August 1, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of A&G features...
- The TACO joke & tariffs
- Presidential fitness
- Craig Gottwals - The Healthcare Guru - talks to A&G
- Ride breaks
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty arm Strong
and Jetty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So, if you're an NFL fan, the very first game
of the this year was last night Chargers Lions. Chargers
beat the hell out of the Lions in the Hall
of Fame game and can'ton Ohio anyway. I came across
this at Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, one of our favorite people
back when he was a forty nine Ers coach, said
(00:45):
to his team or media or somebody, because people are
talking about then all it's freaking July. There's an NFL
game and preseason and who cares and all that sort
of stuff, And he said, this game will get higher
ratings than a World Series baseball game or any NBA
Finals game. And he's right, that's how much bigger the
NFL is than the other sports.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wow? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
He yeah, I didn't look it up, but that's historically,
that's true, that sort of thing. That's how much bigger
the NFL is. Wow, they are the five hundred pound guerrilla.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So Kamala Harris was on Colbert last night. We talked
about this a lot. Yesterday, She's got a book out.
She announced she's not running for governor of California. She's
clearly running for president, or at least trying to put
together a team to run for California, and if she
can get the money people behind her, she will run.
She's delusional. She was on Colbert. She was always good
at those. That's why she did them. She's good at
(01:40):
the smiling, laughing and if you have a host that
wants to help you along, she's fine at it. And
I think that's what convinced her in her head she
could be president because she was good at those. She
couldn't do any interview where she has challenged on policy.
But I just wanted to hear this a little bit
about the intro because I haven't heard this.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've just read about it and it sounds gosh.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Thanks gentlemen, My guest tonight was Vice President of the
United States. Please welcome her back to the Lake Show.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Listen to that crowd.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Keep you going there, my, She stands there and waves
because they're all on their feet, grinning.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
The ear to ear excitement in the.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Air cheering wildly, I guess, And.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Here you go with the USA chance. Can you imagine
what the state of the USA would be if that
half witted Well, that's not that though. What does that
tell you? That's good, Michael. What does that tell you politically? Though?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Now Colbert famously has a very left audience. That's what
he crafted on purpose. He was the number one show,
so blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Uh. But he's got that crowd. But she got beaten
by Donald Trump, and the crowd is chanting USA and
he can't get him to quiet down enough to even
ask her a question. Yeah, I'm just trying to think
of an analogous situation on the other side of the aisle,
(03:35):
like if Republicans Conservatives had just erupted in rapturous cheers
when Bob Dole was introduced for Mitt Romney after his defeat.
Although you could argue Mitt Romney was a was a
very good man, could have won, blah blah blah. But
you know the history. You always have that quote about
when people run for president and lose. That's the history
(03:56):
of people when they run for president lose. Even if
you're a good gut person. People are ardies are done
with you. You didn't come out to Chance of USA. Yeah, yeah,
especially because she was such a weak candidate. Is that
just I'm reading it?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Is it's just an opportunity to express your anti Trump enthusiasm, particularly.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Given the fact that anti Trump enthusiasm is kind of
tied up in the whole Colbert Show is getting canceled
right right because the first chant was Steve n Steve N.
So I think it's all kind of wrapped up for
those people. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I thought that was an interesting political moment. She's not
only a losing candidate. She lost to a guy whose
negatives were higher than anybody who's ever won the presidency,
and she was horrible at it and thunderous applause.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
In Chance of USA. I mean that is if they
keep sharing, folks, maybe you can get to Kamala and
Mamdani as the VP nominee that got the juices in
her brain?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do you have juices in your brain that got the
juices in her brain that we're thinking should I run
for prison or not? Into full tilt mode? I guarantee
you look at this should I run? How is that
even a question? Look at these people right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
The people want me. I would be a bad American
if I did not become their leader, right, they're begging
me as will Okay, So there's that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And who knows what's going to happen in twenty eight
because who knows what the issues will be. It's possible
that one of the biggest issues for the mid term
or the presidential election are going to be how great
the tariffs were or what a disaster the tariffs were,
depending on how this all turns out. But so Trump
last night announces I think it was sixty eight new tariffs.
(05:41):
He had this big board with sixty eight countries on
there and what their new tariffs are, including a thirty
five percent tariff on Canada that kicks in today, and
it was a big deal. So on MSNBC, I was
watching their late night show that's on at eleven o'clock
East coast eight o'clock in California, and you know, it's
all about Hayte and try Up all the time. And
Stephanie Rule, the host of that show, had a guest
(06:03):
on and she sets him up with this anti Trump question,
hoping they're all just going to get to do some
good Trump bashing and I thought the guy's answer was
pretty interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Trump wants people to focus on the big new tariff freeze,
but the reality is he's just pushing the deadline again,
like has Taco Tuesday become Taco Thursday at the White House?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
You know, Steph, I don't think so. I think these
are for real. I think tonight's a fairly historic night
where I think you can go back and when you
write the history, you'll say this is the night that
the global free trade era begun by the United States
and the post war era led by the United States
really came to an end. There is now, I think,
(06:44):
a permanent tariff curtain around this country.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I thought that was some pretty good analysis and there
should be more of that. Whether it's going to be
a good and he says, he goes on to say,
which is abnormally fair for HIMSNBC. He goes on to say,
whether this turns out to be a good thing for
the United States or not, you know, will be proven
over time. He didn't automatically say it was gonna be
(07:10):
a bad thing, but it's a giant deal.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The whole taco thing is a stupid narrative. New York
Times wrote that a week or so ago, I mentioned
that The New York Times said, Hey, I know the
taco joke is funny, but the reality is Trump has
done it. We live in a much different world of
tariffs now than before he came into office. It's real,
it's not. It's not.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He talked big and there and things didn't change. No,
things changed a lot, and we'll.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
See how it turns out. Right. Yeah, and this story
doesn't really lend itself very well to hit and run,
you know, media of whatever sort and what you just
quoted the fellas saying kind of anticipate in one of
the points I was gonna make. I have some pretty
strong opinions about some aspects of this, but we won't
(07:56):
know until time passes. Well, hell, we don't even know
if the tariffs are going to be an acted stand
by for that. But if it were, if what Trump
is doing were one hundred percent right and wise and
patriotic and far seeing, there would be a period of
(08:16):
disruption and discomfort that we would have to get through
to get to that better result, which is one of
the reason modern democracies often don't solve their problems. I mean,
like our budgetary problems it's fairly obvious how we need
to do that, but we will never put up with
the difficult period that we need to go through to
(08:37):
fix it. And so I readily admit knee jerk analysis.
What Trump is doing is either going to be wrong
or it's just unfair. It's just dumb. Having said that,
and it is absolutely hilarious to me how little coverage
this is getting. The US Court of Appeals for the
(08:57):
Federal Circuit on Thursday yesterday heard oral arguments in a
challenge to the Worldwide Tariffs and the editorial board of
the Wall Street Journal's lead is, well, that was painful
for the Trump administration's lawyer. That is, judge after judge
doubted the administration's arguments. And so what you need to
(09:18):
know is the administration says the nineteen seventy seven International
Emergency Economic Powers Act also known as IEP or whatever
it is, grants the president's sweeping authority to impose tariffs,
and the judges seemed very very skeptical, which doesn't necessarily
prove anything. They'll put out a ruling then we don't
have to guess. But one of the judges right out
(09:41):
of the gate pointed out that no president has ever
used the emergency law to impose tariffs. And they got
into a discussion with the lawyers about, well, that's true,
but the law is written broadly to give the president
the right to use whatever tools he deems appropriate. The
judges weren't buying it. Why should we read tariffs into
(10:02):
that statue? Is the plane meaning of regulate and that
has to do with a verbage in the statute to
impose tariffs or taxes? And isn't the administration uppending the
entire tariff schedule that Congress enacted. Then you have to
get into Nixon's across the board ten percent tariffs in
nineteen seventy one. It would take too long to explain.
