that because we we have so many more single
moms with blowing babies?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Or what does that happen?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well, you know, you get you know better than I Jack.
This is entitlement creep government creep at its finest.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I mean you.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
When this really took off and became insane was with
Obamacare in the early you know, twenty teens. When Obamacare
came into play, Obamacare was bribing the states because you know,
the way this thing works, it's an agreement between the
state and the federal government and they're shared financing, right,
So the federal government couldn't just say to the states,
(20:32):
you shall expand medicaid. But what the federal government did
is said, hey, look if you expand medicaid to basically
able bodied, working age people now because we'd already you know,
had medicaid for all the other categories you just mentioned, Joe,
the government said, look, if you do that, will we
the federal government, will pay one hundred percent of it
(20:54):
for some time, and then we'll pay ninety percent of it.
So all but tens dates went ahead. And said, heck, yeah,
we'll take that deal. And so now with that, with
that Medicaid expansion expansion that occurred with Obamacare, it's it's
ninety percent paid for by federal tax payers, and it
covers anywhere from eight million to fourteen million able bodied
(21:17):
working adults or I should say able bodied adults, some
of which are working, some of which aren't.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
And in a bizarre twist, correct me if I'm wrong,
the federal government compensates the states at a much higher
percentage for able bodied dudes smoking pot on their parents
based on couch than they do for actual like disabled
people in blind babies.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, no, that's exactly right. So that was the that
was the Obamacare bribe because because Medicaid already covered all
those people we were trying to protect, you know, when
we started this thing in the sixties. So it covered
all those people that had disabilities, single moms, et cetera,
the blind, that disabled, but it didn't cover just underemployed
or unemployed abled bodied adults. And so in order to
(21:59):
get the states to agree to do that, the federal
government had to say, look, we know that we're only
paying you an average of fifty to sixty five cents
on the dollar for your existing Medicaid, and we know
that's not enough to get you the states to agree
to go ahead and cover the adults. So we'll pay
ninety to one hundred percent, starting at one hundred percent,
dropping down to ninety percent. So, yes, that's exactly right.
(22:20):
If you are a twenty eight year old dude smoking
pot in your mom and dad's basement right now, medicaid's
paying ninety percent. The federal government's paying ninety percent of
your Medicaid where it's only paying an average of sixty
cents on the dollar in a state like California for
a disabled mother with the child.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Man, I'm thinking somebody I know specifically who is like
a regular person with the job and is doing it
the normal way, and there are incredible medical bills they
got right now because they've had some health problems. That's
very galling that they have these high medical bills with
insurance and everything, as opposed to if you got on
some sort of government plan, it'd all be covered. And Craig,
I'm going to leave it up to your judgment how
(23:01):
much you want to get into this, But there are
all sorts of other perverse incentives that this law has
caused states, you know, taxing hospitals to raise the amount spent,
but then they get it back from the federal government,
then they give it back to the hospitals.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean, it's byzantine.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Yeah, let's let me just give you a couple of
nuggets on the cost of it, just just because what's
happened is employers pay two to three times the cost
of a hospital visit, as Medicare and Medicaid do. So
when you are on Medicare and Medicaid, you go to
the hospital, you pay X. If you're on an employer
sponsored plan, you pay two's the three times X.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Wow, the state bills I was just talking about, thus
the bills.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But even with that reality, gentlemen, if you're on Medicare,
that cost per taxpayer is about eleven thousand per year,
if you're on Medicaid, it's ninety four hundred per year,
and for employer sponsored people it's eighty seven hundred per year.
So even with that, granted, employer sponsored covers generally younger,
(24:04):
generally healthier, we get that, but even with this tremendous
cost shift to the hospitals, it just underscores how inefficient
these government programs are. When they passed Medicare. Now this
is Medicare, not Medicaid. But they did all the financials
together when they passed it in nineteen sixty seven, actually
two years in, when they did an analysis on it,
(24:25):
they said, hey, we think this is going to cost
twelve billion by nineteen ninety, when in fact it cost
one hundred billion. They were off a factor of eight.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
With medicare the bullet train of medicine.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, it's the bullet train of medicine. And now that
there are some people making noises that, gee, we ought
to trim back the edges a little bit and get
these able bodied adults off of it, you of course
get the grand standing of politicians, even those on the right,
screaming that it's murder in the streets.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So Medicare is the one we all get when we
ty cynical it will.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Medicare is the one we all get when we turn
sixty five, But Medicaid is the one at the downtrodden
earth or folks allegedly. Yeah, yeah, hey, Craig, I want
to do the numbers you did for Medicaid too. So
in nineteen eighty seven, Congress projected that Medicaid would make
special relief payments to hospitals of less than a billion
dollars by nineteen ninety two under a billion dollars. The
(25:18):
actual cost was seventeen billion, So they're seventeen times as high.
