May 12, 2025 • 22 mins
(May 12,2025)
Trump says he will sign order linking U.S. drug prices to other nations. Hamas releases Israeli-American hostage held in Gaza, Edan Alexander. A $70,000 salary, no college debt: High school shop students attract skilled-trades job offers. 3D printed houses? In L.A’s fire zones, new forms of construction take root.
Trump says he will sign order linking U.S. drug prices to other nations. Hamas releases Israeli-American hostage held in Gaza, Edan Alexander. A $70,000 salary, no college debt: High school shop students attract skilled-trades job offers. 3D printed houses? In L.A’s fire zones, new forms of construction take root.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty handle.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Here. It is a Monday morning, May twelfth.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
As we start the week, big stories going across the board.
Probably the biggest one, certainly financially, is China and the
US have announced that they are not going to war
over the tariffs. There is not going to be one
hundred and forty five percent tariff on Chinese goods coming in.
There will not be one hundred and twenty five percent
(00:30):
tariff coming in from American goods into China. So at
least now it's still high, but it's workable, and we
have a ninety day reprieve to figure out what's going
to happen, and we're going to come to the table
because trade between China and the United States is way
too important for both countries. And you can't have an
(00:52):
embargo because that's what these tariffs are. Not a terriffs,
there are a total embargo, which means products are not
manufactor and soul between each country just isn't happening. All right, Now,
let's go on what I think of some great news
about President Trump. I don't often give him kudos on
this one, I certainly do. There is a concept called
(01:15):
most favored nation status or most favored nation clause. It
happens in contracts all the time, which says, in this case,
for example, here at KFI and here specifically here, we
are five of us working on the show, all of
us under contract. If I have a clause, which I
do in my contract, and that is, anybody who gets
(01:37):
a raise, I get one. Also, whether or not I
negotiate a contract or it's in the contract. It's most
favored nation. That's what this is about, except it's reverse.
The President has issued an executive order a reversed more
favorite nation status saying that the cost of prescription drug
(02:02):
that the government pays for Medicare, Medicaid, et cetera, is
going to be no more.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
The pharmacy pharmaceutical companies.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Will pay no more than what the lowest charge is
for foreign governments foreign pharmaceutical companies. So let's say you
have the drug, the same drug, and let's say insulin,
because that was in the news, all right, Insulin got
to be several hundred dollars per month in this country. Well,
(02:32):
in France it's twenty bucks a month. In Italy it's
let's say thirty dollars a month. Well, the new executive
order says that in the United States most favored nation,
that the pharmaceutical companies cannot sell drugs for more than
twenty dollars a month because it's the most favored nation.
(02:57):
In other words, the United States is the most favored nation. Here,
we're going to reduce the cost that Americans pay for
drugs to the lowest costs that are paid overseas.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And who do you think is pissed off about that one? Huh?
You betcha big pharma.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Now what I really like about President Trump, and this
is typical Trump language, that the order, which I think
is phenomenal, would be one of the most consequential in
the nation's history, right up there with the creation of
the United States during the revolutionary times, right up there
(03:41):
with the attack of the United States and Pearl Harbor,
right up there with the Great Depression. This is one
of the most consequential, one of the most consequential issues
or decisions that any president could ever make until the
next most consequent decision that is made, not.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The emancipation Proclamation or.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
That one has play constantquestion two. Good point. And so
here's what happens. Let's say the White House in this case,
the Secret Service, which runs of the Air Force, which
runs Air Force one, et cetera, accepts the airplane that
gutter is giving to the United States Government, to the
(04:28):
White House. And as you know, the President has changed
the paint scheme of Air Force one. Have you seen
the new painting the way the plane is painted. It's
no longer that wonderful blue, that pastel blue that is magnificent,
that goes up to the front of the plane. Nope,
(04:50):
it's a red, white and blue stripe that goes down
the middle of the airplane, tiny little stripes of red,
white and blue. And as the President made that order
to change the way Air Force one was painted, he
also issued a proclamation that that decision to repaint Air
Force one was one of the most consequential decisions in
(05:14):
the nation's history.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
No, didn't. Didn't Jackie Kennedy design that.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It was actually a designer, but she okayed it. She's
the one that changed the color to this wonderful, wonderful color.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And it broke my heart. Let me turn that off.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's so iconic that, oh it's wonderful. But you know,
the bottom line is you know, Trump has to make
the decisions, and he has to make some of the
most consequential decisions in.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The history of the United States.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
For example, changing the menu on Air Force one and
saying they will be birder and fries and normal American
food one of the most one of the most sequential decisions.