But they said, no, this is very different in a
(10:24):
number of different ways, and it ends up being whether
you like it or not. And it'll get to the
Supreme Court almost certainly unless they think the appeals Court
is right. And they say, no, we're not going to
take it because we think they're right. It's a great question.
Hang on a second. It's a great question about Congress
versus the executive branch and who gets to do what
(10:45):
and how to interpret broad statutes. And you remember us
on the libertarian conservative side, we're really happy. Last year
the High Court put out a ruling happened to be
called Low or Bright that says, no, judges don't automatically
defer to the administrative state the regulator's interpretations of vague laws.
You got to figure out what Congress meant, and remember
(11:06):
the Major Questions doctrine says Congress must give the president
express authority for actions with economic or political significance, otherwise
he's overstepping his bounds.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
But you said it'll get to the Supreme Court. Is
that something they could rule on before October, like jump
in and you know, take off their summer shorts and
put on the robes and look at this because October
is a long way away.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, yeah. They could do a couple
of things. They could announce immediately that they're not taking
the case after this the Appeals Court rules.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And which means it stands, and you're anticipating the Appeals
Court will rule that Trump can't do this.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I'm leaning that way with you know, just a moderate
level of confidence. Well, because you know, as you pointed
out earlier, you can try to leap to conclusions based
on the oral arguments, but it's a slippery thing to do.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
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(12:22):
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Speaker 1 (12:24):
And of course the alarm goes off after they've smashed
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Speaker 6 (12:28):
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Speaker 2 (13:04):
We're out of time, and we'll have plenty of time
to talk about tariffs in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
But just on a broad principle though, how many times
did we say during the Biden administration to Democrats, don't
you understand your president using these extraordinary wild powers to
do things that are probably not the executives to do.
Don't you understand the other side of be in power
at some point and how unwise you're being? Well, I
(13:31):
am consistent. If nothing else, same thing applies.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
My question was going to be Trump has been talking
about wanting to do tariffs his whole life. Was he
always planning on using this emergency Act? Or how was
he planning on doing it?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Huh, I haven't heard that question answered. Are you familiar
with the Oho network? The eighth tier sports network. It's
a thing and it's kind of funny, among other things.
All the way, stay here.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Strong.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
The Presidential Fitness test is back now.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Trump says he wants to be sure America's future generations
are strong, healthy, and successful.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
At least I think that's what he said. He was
knowing on a KFC twelve piece at the time, the
Presidential Fitness Test.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
If you're old enough to remember doing that, he had
some pretty high standards. Either you're going to be a
Navy seal or you're gonna you know, not pass. I
guess those are your sale.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's right, Yeah, mushmallow, get out of my sight, said
my Jim teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Coming up, we need to talk about this. I don't
know if you're tired of AI talk or not. I'm
definitely not. It is now officially much bigger than the
dot com boom of the nineties was in terms of
the way it has taken over the stock market. And
people talk about the dot com boom still because it
was such a disruptive force. But AI's significantly bigger than that.
(14:54):
VIDIA is worth more than it's got more than the
GDP of like every country on Earth's like but three
or something. Anyway, more amazing stats about that coming up.
Are you familiar with the OCHO? It started with it
as a joke. There was the movie dodge Ball that
was quite hilarious. And in the movie Dodgeball, it aired
on the OCHO Network. So it became a thing where
(15:16):
ESPN would talk about the OHO for like really third
tier sports, and then they started doing it, and now
this will be the ninth year in a row where
they have they set aside, I think three days of
programming on the O Show for all these sports that
you know aren't aren't really sports that I mean. They've
got everything from paintball, which is kind.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Of a sport. There's somebody I've had some great times
playing paintball.
Speaker 8 (15:42):
I was gonna ask if you guys, have you ever
been shot with one of those.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I've never done paper and over again, which is surprising
you have, Joe, I've never done paintball.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh yeah, you remember. I used to do it with
my son in sun River, Oregon out in the woods. Uh,
just a big wooded field of play, Katie. It was fin. So.
Speaker 8 (16:01):
I grew up in a canyon, and so all the
guys that lived near us in our housing community, we
would go into the canyon and we'd hide behind the trees.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh soh of last, go paintballing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, my son's super into it. Uh, but they have
all kinds.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
How much time I got.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I don't know what the slippery stairs competition is, but
that sounds like something I would like to watch.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Oh, they put soap on inflatable stairs and you have
to try to awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
What is extreme archery? Yikes?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
They do for the kids. They do, of course, have dodgeball.
They have a pillow fight competition. They have a mullet competition.
I don't know how that's a sport. They have diving chests.
You have to dive down deep into the water the
chessboards on the bottom, move your piece, then come back.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Up for air. Among other things.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Wow, robot fighting, yes, the foot golf you only use
your feet.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Wow. Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's a million of bike polo, world action and knife
throwing that sounds good. I don't know what banana ball is,
coffin wars. Don't know what that is either, tire wrestling
that sounds good, big boy soap hockey.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Tire wrestling, uh huh, but that's on the OCHO. Look
for that over the next several days. Sounds like this
sort of thing. If you sat there drunk, you could
have a really, really good time.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well belated Happy birthday too, medicare celebrating it's what was it,
fiftieth birthday yesterday? Jack sixty seventh, sixtieth sixtieth, Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Lindon Mains Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law sixty
years ago this week. It has cost us many, many
trillions of dollars and not sure it's done anybody any
good at all?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
How do you like?
Speaker 9 (17:47):
That?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Reminds me of the old Internet meme, how it started,
how it's going. Yeah, and we'll talk to Craig the
healthcare guru about that next, among other fair shouldn't you
for all those trillions of dollars have amazing successful results
or at least some successful results for tens of trillions
of dollars. Are you asking about a government program or
(18:10):
like anything else on earth? And nobody program different stand,
nobody's talking about it anyway. We will coming up Armstrong
and Getty.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We're about to have our healthcare experts. Craig gotwalls on.
I'll bet he could do this so on the OCHO network.
One of the sports that they have on the OCHO
this weekend, the Microsoft Excel World Championship Finals. I'll bet
Craig would be good at that. Just wow, sort of
person that excels at excel. So we're talking about Medicare
and Medicaid. It's the sixty year anniversary of it being
(18:43):
signed into law. Listen to this stat will you? And
the Wall Street Journal was writing about this the other day.
It's why we decided to have Craig on, because he's
an expert in this. We have spent in this country.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Forty five trillion.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Dollars since nineteen sixty five on these two with out
evidence of effectiveness, without any evidence that it's done anybody
any good. Forty five trillion dollars. And to prepare for
the chat, I've been flipping through every headline I can
find over the last several days about Medicare and Medicaid
(19:18):
turning sixty and they are either glowingly positive yep. Or
they talk about the savage, brutal, inhumane cuts that the
big beautiful Bill is going to enact for every single
one that came up in my gig gig Google search,
so to discuss that in other fair, please welcome to
the Armstrong and Getty Show once again. Craig got Walls.