I mean, if that doesn't tell you what you need
to know about government entitlement programs and what they do inevitably, well,
you're too stupid to understand it, don't I pity you.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
And that one was in a five year span. Joe,
that was their eighty seven projection for ninety two. Oh
my god, you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, that wasn't well. And one of the problems.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
One of the problems is, you know, all government programs grow,
and you know the high cost of good intentions and
all that sort of stuff. But in this case, you've
got the added part that there's a bunch of people
that want the government to run all of healthcare. So
they loved they're push the expansion. It's not just like
normal bureaucratic creep. They're pushing it. The more people cover,
(26:05):
the more you can make the argument of well or
already government healthcare anyway, Let's just flip the switch and
go full on single payer.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You're absolutely right, and the single payer I'm just here
to tell you the single payer path is a good
thirty to fifty percent more expensive. Now those costs are
hidden because of the way the money slashes around. But
you've only got one payer of health care in America
that actually cares what it costs, and that's employers.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
That's it.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
The insurance companies don't care because the way Obamacare is written,
they need more claims to make more money. The government
doesn't care because the more healthcare costs, the more budget
they get to address the issue. The only policyholder, the
only tax the only moneyed interest in this that actually cares,
is an employer, and it's dramatically shrinking. Those of us
(26:54):
that get healthcare at work is shrinking every year.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
I don't know how we ever get this fixed, Because
you've probably been listening to know. I got whooping cough.
So I've been to the doctor, like yeah, four or
five times, eight different medications, all these different bills.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Most of them tiny. I don't have the slightest idea
what anything cost or I'll get a bill.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I know, I'll get a bill in a month for
one hundred and eighty bucks or five hundred eighty bucks,
I don't know, and then I'll just pay it. And
nobody has any idea. And the randomness of those of
us who have employee, you know, insurance, we don't know
if we're getting ripped off or good price or whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
So it's it's complicated, really discouraging, Go ahead, Craig.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Yeah, and it's it's not health jack by the you
know a lot of people think that, hey, I have
Purple Cross as my insurance, and so whether I go
to Stanford or El Camino or good Sam for this
particular shoulder surgery should be about the same price because
I have a Purple Cross PPO contract. Right, It's not
(27:56):
you can pay ten thousand for that shoulder surgery or
fifty thousand for that shoulder surgery with the same exact
insurance card. It's utterly insane what's happening in the commercial
market because government has crept into this unholy alliance with
the commercial payers, and so you have this, you have
a situation where it's crony capitalism at its absolute worst.
(28:20):
You know we're talking about and we can tease for
a future visit, but there are ways to get around this,
but relying on the government or this large commercial sector
is going to kill us. And when I say the
commercial sector, I mean the fully insured carriers. Employer sponsored plans,
self funded employer sponsored plans are the way to go.
It's the only way to beat this and beat it back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, we're talking to Craig Gottwal's Craig, the healthcare guru. Craig.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I feel like at this point in the interview we
ought to give people the local suicide hotline number.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I mean, because it's so discouraging.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
So we've you know, described this incredible, mountainous, wasteful, enormously
expensive government program out of control. And if you, as
say a Republican a Chip Roy, for instance, say hey,
can we have thirty five year old guy smoking pawn
on his parents' couch, please pay a thirty five dollars
(29:13):
copay when he goes to the doctor, you have Hakeem
Jeffrey screaming you're literally taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. Yeah,
that's that's one problem, though, the other problem is you
that's a Democrat. He got Josh Howey, a Republican writing
an opera, and Molly has lost his soul I hope
he gets hit by a car ab horror violence. Josh
(29:37):
Holley writes, I think in the New York Times last week.
You know Republicans, hey do not cut any of this.
It's a bad political move. So where does that leave you?
Speaker 5 (29:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It you.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
At this point, gentlemen, I put my head down. I
don't even listen to the big the big picture anymore,
and I just try and help one employer at a time.
And I get individuals that contact me and they asked
me what do I do?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
And I say, buy is a little little sick.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
The highest deductible, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Don't get sick is your recommendation.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Don't get sick, but find a doctor, find a doctor
who's left the system, and engage in something called direct
primary care, where you give them anywhere from seventy five
to two hundred dollars a month, you treat, you work
with them, and then god forbid, you have something giant happen.
You have the highest deductible you can stomach to go.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Deal with that issue.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
But you've got to cut insurance and government payments out
as much as you can and work directly with doctors.
And the good news is that system is growing gentlemen,
I call the doctors every week that are leaving the
system and going direct pay with individuals and not the
three hundred and fifty dollars concierge model, but like doing
this for one hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Literally.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Well, I love the idea of starting at that point
in our next conversation with you, Craig, and talking about that,
because one of the things I was going to bring
up if we have time, and we don't unfortunately, but
some of the unholy vertical integration of the giant healthcare
companies where they own the doctor, they own the hospital,
they own the pharmacy, they own the pharmacy benefit manager,
(31:07):
which is an unholy, murky cesspool of God knows where
the money goes. And so yeah, the idea of checking
out of that system, I love it. Let's let's let's
talk off the air. Will schedule you to come back
because I think it'd be great for the good folks.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Sounds great, gentlemen, have a wonderful day. Yeah, thanks, Craig.
Appreciate the time, Craig. You have to come on all
the time and bear bad news.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I mean it's like, yeah, I just you know, as
a realist, you've unlike the Biden family, the one thing
you must do is understand reality or or your you'relice.
I've been saying too Craig, and he usually agrees for years.
I think the realist view is we're going to end
up single payer healthcare. Uh, it's just when, When does it?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah? I suppose so.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
But in every single health single payer healthcare system, people
who can afford it go outside, right right, got to
learn those ropes. Yeah, hang it, don't folks, it'll be okay.
Don't get sick. Just don't get sick or break anything.