The government, which buys a lot of pharmaceuticals from the
big from big Pharma, is now going to be paying
a whole lot less money under a Most Favored Nation status,
(06:14):
which effectively says we are going to pay the lowest
amount of money charged by other countries, which, by the way,
those all have national health so it's their governments that
buy drugs. It's not what we have where pharmaceutical companies
sell to middlemen who negotiate on behalf of the insurance companies,
(06:37):
and it's a really convoluted mess. And prices are way
too high and we have no idea what those prices
are about none.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So that's going to change dramatically.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And who is fighting this big Pharma now big Pharma.
And I love this because this had to do with
congressional hearings and they are the here involved getting the
presidents of the major pharmaceutical companies in front of Congress
and asking a very simple question, and that is, are
(07:12):
you overcharging because medicine and the United States costs more
than any country in the world, same medicine, by the way,
manufactured on the same manufacturing line. The only difference are
the boxes in different languages. And why is it that we,
(07:37):
the people of the United States, the taxpayers, pay so
much more, in some cases ten times as much.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And the argument from big Pharma.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Was, and I love this one, which, by the way,
they don't use anymore, because I thought that was kind
of bizarre. And that is and based on the fact
that if the government gets involved, prices will be much lower,
because that's what national medicine is about, quote, socialized medicine.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And big Pharma.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Actually argued lower prices are bad for the consumer. You
pay less money for the same drugs, and that is
bad for you because if you pay more than any
place else, that's a good thing because R and D
and the companies will invest more in producing new drugs.
(08:28):
And then the argument is, why don't you say that
in France, Why don't you say that in England or
Italy or Germany?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Why don't you make that same argument that is.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Good to pay three times, four times, ten times as much,
and they really couldn't answer that because.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Their argument was it is better for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Us if you pay more money. Okay, that one didn't
work out very well. So now the argument is, when
you look at the retail price of drugs, the consumer
really doesn't pay that much money because we offer various programs.
Insurance companies pay far less because of the negotiation. You know,
(09:11):
you've seen those ads if you watch national news, for example,
Network News.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
All they have is pharmaceutical ads, and it.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Says, if you can't astrozeneca, if you can't afford this drug,
we'll make it so you pay nothing for the first
three months or five months or whatever. And what they're
arguing is we don't. You don't, as a taxpayer, pay
what you think you're paying. So that question is followed
up with, okay, so we don't pay ten times as much.
(09:43):
So in reality we pay seven times as much based
on all the discounts you give. What is your answer
to that, because you can't answer anymore, it's better to
pay more money than any place else for the same drug.