Craig the healthcare guru attorney, law benefit consultant, Benefit Revolution. Craig,
(19:42):
how are you, sir?
Speaker 7 (19:44):
I'm good, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
How are you a Paul? Just terrific? Well, he's a Paul.
I'm terrific. So back to the internet meme. How did
it begin or how did it start? How's it going?
What was the idea in the first place?
Speaker 7 (19:58):
Yeah, so, well, if you just medicaid, which is the
element that was designed to cover the lowest income amongst us,
those that were the most downtrodden, that needed the most help,
that was designed to cover two percent of the American population.
You can go back to the congressional record and you
can see it clearly written. This is this is just
a safety net, folks. This is what we this is
(20:20):
what we have to do at the bare minimum to
cover the most downtrodden amongst us. Well, it now covers
four out of ten babies born.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well, that's because the standard of living is declined so
much in the last fifty years. Oh no, it's actually
quite the opposite. Go on, Craig.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
Sorry, well, yeah, and that's just medicaid. When you combine
Medicare and Medicaid together, you'll see waste fraud and abuse
studies that range from twenty five to thirty five percent
across the board within those systems.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, that's another thing is from the one article that
maybe a third of it we're spending about a trillion
dollars year, about a.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Third of it is waste.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I don't want to now you put you on the
spot because you're not a historian. But like backing up
even another step, what brought about the legislation that LBJ
signed in the law sixty years ago this week? There
was there a real feeling in this country that you know,
people weren't getting medical care and falling through the cracks or.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
What drove it?
Speaker 7 (21:18):
No, honestly, Jack, it's a perversion of the tax code.
So you know, like third party insurance started in the
twenties and thirties. You know, you'd have a little policy
that you bought just for hospital services. But then what
happened in World War Two was we put wage freezes on,
but companies still looked for ways to recruit employees. So
(21:39):
they couldn't do it with wages, so they started to
do it with healthcare. Oh interesting, and the government said,
you know what, that's a good idea. We like you
buying health care for your workers. So we're not going
to tax you on anything you buy healthcare wise, well,
just like everything else, right, just like with with our
college tuition. Once you have this tremendous tax break going on,
(22:01):
this thing just blew up. From about nineteen forty through
nineteen sixty, it just took off, and then the government
expansion of it was just the next logical step. You've
got crony capitalism going on, let's get the government involved too.
And to the point now where you know it's it's
literally to the point in blue states where taxpayers fund
seventy one percent of all healthcare, and in the country
(22:23):
nationally it's sixty seven percent of all health care.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Wow, we don't want socialized medicine, everybody says, yeah, we
have it to a large extent.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Well, So the headline I've been quoting all week long
from the Wall Street General opinion piece that we've spent
forty five trillion dollars without substantial evidence of effectiveness?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is that overstated or does that sound about right to you?
Speaker 7 (22:44):
It's close to right. I think it's a little overstated.
I think the number is closer to thirty trillion, But
I mean, you know who's counting at the point that that, yeah,
it's you know what. The one that you'd run into
pushback out here in the industry is with Medicare. So
if you tried to peel Medicare back, you'd have I mean,
(23:04):
just you know, right left and center, you'd have just
absolute mutiny on your hands of the oldsters saying I
paid into it for all these years. You can't peel
it back. And I will say that when you look
at the studies on the efficacy of the programs, it's
pretty clear that Medicaid isn't able to show that it
causes any better health outcomes. And part of that's because
(23:25):
of lifestyle of people that are on Medicaid, the longer
wait times, et cetera. But Medicare it's a much more
mixed record where you know, there might actually be some
benefit to Medicare.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
But listen to what you just said, there might be
some benefit. We're spending a trillion dollars a year on
these programs, and the best you can do is say
there might be some benefit.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Well, cobbling them both together, Jack, it's like one one
and three quarter trillion a year when you act them
all together. But yes, so because if you were to
fund your own health care outside of Medicare, if you
were to completely be a free market system where you
had a relationship with a doctor and you funded your own,
I think it's really clear that your outcomes would be better,
you'd be more invested in it, you'd have a better
(24:11):
a more personal relationship. So that now if you were
to say, well, it's either Medicare or nothing. Either I'm
going to have a Medicare doctor, I'm going to have nothing, well,
then it's also it's pretty clear that Medicare is better
than nothing. But surely that's a tough choice, you see.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So one of the most interesting things we've learned from
you through the year's Craig, Oh, before I get to that,
it is true, is it not that there are now healthy,
working age single men on Medicaid?
Speaker 7 (24:42):
Yes, And then that was yeah. I wanted to circle
back to that in your intro because you know, the
one big beautiful bill that the draconian requirement is that
you now have to either volunteer or take a class
for at least eighty hours a month to remain on Medicaid.
That's this horrible draconian requirement we put in for able
bodied humans.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Right, which I understand is pretty easy to game. You know,
you have a friend or something that signed some paperwork
that claims you volunteer.
Speaker 7 (25:10):
And so of course I was teaching a class at
a university during the pandemic, and we had something similar
that came through the pandemic where if you took a class,
you got an extra amount of unemployment effectively, and the
class quadrupled in size from what it normally was, and
you just had people sitting there, not even doing the work,
so they could just check the box that they attended
(25:30):
and get there and get their gum and cheese.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, it's like when I was trying to hire babysitters
through one of the most popular websites in the country
and nobody would ever like respond, and somebody finally told me, no, no,
that's just so they can fill out their paperwork showing
they're looking for a job that qualifies you for variety
of things.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
They don't want the job.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Right.
Speaker 7 (25:49):
I with a number of client employers in the same
situation where you just I've literally walked into one of
my clients in a rural county and there's people standard
charge get their app pajamas.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, can you repeat that? You glitched out?
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Oh, I'm sorry. I was one of my clients in
a rural county that they get a lot of applicants,
they have a lot of turnover. I showed up there
one day and there's all these there's all these employe
potential employees lined up to get their application of HR
and some of them are literally standing there in their pajamas.
They don't want the job, they just want to check
the box.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
God dang it. That's the problem with socialism. People find workarounds, right,
Which brings me to my greater question, back to one
of the most interesting things we've learned from you, Craig,
and and it go. It has to do with the
utterly bizarre, complex and perverse way a lot of this
stuff is funded. And I know a lot of those healthy,
(26:43):
you know, working age males on medicator on it because
of the perverse incentives enacted during Obamacare, and god, you
get to the provider taxes and hospital taxes. It's probably
too much for what we're going to do here today,
but the compensation rates for doctors and hospitals for for Medicaid,
for instance, is a fraction of the cost. How does
(27:04):
that work?
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Yeah, it's gotten so complicated now, Joe, And that's right. Like,
on average, a physician or a hospital is reimbursed less
than their cost, something like eighty percent of their actual
rock cost just to provide surgeries and facilities. So then
what happens is there's additional taxes built into the system,
(27:27):
primarily on employer sponsored plans that get funneled back to
the hospitals on the back end to make sure that
they're made whole. Well, of course, this is nothing more
than a hidden tax on our employer plans, such that
we're paying three hundred percent of what Medicare pays for
certain services because of the fact that Medicaid pays like
(27:48):
eighty percent of what Medicare pays for certain services.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Which enables Congress to get away with not using honest
numbers to fund the programs. They stick it to everybody
with private insurance. And I would I would guess fewer
than ten percent of Americans understand that that is going on, Dahl.