That's the answer.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Stay here.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It's Jack, Armstrong and Joe, the Armstrong and Getty Show,
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
So they've been a couple of great government works, things
that got out of control and cost gazillions of dollars
and never got finished.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
In my lifetime.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I remember Boston's a big dig hearing about that my
whole life. Decades and decades and decades of wasting tons
of money, Alaska's famous Bridge to Nowhere. But they're all
paling in comparison to California's high speed rail project, which
goes back to two thousand and eight. And if it's
not already at the end of the day, will be
the biggest government sinkhole of bureaucracy and waste as an
(32:53):
example of how democracy keys can fail in our nation's history.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And it's probably already been Richmond too. I must part
of the reason it's getting a bunch of a national attention.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Now. New York Times did a story last Sunday, the
Associated presses on it, and the Dispatch did a story yesterday.
Is the CHSR, that's the California High Speed Rail Authority.
They put out new numbers just recently, and their own
new numbers have now increased the total cost to one
hundred and thirty five billion dollars. When taxpayers agreed to this,
(33:27):
it was thirty three billion. It's now one hundred and
thirty five billion. It's more than one hundred billion dollars
more than originally proposed it was. We were supposed to
be writing it five years ago. It's supposed to be
done in twenty twenty. I have not written in a
view they're now saying it comes anywhere near the original promise.
It will be north of two hundred billion dollars, mark
(33:50):
my words. And they said in their most recent statement,
it may take two more decades to complete most of
the San Francisco Los Angeles segment, two more decades to
complete most, So they're not even saying in two decades
they can complete.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It, right.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
And I don't know if you know about travel, but
you really need the whole thing. Like if I'm going
to New York this summer, I need to get all
the way there. Most of the way doesn't do any good.
It's either get you to Indianapolis. It's really an all
or nothing proposition whenever you travel somewhere, Am I going
there or not? But I thought this was really interesting
(34:27):
and I can't believe this hasn't gotten more attention.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
This is from the chsra's own plan.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
It is now going to connect to towns on the
outskirts of both major metros. It's not gonna take you
from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It's gonna take you
from Gilroy, which if you live in the area, you
know very close to San Francisco, and.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
That is the outskirts of the outskirts of the Outo.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It's seventy miles southeast of San Francisco to Chail. It
will take you just under two hours to drive from
Gilroy to San Francisco as we speak, to Palmdale, which
is thirty seven miles northeast of the edge of Los Angeles,
and in Los Angeles traffic, it would take you several
hours to make that drive. So instead of the city centers,
(35:12):
it's going to take you from Gilroy to Palmdale. That
will save construction time and money, but it will need
mean the writers will need another hour or more to
get into the cities. That is an incredibly generous statement.
I would say a minimum of three to four hours
on a good day, all told an hour and a
quarter from Palmdale to LA right now, all told. Economist
(35:33):
Scott Summer estimates that this new setup would require at
least a seven hour series of trains or cars for
someone to get from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles.
Instead of the original promised three hour one train trip
and seven hours on the best, everything broke your way,
(35:54):
it would take seven hours.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
It is the greatest failure of democracy I've ever witnessed.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Ketty.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Armstrong and Getty and he.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Armstrong and Getty Strong. A new week headed into Memorial Day.
This could be a big week for your life today.
Today you're under the tutelage of our general manager.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
The Republican Party, both Houses of Congress and the White House.
And they're going to grow the DEAFA sets and leave
bloated entitlements alone. What's the point anymore? Wow, I'm forming
a new political party. I've given up. Wow, coming out
of angry hot on a Monday exactly well offended, righteously angry.
(01:05):
Not like I lost my temper because I'm drunk angry.
No righteous indignation. It's a stupidity, that hypocrisy, the lack
of principle. I got three names a new party, So
not I lost my temper because I'm drunk angry, Like
that's the only other golf shot. Now I'm helicoptering my
(01:25):
club angry. No, this is righteous, biblical anger. How about
how about the door dash was so slow? By the
time the yogurt got to me, it was all melted
angry which I had. Yet that's legit to me. I
mean that pays for yogurt, you know, I expects it
to be nice and chili. All right, So I got
three possible names for a new political party.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I assume you'll join me on this question.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Angrytarians referencing my being pissed off enough is Enoughocrats?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Or finally, f y'all, that's pretty good too.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
I'd wear that T shirt and whatever the flag looks like,
I'm flying it in the back of my truck.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
F yolikins.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I thought the general manager would be Joe Biden's prostate.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
No, no, an old man has cancer. It's no humor there.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
It's just terrible. Doesn't have to be humorous. It's just
a big news story I adopted for Humer. I'll tell
you something though, interesting wrinkle on this that just happened,
and I want to get to it before you hear
somewhere else. Do tell that came up on Morning Joe
with Joe Scarborough and he didn't state it outright, but
(02:42):
he was.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Certainly hinting at it strongly.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
So it turns out according to the doctor they had, Well,
there's a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I can say about this as a guy who had cancer.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
The reporting on everything that happens in the mainstream news
is so horrible, but as usual that there there are
a number of things I keep hearing over and over again.
They keep saying an aggressive cancer as if that absolutely
means something, and it doesn't at all.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Having had concert and talk to doctors before, uh, back
in the.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Day, many many many years ago, in general, aggressive was
bad and not aggressive was good, but not anymore. My
cancer was worse because it was not aggressive, because I
found fascinating at the time. Yeah, because it wouldn't take
the bait, as my doctor said, you're trying to poison
the cancer with the chemotherapy, and it wouldn't take the bait,
like trying to catch a rat with you know, brat poison.