So when they answered when the question was yes, you're
(10:06):
not paying what the retail price is, but you're still
paying double.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The answer to that, and it's a good answer.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
By the way, the pharmaceutical company came back with great
answers on that.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It was uh uh uhh uh. And the president is
unraveling that.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And why does it cost so much money here than
a dozen foreign countries.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Why can the pharmaceutical companies get away with it?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Because they can because everything is privatized, and the pharmaceutical
company has decide what is going to be charged, and
they have huge lobbying interests, and they have been able
to shut down every attempt to.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Lower prices for years. Well, Trump is straightened.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
As a matter of fact, I think he just signed
it today this morning he signed the executive order.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Good for him, big kudos. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I want to talk about what's going on here locally
in the world, in the world of business, in the
world of employment.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
All right, So, Cono, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
When I first met you, yea, what was the first
question I asked?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Who are you?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well, that beyond that did not I you don't know
what college? Yeah, did you go to college? And what
degree do you have? And you gave me your degree
which is some kind of broadcast journalism crapple, which you answered.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, I was in masscom undergrad and then a professional
communications for masters, right, And what did I say about that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Something online of its crap?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, useless crap use Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And the
same thing with everybody who comes to work. Oh, by
the way, will I never asked you that, do you
have an undergrad degree? I don't, but I did go
to two year college for a while in studying music
and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, well music, at least you have a good time
studying music. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now for the rest of people that are here, what
I tell people is number one, that's a crap degree.
Congratulations for working here at basically minimum wage is what
you get hired for here at iHeart and how much
money you spend your undergrad degree, which is completely useless. Okay,
(12:44):
that's how I start the conversation. And you wonder why
everybody hates me around here, although you don't wonder why
everybody hates me around here because I completely deride their
degree and tell them how useless, And then I ask
them how much did it cost you to work for
minimum wage?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Let's go through the numbers, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So with that being set, and by the way, I
am more right than wrong. Now I may attack it,
and attack you by making you feel far more miserable
than you probably deserve. What I say is absolutely true.
Is there an answer, Oh, you bet there is. Let's
go back to high school. I took a wood shop
(13:25):
in high school now, and I love woodshop teachers. I
don't know if you've ever seen an application for wood
shop teachers. You need a credential, a teaching credential, and
you have to be missing at least one finger to
work in wood shop. If you aren't missing a finger,
you cannot get hired. This is a law, by the way,
I want to point that out. This is California state law.
(13:49):
And wood shop and auto shop were considered sort of
the bottom of the barrel. It was the losers, the
ones that weren't academic, the ones that were ever going
to go to college, the ones that we're going to
work as mechanics at gas stations making fairly miserable money,
the ones that could never advance.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
And for the rest of us, Wow, we have college degrees.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Granted, it took me eight years to finish college, but
that is.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
A whole different story, which I'll discuss in a later time.
But we have college degrees, and what does a college
degree mean. It means a good job coming out of college.
And when I graduated college, there were jobs available. When
I graduated law school, there were jobs available. By the way, today,
(14:43):
very few jobs are available in the legal profession.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And tuition is fifty to sixty thousand dollars per year.
What are you gonna do with that one?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
You got to serve up a lot of coffees at
Starbucks in order to pay for sixty thousand dollars, by
the way, they do, because that's where you go after
law school, you start working at uh Starbucks?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Uh? Oh, Heather, I didn't ask you. Do you have
an undergrad degree? Pardon? I do?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yes, I did? And what theater?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Wow? Wow, that's worth it?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Do a show?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's worthy.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
That got your work in six seven eight. Listen, you
got to be a little dramatic to work, are right?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So Heather, let me ask you your degree in theater?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
How how was that involved or how was that Uh,
let's say.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Is a prerequisite for you working in radio news?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I would not say it was a prerequisite at all.
I think the you know all the years and have
actually worked in television news helped me get this job.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Okay, how did you How did you get your television
news job after theater?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Did it help? Well?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
My uh wait, so you said undergrad.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, the answer is no. It's just it's easy to answer. No, Okay,
got it.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I have journalism in theaters.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So please crap in hands, crap oa, it means nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
True.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Is Wall Street Journal about a kidnam Elijah Rios, not
graduating from high school until next year, but he's already
standing on a job offer right now, sixty eight thousand
dollars a year the second he graduates.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
He took his taking welding.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Classes at Father Judge Catholic High School in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Works with companies looking for workers in the skilled trade.