Speaker 7 (28:09):
I probably even fewer than that. It's such a it
took me years in the industry to even figure it out,
to follow the money around to all the different convoluted stops.
It makes just to see that that's what's actually happening.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, there's no way ten percent of people understand that. Yeah, yeah,
it's unbelievable. Gotline. Yeah, go ahead, Craig.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
I was gonna say, just because they keep in mind
twenty nine percent of us have private healthcare are that
are greatly funding these underpayments and this system on the
back end.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I think it's damned interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah that Joe did a little search on the news stories,
and of course every stories I've seen is like this too.
It's either a glowing isn't it fantastic that this happened?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Or neutral.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
But there's certainly outside of that Wall Street Journal opinion
piece that I came across, anybody pointing out this has
cost us a lot of money for very little good.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Yeah, No, that's right. And it it just it just
goes to show once you get something away, you can
never peel it back. Because even in even in my industry,
I've had I've had coworkers that have been in this
industry for years asked me, Hey, what's this? What are
these terrible draconian cuts gonna do with Medicaid? What's that?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Anything, he's gone. You got tired of us? So and
who can blame him? So? Uh, Craig is available. He's
actually doing some amazing stuff on uh for companies and
individuals to design their own health plan and not pay
insurance companies.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
We'll have a link at Armstrong and getty dot com
to Craig's substack. Again, that's Armstrong and getty dot com
under hotlinks and.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
A frustrating note that seems to be weaving its way
through our Friday show, which is not good.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You shouldn't be frustrated on Friday.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
But here is the biggest driver of our debt that
we've got in all of government, your Medicare Medicaid thing.
And it's a sixty anniversary and you can't get a
debate going over how good is it or how good
is it not? Or could it be improved or tweaked?
Or is it a disaster?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
No, none of that, no national debate about that at all.
Just sixty years ago today, fairy dust angels of the
dropped down, free healthcare for the down drodden. Isn't it wonderful?
In other news? And then the mean Orange man is
trying to end it? Yeah, and this stuff. We were
discussing about compensation rates and how Congress passes laws. When
(30:33):
they pass, you know, the laws that brought us these things,
or continue to fund it, they will say, and of course,
will increase the taxes and the compensation to physicians year
after year after year to fund this. But then it
would be politically really unpopular to increase those taxes, and
so they say, yeah, yeah, never mind about that, which
(30:53):
increases the gulf between costs and inflow of revenue more
and more and more every single year, and you know,
requiring it, you know, in requiring the government to stick
private tax payers or private insurance people with more and
more of the cost without admitting to what's happening. So
there's this enormous dishonesty. And perhaps if everybody understood what's
(31:18):
going on, we had some honesty, we could have an
argument in which lefties would call for very high taxes
and there should be no billionaires and we need universal
health care, and that's fine. We can have that disagreement
and then vote on it. That's what we do around here.
But the fact is, nobody knows what the facts are.
It's so shrouded in mystery.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
So we have figured out why Katy Perry and Justin
Trudeau are a romantic couple. The answer is there and
it's pretty obvious once you hear it. Among other things
we've got on the way, stay here.
Speaker 10 (31:57):
The longest lightning bolt ever on record, as signed US
have now earned. A single lightning bolt stretching five hundred
and fifteen miles across three states Texas to Missouri was
back in twenty seventeen, now confirmed. The megaflash covered the
distance in a little more than just seven seconds.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The longest light bolt lightning bolt. I don't know how
they measured that exactly, but seen by many, many people
across the Midwest. That's kind of exciting measure is that
climate change? Is that something to be worried about? Yes,
this story, if you haven't seen the video is getting
lots of attention.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
If you've seen the video, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 9 (32:33):
The terrifying moment a rod in an amusement park started
losing control. The rod in Saudi Arabia, going back and
forth with for it appears to come loose and then
it just splits in half. Many of those people, as
you can imagine, we're seriously hurt. With some hospitals nearby
declaring a state of emergency. The exact number of people
hurt and what went wrong is still unclear.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Holy crap, have you seen that video?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Plus plus They show it over and over and over
in slow motions so that you can like individually look
at each person and see did their arm break? Did
their foot get cut off? Because it's yes, Katie.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
It's it's one of those pendulum rides that swings, and
it swings all the way to the top, and then
the band that it is on just snaps and the
whole part that all the people are on slams all
the way to the ground.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Oh yeah, oh that would have been a terrifying half
a moment before. And then you land and think, is
my neck broken?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Geez? That looked like quite the jolt.
Speaker 8 (33:33):
And that's the day you decide to never go on
a ride again.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And then the woman running the thing runs away. Is
it's crashing?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The woman running the thing, it's Saudi Arabia is wearing
the full beekeepers outfit where she's just looking through the
little slit.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
That's that and that what an interesting thing that is.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, so you're one of the I don't know, wife,
slave people that they have in Saudi Arabia, not allowed
to cover, allow anything to be seen except your eyeballs
while you run the crappily put together right at the carnival.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm in favor of Carne's being forced to cover themselves,
that's true. Get can we get that going around here?
I'd like to see nothing but your eyeballs and you
could wear sunglasses if you want. Yeah, that's horrifying, terrible.
Oh jeez, here's a funny thing I came across. So
(34:29):
I mentioned yesterday that Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau, the
former Prime Minister of Canada, seemed to be a thing.
I'm sorry, Astronaut Katy Perry, I keep I keep not
throwing in that descriptor because they're lesbians. Yeah, today's today's
hottest lesbian couple. I'm Katy Perry. Let's got a spat.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So astronaut Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are a romantic item.
And it was pointed out on Mark Alpern's video last night.
It is the most romantic Trump derangement story ever.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And that exactly what's going on. Obviously, that's what driver,
it's the I have to be pro Canada with Justin
Trudeau and make a big show of it and everything
like that, how much we hate America and moving to
Canada and.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Blah blah blah that whole world is that. Isn't that fantastic?
A romantic Trump derangement syndrome story?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Right?
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I remember the famous audio from uh the Hillary Clinton
victory party there about Katy Perry's crying, Righty Gaga's crying.
On a slightly serious note about politics, New York Times
and political reporting today that Donald Trump is raising money
in an unprecedented at an unprecedented clip for lame duck.
(35:41):
Usually he's a lame duck. He can't raise any money.
He wants to give money to somebodyho's about to be
out of office. But the president's primary super pac brought in
on an unbelievable one hundred and seventy seven million dollars
in the first half of the year, and it's leadership
pack raised twenty eight million dollars. Nobody's ever seen anything
like this before. Yeah, that's something for a lame duck.
(36:02):
Great stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Two hundred million dollars total in the first six months,
with people expecting him to still have power.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I guess. As I've said a thousand times, Donald J.
Makes me insane in a lot of ways, But man,
is he making great progress on some fronts the border,
you know, most notably, and rolling back the climate cult.
Great stuff on that next hour. Hope you can stay
with us, Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Ketty arm Strong
and Jetty and he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So, if you're an NFL fan, the very first game
of the this year was last night Chargers Lions. Chargers
beat the hell out of the Lions in the Hall
of Fame game and can'ton Ohio anyway. I came across
this at Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, one of our favorite people
back when he was a forty nine Ers coach, said
(00:45):
to his team or media or somebody, because people are
talking about then all it's freaking July. There's an NFL
game and preseason and who cares and all that sort
of stuff, And he said, this game will get higher
ratings than a World Series baseball game or any NBA
Finals game. And he's right, that's how much bigger the
NFL is than the other sports.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Wow? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (01:06):
He yeah, I didn't look it up, but that's historically,
that's true, that sort of thing. That's how much bigger
the NFL is. Wow, they are the five hundred pound guerrilla.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So Kamala Harris was on Colbert last night. We talked
about this a lot. Yesterday, She's got a book out.