(03:34):
It wouldn't take the bait because it was so slow
moving and aggressive cancer. He told me, well, grasp on
to the we're gonna get you, and grasp on to
the poison and die faster. So often that is better,
so that that using that word every single time in
every story is meaningless.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
So there you go, let's start there. I'm exciting.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But the interesting thing is that I learned from from
Scarborough's show today, and again this is what they kept
hitting at.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
He's had it for probably.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
A decade at least through his presidency, absolutely minimum several years,
but probably a decade.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
And it's impossible they either.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Well almost certainly, they just didn't test for it, or
or or just didn't do anything and or just kept
it quiet, because, as we've said many times, the president
decides what to reveal from that presidential exam, what not
to reveal it.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It is the ultimate.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
This tells us nothing possible that they did that, although
you had had to kept it, keep it quiet.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Every year for many, many, many years.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
I mean, because the president, you know, gets a yearly
physical and everything like that, And did he get tested
for it every year and keep it quiet throughout his
entire presidency, probably years before his presidency so that he
could maybe run again or whatever, or or this is
what I think Scarborough was him. It's just his overall
medical health, including his brain.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
They just didn't test for things.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
They just didn't ask any questions about anything because it
was all gonna be bad news and they didn't want
to have to discuss anything, so better just to not know.
I think that is by far the most likely theory,
and I hate to steal the thunder of our own featurette,
but we got this note from Jacob that I was
going to include in mailbag. Later on in the hour,
he says, Hey, guys, do you remember that speech where
(05:28):
President Biden randomly said I just found I have out
I have cancer or something like that. Then he moved
on and nobody commented on it in the White House
right town?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Do you remember that?
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Yeah, that's right, although he accidentally let it slip. Although
there's no way he just found out he had cancer
because he's had it for a very very long time.
But Christmas they just gave him a PSA test for
the first time ever. Possibly although we're going to play
some of the her tapes later. He didn't know when
he was president or vice president or when his sun
(06:00):
died by years, So him saying I just found out
I got cancer, Who knows what that means. That could
have been him remembering from ten years ago. But I'm
talking about his brain. The fact that you know him
having prostate cancer and hiding it or whatever. I find
that kind of a non.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Story actually, But the fact that it fits in with.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Just the overall ignoring everything about his body and brain.
I think got pretty interesting, oh on how widespread the
knowledge was. And I've read a great piece we'll share
it with you later about why this all matters.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Now.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
This is not just looking in the rear view mirror
and kicking Democrats for the fun of it. This is
one of the great cover ups in American history.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
All Right.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
Mark Alper keeps making it about the media, which I
think is a good thing. It's the biggest failure of
the media ever. Period. I don't know what second place
would be biggest failure of the media period. And again,
I just think it's mostly interesting from me hiding his
brain thing.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
And over the weekend, Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, who's.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
The guy they always quoted in the Washington Post, senior man,
We had him on the show when we were out
there in U Chicago. Dad Balls, like some of the
biggest heavyweight hitters wrote some major pieces over this weekend
about how awful it is that this was hidden for
all this time, kind of like they're discovering it, which
is weird but shocking. I mean, it really comes to
(07:29):
the top of everybody's consciousness as a what the hell
sort of story right, Well, more on that later. It's
just it's absolutely amazing. But wow, so I wonder, see
he got crazy Jill involved. You got to go to
crazy Jill and the artist Hunter who's also crazy.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
They might have just been saying, no, Dad, honey, no tests.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Let's just do no tests, no tests about anything, and
then then we don't have to lie, and then we
can just go out there and say everything fine. It
is gratifying and somewhat shocking to look back and see
how right we were about all of this, not that
we had any unique knowledge. Look at the polls at
the time. And I say this not to pat ourselves
on the back, but virtually everything we said about Jill
(08:17):
is the.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Evil doer in this. You can tell doctor Jill not
a real doctor.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Oh she's a crazy person.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
She's say for real crazy person. Yes, she is absolutely unhinged.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
But everybody in the cabinet who knew and was silence
or denied it vociferously. Chuck Schumer, who's a congenital liar.
I don't know why anybody ever listens to him on
any topic. He couldn't tell the truth unless he accidentally
did it. You know, mayor Pete. You know, all of
these people who continue to be significant to you know,
(08:49):
persons in American politics.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
We cannot just let them get away with it. They
should never be in office again. They should never be
entrusted with power again. God, who's the guy I don't
remember his name, Democrat.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
He's the chair of the Armed Services Committee, like you know,
a big committee. Never talked to Joe Biden once, right,
which is just incredible. Well because he in previous administrations
that regularly talked to the president as the head of
the important Defense Committee.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Yeah, of course you would. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
So anyway, there's a lot on that and Joe Biden's prostect.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
You know, I hope they get him a treatment and
he's fine and all that.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Oh he's come on, he's on D S D anyway,
true that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Yeah, more Jack Morgoe.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Podcasts and our hotlinks, the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
You say a lot that's in some of your song lyrics.
You want to tell us what it.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Is to.
Speaker 6 (09:59):
U Mia, it means either live your culture or you
kill your culture.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
And there's no in between. So I'm going to get
up every day and I'm going to live my culture today?
Speaker 4 (10:08):
What was that nonsense? He was muttering in the middle.