And that is what's going on.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Employers are dealing with a shortage of workers because baby
boomers retire and they're not being replaced. We're talking about
skilled labor. We're talking about the mechanics. We're talking about people.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That work in manufacturing. But I'm talking about high level,
not just assembling products.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And so what these manufacturers are doing are going to
high schools and having job fares. And it used to
be when manufacturing companies would go to job fares and
they wanted people who had the trades.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
No one paid attention, No one paid attention. Now they're
paying attention big time.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
High schoolers who are being trained in shop, plumbing, electrical work, welding,
And now that has spurt a revitalization. Businesses are teaming
up with high schools to enable students to work.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Part time, earning money while they learned.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
These are internships, and they're coming out of high school
with enough skills to walk into sixty seventy thousand dollars
a year jobs and with any kind of experience. If
you're good, you're talking six figures. And that's two or
three years out of high school. And let me tell you,
(18:06):
when I was third year college, I was just starting
to masturbate.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
What I started late.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
What can I tell you, when you're in college, you
develop later than when you're in high school, and.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
You do it like, what does that have to do
with anything?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Because it's a question of developing skills earlier. Now, granted
it's not a tremendous skill, but it's a skill. Nonetheless,
The point is, if I had gone to a trade school,
if I had been serious about woodshop. Although I don't
know about woodshop because I don't think there's that many
jobs in cabinetry, but certainly welding, certainly in electrical work,
(18:53):
certainly in auto shop.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
The other thing is that it's harder.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
It's not just shop, it's also shop with computer literacy.
For example, there is a company Global Affinity in Pennsylvania,
and he's the manufacturer who offered rios that sixty eight
thousand dollars a year job. Well, the equipment he uses,
for example, is a one point seven million dollar steel
(19:21):
laser cutter, and it needs some technical savvy.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
To work it. So the world has completely changed.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And I'm telling my kids, I'm telling other kids.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Who are going to go to college.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
I say, hang on a minute, you know, let's look
at borrowing money for four years and making no income
and then starting a job after college, and at what
kind of money do you make?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Now?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I'm going to not ask specifically, but kno, would you
say you make very good money?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
No? Would you say you make good money. Would you
say you make marginal money?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Answer is no, you make miserable money. With your degree.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Really bad.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
It is really bad. And that's after a four year degree.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's after six years I got the master's Oh.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's right, let's not forget getting a master's degree. Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, that was not a good choice.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Thank you. That's my point.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Now, if you had taken electronics, for example, and gone
into engineering repair of audio equipment, I'll tell you one thing.
The engineers that work in our building, they do not
make forty thousand dollars a year, not even close. And
(20:52):
how many of them have college degrees. I don't know
the answer to that. But they have a technical skill
much like the one I develop in my third year
of college. But we go in a different level, a
different avenue there, and it makes all the sense in
the world. That's the that's the new dynamic, that's the
(21:14):
new normal.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
It makes a great deal of sense.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
So if you're going to send your kids to college
and spend fifty grand a year for tuition and have
them get a Bachelor of Science degree and any of
the liberal arts, and you know what BS stands for exactly,
(21:36):
that's my point. Gary and Shannon up next. We start
again all over again. And Heather, I know you're out
of here, so thanks for being here this week because
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It, and I will miss you.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, of course you will coming back or coming up.
Gary and Shannon, we'll catch you in the morning. Kf
I am sixty.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You've been listening to The Bill Handlers Show.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty handle.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Here. It is a Monday morning, May twelfth.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
As we start the week, big stories going across the board.
Probably the biggest one, certainly financially, is China and the
US have announced that they are not going to war
over the tariffs. There is not going to be one
hundred and forty five percent tariff on Chinese goods coming in.