She announced she's not running for governor of California. She's
clearly running for president, or at least trying to put
together a team to run for California, and if she
can get the money people behind her, she will run.
She's delusional. She was on Colbert. She was always good
at those. That's why she did them. She's good at
(01:40):
the smiling, laughing and if you have a host that
wants to help you along, she's fine at it. And
I think that's what convinced her in her head she
could be president because she was good at those. She
couldn't do any interview where she has challenged on policy.
But I just wanted to hear this a little bit
about the intro because I haven't heard this.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I've just read about it and it sounds gosh.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Thanks gentlemen, My guest tonight was Vice President of the
United States. Please welcome her back to the Lake Show.
Vice President Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Listen to that crowd.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Keep you going there, my, She stands there and waves
because they're all on their feet, grinning.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
The ear to ear excitement in the.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Air cheering wildly, I guess, And.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Here you go with the USA chance. Can you imagine
what the state of the USA would be if that
half witted Well, that's not that though. What does that
tell you? That's good, Michael. What does that tell you politically? Though?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Now Colbert famously has a very left audience. That's what
he crafted on purpose. He was the number one show,
so blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Uh. But he's got that crowd. But she got beaten
by Donald Trump, and the crowd is chanting USA and
he can't get him to quiet down enough to even
ask her a question. Yeah, I'm just trying to think
of an analogous situation on the other side of the aisle,
(03:35):
like if Republicans Conservatives had just erupted in rapturous cheers
when Bob Dole was introduced for Mitt Romney after his defeat.
Although you could argue Mitt Romney was a was a
very good man, could have won, blah blah blah. But
you know the history. You always have that quote about
when people run for president and lose. That's the history
(03:56):
of people when they run for president lose. Even if
you're a good gut person. People are ardies are done
with you. You didn't come out to Chance of USA. Yeah, yeah,
especially because she was such a weak candidate. Is that
just I'm reading it?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Is it's just an opportunity to express your anti Trump enthusiasm, particularly.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Given the fact that anti Trump enthusiasm is kind of
tied up in the whole Colbert Show is getting canceled
right right because the first chant was Steve n Steve N.
So I think it's all kind of wrapped up for
those people. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I thought that was an interesting political moment. She's not
only a losing candidate. She lost to a guy whose
negatives were higher than anybody who's ever won the presidency,
and she was horrible at it and thunderous applause.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
In Chance of USA. I mean that is if they
keep sharing, folks, maybe you can get to Kamala and
Mamdani as the VP nominee that got the juices in
her brain?
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Do you have juices in your brain that got the
juices in her brain that we're thinking should I run
for prison or not? Into full tilt mode? I guarantee
you look at this should I run? How is that
even a question? Look at these people right.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
The people want me. I would be a bad American
if I did not become their leader, right, they're begging
me as will Okay, So there's that.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
And who knows what's going to happen in twenty eight
because who knows what the issues will be. It's possible
that one of the biggest issues for the mid term
or the presidential election are going to be how great
the tariffs were or what a disaster the tariffs were,
depending on how this all turns out. But so Trump
last night announces I think it was sixty eight new tariffs.
(05:41):
He had this big board with sixty eight countries on
there and what their new tariffs are, including a thirty
five percent tariff on Canada that kicks in today, and
it was a big deal. So on MSNBC, I was
watching their late night show that's on at eleven o'clock
East coast eight o'clock in California, and you know, it's
all about Hayte and try Up all the time. And
Stephanie Rule, the host of that show, had a guest
(06:03):
on and she sets him up with this anti Trump question,
hoping they're all just going to get to do some
good Trump bashing and I thought the guy's answer was
pretty interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
Trump wants people to focus on the big new tariff freeze,
but the reality is he's just pushing the deadline again,
like has Taco Tuesday become Taco Thursday at the White House?
Speaker 6 (06:24):
You know, Steph, I don't think so. I think these
are for real. I think tonight's a fairly historic night
where I think you can go back and when you
write the history, you'll say this is the night that
the global free trade era begun by the United States
and the post war era led by the United States
really came to an end. There is now, I think,
(06:44):
a permanent tariff curtain around this country.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I thought that was some pretty good analysis and there
should be more of that. Whether it's going to be
a good and he says, he goes on to say,
which is abnormally fair for HIMSNBC. He goes on to say,
whether this turns out to be a good thing for
the United States or not, you know, will be proven
over time. He didn't automatically say it was gonna be
(07:10):
a bad thing, but it's a giant deal.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
The whole taco thing is a stupid narrative. New York
Times wrote that a week or so ago, I mentioned
that The New York Times said, Hey, I know the
taco joke is funny, but the reality is Trump has
done it. We live in a much different world of
tariffs now than before he came into office. It's real,
it's not. It's not.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He talked big and there and things didn't change. No,
things changed a lot, and we'll.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
See how it turns out. Right. Yeah, and this story
doesn't really lend itself very well to hit and run,
you know, media of whatever sort and what you just
quoted the fellas saying kind of anticipate in one of
the points I was gonna make. I have some pretty
strong opinions about some aspects of this, but we won't
(07:56):
know until time passes. Well, hell, we don't even know
if the tariffs are going to be an acted stand
by for that. But if it were, if what Trump
is doing were one hundred percent right and wise and
patriotic and far seeing, there would be a period of
(08:16):
disruption and discomfort that we would have to get through
to get to that better result, which is one of
the reason modern democracies often don't solve their problems. I mean,
like our budgetary problems it's fairly obvious how we need
to do that, but we will never put up with
the difficult period that we need to go through to
(08:37):
fix it. And so I readily admit knee jerk analysis.
What Trump is doing is either going to be wrong
or it's just unfair. It's just dumb. Having said that,
and it is absolutely hilarious to me how little coverage
this is getting. The US Court of Appeals for the
(08:57):
Federal Circuit on Thursday yesterday heard oral arguments in a
challenge to the Worldwide Tariffs and the editorial board of
the Wall Street Journal's lead is, well, that was painful
for the Trump administration's lawyer. That is, judge after judge
doubted the administration's arguments. And so what you need to
(09:18):
know is the administration says the nineteen seventy seven International
Emergency Economic Powers Act also known as IEP or whatever
it is, grants the president's sweeping authority to impose tariffs,
and the judges seemed very very skeptical, which doesn't necessarily
prove anything. They'll put out a ruling then we don't
have to guess. But one of the judges right out
(09:41):
of the gate pointed out that no president has ever
used the emergency law to impose tariffs. And they got
into a discussion with the lawyers about, well, that's true,
but the law is written broadly to give the president
the right to use whatever tools he deems appropriate. The
judges weren't buying it. Why should we read tariffs into
(10:02):
that statue? Is the plane meaning of regulate and that
has to do with a verbage in the statute to
impose tariffs or taxes? And isn't the administration uppending the
entire tariff schedule that Congress enacted. Then you have to
get into Nixon's across the board ten percent tariffs in
nineteen seventy one. It would take too long to explain.