That was French, Jack, it's a language. That was Jordan Thibodeau,
who was featured on sixty Minutes as part of a
really interesting segment about essentially Cajun and similar music in
that culture. I thought that was a really interesting statement,
you either live your culture or kill your culture, especially
(10:31):
because I was corresponding with a friend of mine about
my upcoming trip to London with my bride and he
sent along some commentary about.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Have you been brushing up in your English to get
ready for it?
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Hilarious, And it was a commentary on how Britain and Europe,
having permitted rampant immigration that nobody voted for but the
elite wanted, had caused enormous dislocating cultural problems. And it's
something we've talked about several times. But and pointing out
that like the mayors of most of the big cities
(11:05):
in Britain are all Muslims, inexplicably because they're still a
fairly small minority, but there are hundreds of Sharia councils,
in Sharia courts and the rest of it in Britain.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
And I found that really intriguing.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Which way to Buckingham Palace right over there?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Which way over there? Over there? Why are you talking
like that?
Speaker 4 (11:33):
So I was for whatever reason that came within twenty
four hours of hearing mister Thibadeau talking about you live
your culture or you kill your culture. I always remember
when I read the giant biography of Pope John Paul
the Second, he was constantly saying languages culture, talking about
that it is they travel together, they just do.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And if the language dies out, that culture has died out.
And if you can and.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
That's why, that's why Russia goes in and forces people
to speak Russian various languages in various areas because use China.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah, you dare speak one of your ethnic languages in China,
you will be hauled into re education. That's why it's
so hilarious that we're so willing in the United States
to like turn over giant swaths of the country to
another language. We just put up signs in that language,
start putting things in that language and say that's fine,
we don't care, we don't need to hang on to
our language. Well exactly, you called it funny, and I
(12:30):
get you're being kind of ironic, but I was just
going to say it is one of the more horrifying
and obscene things I've observed in my life that we
of the West Europe, in the United States and Canada,
primarily the English speaking world and Europe have been convinced
that we have the one culture that not only is
(12:53):
not beautiful and worth preserving or awesome or successful or whatever,
but it's evil and we deserve to have it stamped out.
And anybody who doesn't participate in that stamping out enthusiastically
is an awful person and should be shamed or forced
out of their job or what have you. And you know,
(13:14):
if you just look at England, never mind the United States,
look at England. They've practically brought us democracy. It's existed
in different forms in different places, but my god, the
Magna Carta and the emergence of the Parliament as a
counter to the king and working with the monarch and
just over hundreds of years hammering out the details of
(13:36):
how does a people self govern hm and then that
giving birth to the United States. I mean, you want
to talk about a culture worth being proud of and preserving.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
About British culture, and it's off shoots.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
So you have more you want to say on that
topic before I get to my next This all came
together like in the last three minutes in my head.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
So why would those who were browbeating us to flush
our own culture down the toilet, hate our own history,
hate our own people?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Why would they do that?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I think a lot of you are probably a little
bit ahead of me at this point. But I came
across this this morning. It's a piece in the National
Review and let's see. Oh, it's by the notorious MBD
Michael Brendan Doherty, who came across some audio of Hillary Clinton,
of all people, doing an interview at one of those
never ending Look how smart and cool and rich we
(14:33):
are speech athons.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
God who goes to those things? Well, it's a certain
class of people, but I've never heard of most of
these things.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
This is the ninety two and Why, part of the
Newmark Civic Life series. Oh yeah, the ninety two Street
Why is a huge deal in New York. If you're important,
they have those all the time with Yeah, I see
those on YouTube videos regularly.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I've never been so. Hillary was jabbering about.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
She launched into the screen and the audio, but it's
better to shorten it because, you know, ramble a little bit.
She launched into this mocking the idea of the Trump
administration or anybody else trying to get Americans to have
more babies, and she's right in that it's ultimately going
to fail.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
But she launches into a screed in which she says.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
The quiet part out loud that the progressive, the affluent
progressive lifestyle, however you want to describe it, lifestyle liberalism,
certain forms of feminism. It's the privilege of affluent Americans
and is supported by mass immigration, legal and illegal. Progressivism
(15:44):
is not economically or socially sustainable, except if we import
brown people and foreign people. She said, it's crazy trying
to make America great again by returning to lifestyles and
the economic arrangements of not just the fifth I mean,
let's keep going back as far as we can. The
nuclear family returned to being a Christian nation, a return
(16:06):
to producing a lot of children.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
These are quotes, even though she says they alleged.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Particularly offended her throwing out the nuclear family as something
to give up on easily. Wow. Then she takes a
shot of Republicans say that they have no interest in
paid family leave or funding quality childcare, their cutting head start.
But she said, it's sort of odd because the people
who produce the most children in our country are immigrants,
and they want to deport them.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
None of this adds up. This is all a quote.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
In fact, one of the reasons why our economy did
so much better than comparable advanced economies across the world
is because we had lots of immigrants, legally and undocumented,
who had a larger than normal by American standards family. So,
quoting Doherty, taken together, Clinton says that immigrants make the
American lifestyle of today add up in part because of
their higher birth rates. And she's right, although he later
(16:56):
points out within two generations, certainly three, immigrant birth rates
plunge down to Native American birth rate. Also to point
out the reality, any neighborhood you ever lived in, Hillary
become primarily a different language speaking in the restaurant you
used to go to, become a food and language that
you don't know in your school. The teachers she couldn't
learn in schools because there are so many languages. When
(17:19):
you go to the emergency room, a lot, a lot
of Spanish speaking or whatever. That really slows things down
that it doesn't happen to you. It's funny, it happens
everybody else.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
See Armstrong and Getty Show, Yeah or Jack your show
podcasts and our hot links the arm Strong and Getty Show.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
They literally are trying to take healthcare away from millions
of Americans at this very moment in the dead of night.
Speaker 4 (17:54):
Oh my god, Oh my god. It's a party of monsters.
That's why they're having a republic wells, they're monsters. That's
why they're having the one am vote tonight on the
big beautiful bill to try to slide through in the
darken night, the cutting back on Medicaid, and so the
Republicans who are actual vampires can come out to vote too,
(18:17):
because you know, the sun is down. So Craig Gottwalls
originally Craig the Obamacare lawyer, because when Obamacare was in
the works and passed, Craig would talk to us about it,
longtime friend of the show, and everything he said was true,
and virtually everything he predicted happened, in contrast to most
of the coverage of it, which was garbage. Well, Craig
is now Craig the healthcare guru, and we're going to
(18:39):
talk a little bit about Medicaid, among other things. Craig Gottwals,
how are you, Craig, I'm good.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
How are you, gentlemen? Terrific? Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
So what do you make of Hakeem Jeffrey's quote there
and what is the reality of medicaid?
Speaker 5 (18:56):
Well, it underscores just how we can give anything to
the government. This is this is why we can't have
nice things. Right. So, in nineteen sixty five, the federal
government passed Medicaran Medicaid, and specifically with respect to Medicaid,
the whole idea was, man, we need a safety net
for like single moms with disabled children who are falling
(19:20):
through the cracks. We need we need this, this mechanism
to just capture the most disadvantaged among us, to help
them out and to give them to give them a lift. Right,
So we did. And back when this was passed in
nineteen sixty five, it was designed to cover two percent
of Americans two percent. Today it covers one in three
(19:43):
Americans and forty one percent of all babies burst in our.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Country, whoa forty one percent of babies born.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So originally forty one line, the disabled, the utterly unable
to help themselves, and now it is approaching half of us.
Is that because we we have so many more single
moms with blowing babies?
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Or what does that happen?
Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well, you know, you get you know better than I Jack.
This is entitlement creep government creep at its finest.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I mean you.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
When this really took off and became insane was with
Obamacare in the early you know, twenty teens. When Obamacare
came into play, Obamacare was bribing the states because you know,
the way this thing works, it's an agreement between the
state and the federal government and they're shared financing, right,
So the federal government couldn't just say to the states,
(20:32):
you shall expand medicaid. But what the federal government did
is said, hey, look if you expand medicaid to basically
able bodied, working age people now because we'd already you know,
had medicaid for all the other categories you just mentioned, Joe,
the government said, look, if you do that, will we
the federal government, will pay one hundred percent of it
(20:54):
for some time, and then we'll pay ninety percent of it.
So all but tens dates went ahead. And said, heck, yeah,
we'll take that deal. And so now with that, with
that Medicaid expansion expansion that occurred with Obamacare, it's it's
ninety percent paid for by federal tax payers, and it
covers anywhere from eight million to fourteen million able bodied
(21:17):
working adults or I should say able bodied adults, some
of which are working, some of which aren't.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
And in a bizarre twist, correct me if I'm wrong,
the federal government compensates the states at a much higher
percentage for able bodied dudes smoking pot on their parents
based on couch than they do for actual like disabled
people in blind babies.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, no, that's exactly right. So that was the that
was the Obamacare bribe because because Medicaid already covered all
those people we were trying to protect, you know, when
we started this thing in the sixties. So it covered
all those people that had disabilities, single moms, et cetera,
the blind, that disabled, but it didn't cover just underemployed
or unemployed abled bodied adults. And so in order to
(21:59):
get the states to agree to do that, the federal
government had to say, look, we know that we're only
paying you an average of fifty to sixty five cents
on the dollar for your existing Medicaid, and we know
that's not enough to get you the states to agree
to go ahead and cover the adults. So we'll pay
ninety to one hundred percent, starting at one hundred percent,
dropping down to ninety percent. So, yes, that's exactly right.
(22:20):
If you are a twenty eight year old dude smoking
pot in your mom and dad's basement right now, medicaid's
paying ninety percent. The federal government's paying ninety percent of
your Medicaid where it's only paying an average of sixty
cents on the dollar in a state like California for
a disabled mother with the child.
Speaker 4 (22:39):
Man, I'm thinking somebody I know specifically who is like
a regular person with the job and is doing it
the normal way, and there are incredible medical bills they
got right now because they've had some health problems. That's
very galling that they have these high medical bills with
insurance and everything, as opposed to if you got on
some sort of government plan, it'd all be covered. And Craig,
I'm going to leave it up to your judgment how
(23:01):
much you want to get into this, But there are
all sorts of other perverse incentives that this law has
caused states, you know, taxing hospitals to raise the amount spent,
but then they get it back from the federal government,
then they give it back to the hospitals.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean, it's byzantine.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
Yeah, let's let me just give you a couple of
nuggets on the cost of it, just just because what's
happened is employers pay two to three times the cost
of a hospital visit, as Medicare and Medicaid do. So
when you are on Medicare and Medicaid, you go to
the hospital, you pay X. If you're on an employer
sponsored plan, you pay two's the three times X.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Wow, the state bills I was just talking about, thus
the bills.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
But even with that reality, gentlemen, if you're on Medicare,
that cost per taxpayer is about eleven thousand per year,
if you're on Medicaid, it's ninety four hundred per year,
and for employer sponsored people it's eighty seven hundred per year.