But they said, no, this is very different in a
(10:24):
number of different ways, and it ends up being whether
you like it or not. And it'll get to the
Supreme Court almost certainly unless they think the appeals Court
is right. And they say, no, we're not going to
take it because we think they're right. It's a great question.
Hang on a second. It's a great question about Congress
versus the executive branch and who gets to do what
(10:45):
and how to interpret broad statutes. And you remember us
on the libertarian conservative side, we're really happy. Last year
the High Court put out a ruling happened to be
called Low or Bright that says, no, judges don't automatically
defer to the administrative state the regulator's interpretations of vague laws.
You got to figure out what Congress meant, and remember
(11:06):
the Major Questions doctrine says Congress must give the president
express authority for actions with economic or political significance, otherwise
he's overstepping his bounds.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
But you said it'll get to the Supreme Court. Is
that something they could rule on before October, like jump
in and you know, take off their summer shorts and
put on the robes and look at this because October
is a long way away.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, sure, yeah. They could do a couple
of things. They could announce immediately that they're not taking
the case after this the Appeals Court rules.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
And which means it stands, and you're anticipating the Appeals
Court will rule that Trump can't do this.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I'm leaning that way with you know, just a moderate
level of confidence. Well, because you know, as you pointed
out earlier, you can try to leap to conclusions based
on the oral arguments, but it's a slippery thing to do.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Okay, I got a question about that, But first we
ought to tell you about simply Safe, which is a
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sensors on the doors and the windows, and the cameras
and the live guard protection and AI involved in all
(12:22):
that sort of stuff, you're going to feel atle lot better.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And of course the alarm goes off after they've smashed
your window.
Speaker 6 (12:28):
No.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
With simply Safe, and this is the amazing part. The
AI powered cameras and live monitoring agents to tech suspicious
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And all of this monitoring plans start around a dollar
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(12:49):
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Speaker 2 (13:04):
We're out of time, and we'll have plenty of time
to talk about tariffs in the coming days, weeks, and months.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
But just on a broad principle though, how many times
did we say during the Biden administration to Democrats, don't
you understand your president using these extraordinary wild powers to
do things that are probably not the executives to do.
Don't you understand the other side of be in power
at some point and how unwise you're being? Well, I
(13:31):
am consistent. If nothing else, same thing applies.
Speaker 7 (13:34):
Well.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
My question was going to be Trump has been talking
about wanting to do tariffs his whole life. Was he
always planning on using this emergency Act? Or how was
he planning on doing it?
Speaker 1 (13:45):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Huh, I haven't heard that question answered. Are you familiar
with the Oho network? The eighth tier sports network. It's
a thing and it's kind of funny, among other things.
All the way, stay here.
Speaker 7 (14:00):
Strong.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
The Presidential Fitness test is back now.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Trump says he wants to be sure America's future generations
are strong, healthy, and successful.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
At least I think that's what he said. He was
knowing on a KFC twelve piece at the time, the
Presidential Fitness Test.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
If you're old enough to remember doing that, he had
some pretty high standards. Either you're going to be a
Navy seal or you're gonna you know, not pass. I
guess those are your sale.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's right, Yeah, mushmallow, get out of my sight, said
my Jim teacher.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Coming up, we need to talk about this. I don't
know if you're tired of AI talk or not. I'm
definitely not. It is now officially much bigger than the
dot com boom of the nineties was in terms of
the way it has taken over the stock market. And
people talk about the dot com boom still because it
was such a disruptive force. But AI's significantly bigger than that.
(14:54):
VIDIA is worth more than it's got more than the
GDP of like every country on Earth's like but three
or something. Anyway, more amazing stats about that coming up.
Are you familiar with the OCHO? It started with it
as a joke. There was the movie dodge Ball that
was quite hilarious. And in the movie Dodgeball, it aired
on the OCHO Network. So it became a thing where
(15:16):
ESPN would talk about the OHO for like really third
tier sports, and then they started doing it, and now
this will be the ninth year in a row where
they have they set aside, I think three days of
programming on the O Show for all these sports that
you know aren't aren't really sports that I mean. They've
got everything from paintball, which is kind.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Of a sport. There's somebody I've had some great times
playing paintball.
Speaker 8 (15:42):
I was gonna ask if you guys, have you ever
been shot with one of those.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
I've never done paper and over again, which is surprising
you have, Joe, I've never done paintball.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Oh yeah, you remember. I used to do it with
my son in sun River, Oregon out in the woods. Uh,
just a big wooded field of play, Katie. It was fin. So.
Speaker 8 (16:01):
I grew up in a canyon, and so all the
guys that lived near us in our housing community, we
would go into the canyon and we'd hide behind the trees.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh soh of last, go paintballing.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Yeah, my son's super into it. Uh, but they have
all kinds.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
How much time I got.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I don't know what the slippery stairs competition is, but
that sounds like something I would like to watch.
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Oh, they put soap on inflatable stairs and you have
to try to awesome.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
What is extreme archery? Yikes?
Speaker 2 (16:33):
They do for the kids. They do, of course, have dodgeball.
They have a pillow fight competition. They have a mullet competition.
I don't know how that's a sport. They have diving chests.
You have to dive down deep into the water the
chessboards on the bottom, move your piece, then come back.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Up for air. Among other things.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Wow, robot fighting, yes, the foot golf you only use
your feet.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Wow. Uh.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
There's a million of bike polo, world action and knife
throwing that sounds good. I don't know what banana ball is,
coffin wars. Don't know what that is either, tire wrestling
that sounds good, big boy soap hockey.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
I don't know what that is.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Tire wrestling, uh huh, but that's on the OCHO. Look
for that over the next several days. Sounds like this
sort of thing. If you sat there drunk, you could
have a really, really good time.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Well belated Happy birthday too, medicare celebrating it's what was it,
fiftieth birthday yesterday? Jack sixty seventh, sixtieth sixtieth, Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Lindon Mains Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law sixty
years ago this week. It has cost us many, many
trillions of dollars and not sure it's done anybody any
good at all?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
How do you like?
Speaker 9 (17:47):
That?
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Reminds me of the old Internet meme, how it started,
how it's going. Yeah, and we'll talk to Craig the
healthcare guru about that next, among other fair shouldn't you
for all those trillions of dollars have amazing successful results
or at least some successful results for tens of trillions
of dollars. Are you asking about a government program or
(18:10):
like anything else on earth? And nobody program different stand,
nobody's talking about it anyway. We will coming up Armstrong
and Getty.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
We're about to have our healthcare experts. Craig gotwalls on.
I'll bet he could do this so on the OCHO network.
One of the sports that they have on the OCHO
this weekend, the Microsoft Excel World Championship Finals. I'll bet
Craig would be good at that. Just wow, sort of
person that excels at excel. So we're talking about Medicare
and Medicaid. It's the sixty year anniversary of it being
(18:43):
signed into law. Listen to this stat will you? And
the Wall Street Journal was writing about this the other day.
It's why we decided to have Craig on, because he's
an expert in this. We have spent in this country.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Forty five trillion.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Dollars since nineteen sixty five on these two with out
evidence of effectiveness, without any evidence that it's done anybody
any good. Forty five trillion dollars. And to prepare for
the chat, I've been flipping through every headline I can
find over the last several days about Medicare and Medicaid
(19:18):
turning sixty and they are either glowingly positive yep. Or
they talk about the savage, brutal, inhumane cuts that the
big beautiful Bill is going to enact for every single
one that came up in my gig gig Google search,
so to discuss that in other fair, please welcome to
the Armstrong and Getty Show once again. Craig got Walls.