So even with that, granted, employer sponsored covers generally younger,
(24:04):
generally healthier, we get that, but even with this tremendous
cost shift to the hospitals, it just underscores how inefficient
these government programs are. When they passed Medicare. Now this
is Medicare, not Medicaid. But they did all the financials
together when they passed it in nineteen sixty seven, actually
two years in, when they did an analysis on it,
(24:25):
they said, hey, we think this is going to cost
twelve billion by nineteen ninety, when in fact it cost
one hundred billion. They were off a factor of eight.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
With medicare the bullet train of medicine.
Speaker 5 (24:37):
Yeah, it's the bullet train of medicine. And now that
there are some people making noises that, gee, we ought
to trim back the edges a little bit and get
these able bodied adults off of it, you of course
get the grand standing of politicians, even those on the right,
screaming that it's murder in the streets.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
So Medicare is the one we all get when we
ty cynical it will.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Medicare is the one we all get when we turn
sixty five, But Medicaid is the one at the downtrodden
earth or folks allegedly. Yeah, yeah, hey, Craig, I want
to do the numbers you did for Medicaid too. So
in nineteen eighty seven, Congress projected that Medicaid would make
special relief payments to hospitals of less than a billion
dollars by nineteen ninety two under a billion dollars. The
(25:18):
actual cost was seventeen billion, So they're seventeen times as high.
I mean, if that doesn't tell you what you need
to know about government entitlement programs and what they do inevitably, well,
you're too stupid to understand it, don't I pity you.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
And that one was in a five year span. Joe,
that was their eighty seven projection for ninety two. Oh
my god, you're right.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yeah, that wasn't well. And one of the problems.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
One of the problems is, you know, all government programs grow,
and you know the high cost of good intentions and
all that sort of stuff. But in this case, you've
got the added part that there's a bunch of people
that want the government to run all of healthcare. So
they loved they're push the expansion. It's not just like
normal bureaucratic creep. They're pushing it. The more people cover,
(26:05):
the more you can make the argument of well or
already government healthcare anyway, Let's just flip the switch and
go full on single payer.
Speaker 5 (26:13):
You're absolutely right, and the single payer I'm just here
to tell you the single payer path is a good
thirty to fifty percent more expensive. Now those costs are
hidden because of the way the money slashes around. But
you've only got one payer of health care in America
that actually cares what it costs, and that's employers.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
That's it.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
The insurance companies don't care because the way Obamacare is written,
they need more claims to make more money. The government
doesn't care because the more healthcare costs, the more budget
they get to address the issue. The only policyholder, the
only tax the only moneyed interest in this that actually cares,
is an employer, and it's dramatically shrinking. Those of us
(26:54):
that get healthcare at work is shrinking every year.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
I don't know how we ever get this fixed, Because
you've probably been listening to know. I got whooping cough.
So I've been to the doctor, like yeah, four or
five times, eight different medications, all these different bills.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Most of them tiny. I don't have the slightest idea
what anything cost or I'll get a bill.
Speaker 4 (27:14):
I know, I'll get a bill in a month for
one hundred and eighty bucks or five hundred eighty bucks,
I don't know, and then I'll just pay it. And
nobody has any idea. And the randomness of those of
us who have employee, you know, insurance, we don't know
if we're getting ripped off or good price or whatever.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
So it's it's complicated, really discouraging, Go ahead, Craig.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Yeah, and it's it's not health jack by the you
know a lot of people think that, hey, I have
Purple Cross as my insurance, and so whether I go
to Stanford or El Camino or good Sam for this
particular shoulder surgery should be about the same price because
I have a Purple Cross PPO contract. Right, It's not
(27:56):
you can pay ten thousand for that shoulder surgery or
fifty thousand for that shoulder surgery with the same exact
insurance card. It's utterly insane what's happening in the commercial
market because government has crept into this unholy alliance with
the commercial payers, and so you have this, you have
a situation where it's crony capitalism at its absolute worst.
(28:20):
You know we're talking about and we can tease for
a future visit, but there are ways to get around this,
but relying on the government or this large commercial sector
is going to kill us. And when I say the
commercial sector, I mean the fully insured carriers. Employer sponsored plans,
self funded employer sponsored plans are the way to go.
It's the only way to beat this and beat it back.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, we're talking to Craig Gottwal's Craig, the healthcare guru. Craig.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
I feel like at this point in the interview we
ought to give people the local suicide hotline number.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
I mean, because it's so discouraging.
Speaker 4 (28:52):
So we've you know, described this incredible, mountainous, wasteful, enormously
expensive government program out of control. And if you, as
say a Republican a Chip Roy, for instance, say hey,
can we have thirty five year old guy smoking pawn
on his parents' couch, please pay a thirty five dollars
(29:13):
copay when he goes to the doctor, you have Hakeem
Jeffrey screaming you're literally taking healthcare away from millions of Americans. Yeah,
that's that's one problem, though, the other problem is you
that's a Democrat. He got Josh Howey, a Republican writing
an opera, and Molly has lost his soul I hope
he gets hit by a car ab horror violence. Josh
(29:37):
Holley writes, I think in the New York Times last week.
You know Republicans, hey do not cut any of this.
It's a bad political move. So where does that leave you?
Speaker 5 (29:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (29:45):
It you.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
At this point, gentlemen, I put my head down. I
don't even listen to the big the big picture anymore,
and I just try and help one employer at a time.
And I get individuals that contact me and they asked
me what do I do?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
And I say, buy is a little little sick.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
The highest deductible, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Don't get sick is your recommendation.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Don't get sick, but find a doctor, find a doctor
who's left the system, and engage in something called direct
primary care, where you give them anywhere from seventy five
to two hundred dollars a month, you treat, you work
with them, and then god forbid, you have something giant happen.
You have the highest deductible you can stomach to go.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Deal with that issue.
Speaker 5 (30:23):
But you've got to cut insurance and government payments out
as much as you can and work directly with doctors.
And the good news is that system is growing gentlemen,
I call the doctors every week that are leaving the
system and going direct pay with individuals and not the
three hundred and fifty dollars concierge model, but like doing
this for one hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Literally.
Speaker 4 (30:44):
Well, I love the idea of starting at that point
in our next conversation with you, Craig, and talking about that,
because one of the things I was going to bring
up if we have time, and we don't unfortunately, but
some of the unholy vertical integration of the giant healthcare
companies where they own the doctor, they own the hospital,
they own the pharmacy, they own the pharmacy benefit manager,
(31:07):
which is an unholy, murky cesspool of God knows where
the money goes. And so yeah, the idea of checking
out of that system, I love it. Let's let's let's
talk off the air. Will schedule you to come back
because I think it'd be great for the good folks.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Sounds great, gentlemen, have a wonderful day. Yeah, thanks, Craig.
Appreciate the time, Craig. You have to come on all
the time and bear bad news.
Speaker 4 (31:27):
I mean it's like, yeah, I just you know, as
a realist, you've unlike the Biden family, the one thing
you must do is understand reality or or your you'relice.
I've been saying too Craig, and he usually agrees for years.
I think the realist view is we're going to end
up single payer healthcare. Uh, it's just when, When does it?
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah? I suppose so.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
But in every single health single payer healthcare system, people
who can afford it go outside, right right, got to
learn those ropes. Yeah, hang it, don't folks, it'll be okay.
Don't get sick. Just don't get sick or break anything.
That's the answer.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Stay here.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
It's Jack, Armstrong and Joe, the Armstrong and Getty Show,
The Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
So they've been a couple of great government works, things
that got out of control and cost gazillions of dollars
and never got finished.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
In my lifetime.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I remember Boston's a big dig hearing about that my
whole life. Decades and decades and decades of wasting tons
of money, Alaska's famous Bridge to Nowhere. But they're all
paling in comparison to California's high speed rail project, which
goes back to two thousand and eight. And if it's
not already at the end of the day, will be
the biggest government sinkhole of bureaucracy and waste as an
(32:53):
example of how democracy keys can fail in our nation's history.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And it's probably already been Richmond too. I must part
of the reason it's getting a bunch of a national attention.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
Now. New York Times did a story last Sunday, the
Associated presses on it, and the Dispatch did a story yesterday.
Is the CHSR, that's the California High Speed Rail Authority.
They put out new numbers just recently, and their own
new numbers have now increased the total cost to one
hundred and thirty five billion dollars. When taxpayers agreed to this,
(33:27):
it was thirty three billion. It's now one hundred and
thirty five billion. It's more than one hundred billion dollars
more than originally proposed it was. We were supposed to
be writing it five years ago. It's supposed to be
done in twenty twenty. I have not written in a
view they're now saying it comes anywhere near the original promise.
It will be north of two hundred billion dollars, mark
(33:50):
my words. And they said in their most recent statement,
it may take two more decades to complete most of
the San Francisco Los Angeles segment, two more decades to
complete most, So they're not even saying in two decades
they can complete.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
It, right.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
And I don't know if you know about travel, but
you really need the whole thing. Like if I'm going
to New York this summer, I need to get all
the way there. Most of the way doesn't do any good.
It's either get you to Indianapolis. It's really an all
or nothing proposition whenever you travel somewhere, Am I going
there or not? But I thought this was really interesting
(34:27):
and I can't believe this hasn't gotten more attention.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
This is from the chsra's own plan.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
It is now going to connect to towns on the
outskirts of both major metros. It's not gonna take you
from San Francisco to Los Angeles. It's gonna take you
from Gilroy, which if you live in the area, you
know very close to San Francisco, and.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
That is the outskirts of the outskirts of the Outo.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It's seventy miles southeast of San Francisco to Chail. It
will take you just under two hours to drive from
Gilroy to San Francisco as we speak, to Palmdale, which
is thirty seven miles northeast of the edge of Los Angeles,
and in Los Angeles traffic, it would take you several
hours to make that drive. So instead of the city centers,
(35:12):
it's going to take you from Gilroy to Palmdale. That
will save construction time and money, but it will need
mean the writers will need another hour or more to
get into the cities. That is an incredibly generous statement.
I would say a minimum of three to four hours
on a good day, all told an hour and a
quarter from Palmdale to LA right now, all told. Economist
(35:33):
Scott Summer estimates that this new setup would require at
least a seven hour series of trains or cars for
someone to get from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles.
Instead of the original promised three hour one train trip
and seven hours on the best, everything broke your way,
(35:54):
it would take seven hours.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
It is the greatest failure of democracy I've ever witnessed.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
Popular Podcasts
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com