Craig the healthcare guru attorney, law benefit consultant, Benefit Revolution. Craig,
(19:42):
how are you, sir?
Speaker 7 (19:44):
I'm good, gentlemen.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
How are you a Paul? Just terrific? Well, he's a Paul.
I'm terrific. So back to the internet meme. How did
it begin or how did it start? How's it going?
What was the idea in the first place?
Speaker 7 (19:58):
Yeah, so, well, if you just medicaid, which is the
element that was designed to cover the lowest income amongst us,
those that were the most downtrodden, that needed the most help,
that was designed to cover two percent of the American population.
You can go back to the congressional record and you
can see it clearly written. This is this is just
a safety net, folks. This is what we this is
(20:20):
what we have to do at the bare minimum to
cover the most downtrodden amongst us. Well, it now covers
four out of ten babies born.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Well, that's because the standard of living is declined so
much in the last fifty years. Oh no, it's actually
quite the opposite. Go on, Craig.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
Sorry, well, yeah, and that's just medicaid. When you combine
Medicare and Medicaid together, you'll see waste fraud and abuse
studies that range from twenty five to thirty five percent
across the board within those systems.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, that's another thing is from the one article that
maybe a third of it we're spending about a trillion
dollars year, about a.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Third of it is waste.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I don't want to now you put you on the
spot because you're not a historian. But like backing up
even another step, what brought about the legislation that LBJ
signed in the law sixty years ago this week? There
was there a real feeling in this country that you know,
people weren't getting medical care and falling through the cracks or.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
What drove it?
Speaker 7 (21:18):
No, honestly, Jack, it's a perversion of the tax code.
So you know, like third party insurance started in the
twenties and thirties. You know, you'd have a little policy
that you bought just for hospital services. But then what
happened in World War Two was we put wage freezes on,
but companies still looked for ways to recruit employees. So
(21:39):
they couldn't do it with wages, so they started to
do it with healthcare. Oh interesting, and the government said,
you know what, that's a good idea. We like you
buying health care for your workers. So we're not going
to tax you on anything you buy healthcare wise, well,
just like everything else, right, just like with with our
college tuition. Once you have this tremendous tax break going on,
(22:01):
this thing just blew up. From about nineteen forty through
nineteen sixty, it just took off, and then the government
expansion of it was just the next logical step. You've
got crony capitalism going on, let's get the government involved too.
And to the point now where you know it's it's
literally to the point in blue states where taxpayers fund
seventy one percent of all healthcare, and in the country
(22:23):
nationally it's sixty seven percent of all health care.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
Wow, we don't want socialized medicine, everybody says, yeah, we
have it to a large extent.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Well, So the headline I've been quoting all week long
from the Wall Street General opinion piece that we've spent
forty five trillion dollars without substantial evidence of effectiveness?
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Is that overstated or does that sound about right to you?
Speaker 7 (22:44):
It's close to right. I think it's a little overstated.
I think the number is closer to thirty trillion, But
I mean, you know who's counting at the point that that, yeah,
it's you know what. The one that you'd run into
pushback out here in the industry is with Medicare. So
if you tried to peel Medicare back, you'd have I mean,
(23:04):
just you know, right left and center, you'd have just
absolute mutiny on your hands of the oldsters saying I
paid into it for all these years. You can't peel
it back. And I will say that when you look
at the studies on the efficacy of the programs, it's
pretty clear that Medicaid isn't able to show that it
causes any better health outcomes. And part of that's because
(23:25):
of lifestyle of people that are on Medicaid, the longer
wait times, et cetera. But Medicare it's a much more
mixed record where you know, there might actually be some
benefit to Medicare.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
But listen to what you just said, there might be
some benefit. We're spending a trillion dollars a year on
these programs, and the best you can do is say
there might be some benefit.
Speaker 7 (23:49):
Well, cobbling them both together, Jack, it's like one one
and three quarter trillion a year when you act them
all together. But yes, so because if you were to
fund your own health care outside of Medicare, if you
were to completely be a free market system where you
had a relationship with a doctor and you funded your own,
I think it's really clear that your outcomes would be better,
you'd be more invested in it, you'd have a better
(24:11):
a more personal relationship. So that now if you were
to say, well, it's either Medicare or nothing. Either I'm
going to have a Medicare doctor, I'm going to have nothing, well,
then it's also it's pretty clear that Medicare is better
than nothing. But surely that's a tough choice, you see.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So one of the most interesting things we've learned from
you through the year's Craig, Oh, before I get to that,
it is true, is it not that there are now healthy,
working age single men on Medicaid?
Speaker 7 (24:42):
Yes, And then that was yeah. I wanted to circle
back to that in your intro because you know, the
one big beautiful bill that the draconian requirement is that
you now have to either volunteer or take a class
for at least eighty hours a month to remain on Medicaid.
That's this horrible draconian requirement we put in for able
bodied humans.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Right, which I understand is pretty easy to game. You know,
you have a friend or something that signed some paperwork
that claims you volunteer.
Speaker 7 (25:10):
And so of course I was teaching a class at
a university during the pandemic, and we had something similar
that came through the pandemic where if you took a class,
you got an extra amount of unemployment effectively, and the
class quadrupled in size from what it normally was, and
you just had people sitting there, not even doing the work,
so they could just check the box that they attended
(25:30):
and get there and get their gum and cheese.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, it's like when I was trying to hire babysitters
through one of the most popular websites in the country
and nobody would ever like respond, and somebody finally told me, no, no,
that's just so they can fill out their paperwork showing
they're looking for a job that qualifies you for variety
of things.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
They don't want the job.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Right.
Speaker 7 (25:49):
I with a number of client employers in the same
situation where you just I've literally walked into one of
my clients in a rural county and there's people standard
charge get their app pajamas.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, can you repeat that? You glitched out?
Speaker 7 (26:05):
Oh, I'm sorry. I was one of my clients in
a rural county that they get a lot of applicants,
they have a lot of turnover. I showed up there
one day and there's all these there's all these employe
potential employees lined up to get their application of HR
and some of them are literally standing there in their pajamas.
They don't want the job, they just want to check
the box.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
God dang it. That's the problem with socialism. People find workarounds, right,
Which brings me to my greater question, back to one
of the most interesting things we've learned from you, Craig,
and and it go. It has to do with the
utterly bizarre, complex and perverse way a lot of this
stuff is funded. And I know a lot of those healthy,
(26:43):
you know, working age males on medicator on it because
of the perverse incentives enacted during Obamacare, and god, you
get to the provider taxes and hospital taxes. It's probably
too much for what we're going to do here today,
but the compensation rates for doctors and hospitals for for Medicaid,
for instance, is a fraction of the cost. How does
(27:04):
that work?
Speaker 7 (27:06):
Yeah, it's gotten so complicated now, Joe, And that's right. Like,
on average, a physician or a hospital is reimbursed less
than their cost, something like eighty percent of their actual
rock cost just to provide surgeries and facilities. So then
what happens is there's additional taxes built into the system,
(27:27):
primarily on employer sponsored plans that get funneled back to
the hospitals on the back end to make sure that
they're made whole. Well, of course, this is nothing more
than a hidden tax on our employer plans, such that
we're paying three hundred percent of what Medicare pays for
certain services because of the fact that Medicaid pays like
(27:48):
eighty percent of what Medicare pays for certain services.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
Which enables Congress to get away with not using honest
numbers to fund the programs. They stick it to everybody
with private insurance. And I would I would guess fewer
than ten percent of Americans understand that that is going on, Dahl.
Speaker 7 (28:09):
I probably even fewer than that. It's such a it
took me years in the industry to even figure it out,
to follow the money around to all the different convoluted stops.
It makes just to see that that's what's actually happening.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, there's no way ten percent of people understand that. Yeah, yeah,
it's unbelievable. Gotline. Yeah, go ahead, Craig.
Speaker 7 (28:31):
I was gonna say, just because they keep in mind
twenty nine percent of us have private healthcare are that
are greatly funding these underpayments and this system on the
back end.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I think it's damned interesting.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Yeah that Joe did a little search on the news stories,
and of course every stories I've seen is like this too.
It's either a glowing isn't it fantastic that this happened?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
Or neutral.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
But there's certainly outside of that Wall Street Journal opinion
piece that I came across, anybody pointing out this has
cost us a lot of money for very little good.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Yeah, No, that's right. And it it just it just
goes to show once you get something away, you can
never peel it back. Because even in even in my industry,
I've had I've had coworkers that have been in this
industry for years asked me, Hey, what's this? What are
these terrible draconian cuts gonna do with Medicaid? What's that?
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Anything, he's gone. You got tired of us? So and
who can blame him? So? Uh, Craig is available. He's
actually doing some amazing stuff on uh for companies and
individuals to design their own health plan and not pay
insurance companies.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
We'll have a link at Armstrong and getty dot com
to Craig's substack. Again, that's Armstrong and getty dot com
under hotlinks and.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
A frustrating note that seems to be weaving its way
through our Friday show, which is not good.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
You shouldn't be frustrated on Friday.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
But here is the biggest driver of our debt that
we've got in all of government, your Medicare Medicaid thing.
And it's a sixty anniversary and you can't get a
debate going over how good is it or how good
is it not? Or could it be improved or tweaked?
Or is it a disaster?
Speaker 1 (30:12):
No, none of that, no national debate about that at all.
Just sixty years ago today, fairy dust angels of the
dropped down, free healthcare for the down drodden. Isn't it wonderful?
In other news? And then the mean Orange man is
trying to end it? Yeah, and this stuff. We were
discussing about compensation rates and how Congress passes laws. When
(30:33):
they pass, you know, the laws that brought us these things,
or continue to fund it, they will say, and of course,
will increase the taxes and the compensation to physicians year
after year after year to fund this. But then it
would be politically really unpopular to increase those taxes, and
so they say, yeah, yeah, never mind about that, which
(30:53):
increases the gulf between costs and inflow of revenue more
and more and more every single year, and you know,
requiring it, you know, in requiring the government to stick
private tax payers or private insurance people with more and
more of the cost without admitting to what's happening. So
there's this enormous dishonesty. And perhaps if everybody understood what's
(31:18):
going on, we had some honesty, we could have an
argument in which lefties would call for very high taxes
and there should be no billionaires and we need universal
health care, and that's fine. We can have that disagreement
and then vote on it. That's what we do around here.
But the fact is, nobody knows what the facts are.
It's so shrouded in mystery.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
So we have figured out why Katy Perry and Justin
Trudeau are a romantic couple. The answer is there and
it's pretty obvious once you hear it. Among other things
we've got on the way, stay here.
Speaker 10 (31:57):
The longest lightning bolt ever on record, as signed US
have now earned. A single lightning bolt stretching five hundred
and fifteen miles across three states Texas to Missouri was
back in twenty seventeen, now confirmed. The megaflash covered the
distance in a little more than just seven seconds.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
The longest light bolt lightning bolt. I don't know how
they measured that exactly, but seen by many, many people
across the Midwest. That's kind of exciting measure is that
climate change? Is that something to be worried about? Yes,
this story, if you haven't seen the video is getting
lots of attention.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
If you've seen the video, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 9 (32:33):
The terrifying moment a rod in an amusement park started
losing control. The rod in Saudi Arabia, going back and
forth with for it appears to come loose and then
it just splits in half. Many of those people, as
you can imagine, we're seriously hurt. With some hospitals nearby
declaring a state of emergency. The exact number of people
hurt and what went wrong is still unclear.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Holy crap, have you seen that video?
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Plus plus They show it over and over and over
in slow motions so that you can like individually look
at each person and see did their arm break? Did
their foot get cut off? Because it's yes, Katie.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
It's it's one of those pendulum rides that swings, and
it swings all the way to the top, and then
the band that it is on just snaps and the
whole part that all the people are on slams all
the way to the ground.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Oh yeah, oh that would have been a terrifying half
a moment before. And then you land and think, is
my neck broken?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Geez? That looked like quite the jolt.
Speaker 8 (33:33):
And that's the day you decide to never go on
a ride again.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
And then the woman running the thing runs away. Is
it's crashing?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
The woman running the thing, it's Saudi Arabia is wearing
the full beekeepers outfit where she's just looking through the
little slit.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
That's that and that what an interesting thing that is.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, so you're one of the I don't know, wife,
slave people that they have in Saudi Arabia, not allowed
to cover, allow anything to be seen except your eyeballs
while you run the crappily put together right at the carnival.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
I'm in favor of Carne's being forced to cover themselves,
that's true. Get can we get that going around here?
I'd like to see nothing but your eyeballs and you
could wear sunglasses if you want. Yeah, that's horrifying, terrible.
Oh jeez, here's a funny thing I came across. So
(34:29):
I mentioned yesterday that Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau, the
former Prime Minister of Canada, seemed to be a thing.
I'm sorry, Astronaut Katy Perry, I keep I keep not
throwing in that descriptor because they're lesbians. Yeah, today's today's
hottest lesbian couple. I'm Katy Perry. Let's got a spat.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
So astronaut Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are a romantic item.
And it was pointed out on Mark Alpern's video last night.
It is the most romantic Trump derangement story ever.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And that exactly what's going on. Obviously, that's what driver,
it's the I have to be pro Canada with Justin
Trudeau and make a big show of it and everything
like that, how much we hate America and moving to
Canada and.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Blah blah blah that whole world is that. Isn't that fantastic?
A romantic Trump derangement syndrome story?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Right?
Speaker 7 (35:19):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I remember the famous audio from uh the Hillary Clinton
victory party there about Katy Perry's crying, Righty Gaga's crying.
On a slightly serious note about politics, New York Times
and political reporting today that Donald Trump is raising money
in an unprecedented at an unprecedented clip for lame duck.
(35:41):
Usually he's a lame duck. He can't raise any money.
He wants to give money to somebodyho's about to be
out of office. But the president's primary super pac brought in
on an unbelievable one hundred and seventy seven million dollars
in the first half of the year, and it's leadership
pack raised twenty eight million dollars. Nobody's ever seen anything
like this before. Yeah, that's something for a lame duck.
(36:02):
Great stuff.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Two hundred million dollars total in the first six months,
with people expecting him to still have power.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I guess. As I've said a thousand times, Donald J.
Makes me insane in a lot of ways, But man,
is he making great progress on some fronts the border,
you know, most notably, and rolling back the climate cult.
Great stuff on that next hour. Hope you can stay
with us, Armstrong and Getty
Hosts And Creators
Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong
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