There will not be one hundred and twenty five percent
(00:30):
tariff coming in from American goods into China. So at
least now it's still high, but it's workable, and we
have a ninety day reprieve to figure out what's going
to happen, and we're going to come to the table
because trade between China and the United States is way
too important for both countries. And you can't have an
(00:52):
embargo because that's what these tariffs are. Not a terriffs,
there are a total embargo, which means products are not
manufactor and soul between each country just isn't happening. All right, Now,
let's go on what I think of some great news
about President Trump. I don't often give him kudos on
this one, I certainly do. There is a concept called
(01:15):
most favored nation status or most favored nation clause. It
happens in contracts all the time, which says, in this case,
for example, here at KFI and here specifically here, we
are five of us working on the show, all of
us under contract. If I have a clause, which I
do in my contract, and that is, anybody who gets
(01:37):
a raise, I get one. Also, whether or not I
negotiate a contract or it's in the contract. It's most
favored nation. That's what this is about, except it's reverse.
The President has issued an executive order a reversed more
favorite nation status saying that the cost of prescription drug
(02:02):
that the government pays for Medicare, Medicaid, et cetera, is
going to be no more.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
The pharmacy pharmaceutical companies.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Will pay no more than what the lowest charge is
for foreign governments foreign pharmaceutical companies. So let's say you
have the drug, the same drug, and let's say insulin,
because that was in the news, all right, Insulin got
to be several hundred dollars per month in this country. Well,
(02:32):
in France it's twenty bucks a month. In Italy it's
let's say thirty dollars a month. Well, the new executive
order says that in the United States most favored nation,
that the pharmaceutical companies cannot sell drugs for more than
twenty dollars a month because it's the most favored nation.
(02:57):
In other words, the United States is the most favored nation. Here,
we're going to reduce the cost that Americans pay for
drugs to the lowest costs that are paid overseas.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
And who do you think is pissed off about that one? Huh?
You betcha big pharma.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Now what I really like about President Trump, and this
is typical Trump language, that the order, which I think
is phenomenal, would be one of the most consequential in
the nation's history, right up there with the creation of
the United States during the revolutionary times, right up there
(03:41):
with the attack of the United States and Pearl Harbor,
right up there with the Great Depression. This is one
of the most consequential, one of the most consequential issues
or decisions that any president could ever make until the
next most consequent decision that is made, not.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
The emancipation Proclamation or.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
That one has play constantquestion two. Good point. And so
here's what happens. Let's say the White House in this case,
the Secret Service, which runs of the Air Force, which
runs Air Force one, et cetera, accepts the airplane that
gutter is giving to the United States Government, to the
(04:28):
White House. And as you know, the President has changed
the paint scheme of Air Force one. Have you seen
the new painting the way the plane is painted. It's
no longer that wonderful blue, that pastel blue that is magnificent,
that goes up to the front of the plane. Nope,
(04:50):
it's a red, white and blue stripe that goes down
the middle of the airplane, tiny little stripes of red,
white and blue. And as the President made that order
to change the way Air Force one was painted, he
also issued a proclamation that that decision to repaint Air
Force one was one of the most consequential decisions in
(05:14):
the nation's history.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
No, didn't. Didn't Jackie Kennedy design that.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It was actually a designer, but she okayed it. She's
the one that changed the color to this wonderful, wonderful color.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And it broke my heart. Let me turn that off.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
It's so iconic that, oh it's wonderful. But you know,
the bottom line is you know, Trump has to make
the decisions, and he has to make some of the
most consequential decisions in.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
The history of the United States.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
For example, changing the menu on Air Force one and
saying they will be birder and fries and normal American
food one of the most one of the most sequential decisions.
The government, which buys a lot of pharmaceuticals from the
big from big Pharma, is now going to be paying
a whole lot less money under a Most Favored Nation status,
(06:14):
which effectively says we are going to pay the lowest
amount of money charged by other countries, which, by the way,
those all have national health so it's their governments that
buy drugs. It's not what we have where pharmaceutical companies
sell to middlemen who negotiate on behalf of the insurance companies,
(06:37):
and it's a really convoluted mess. And prices are way
too high and we have no idea what those prices
are about none.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
So that's going to change dramatically.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And who is fighting this big Pharma now big Pharma.
And I love this because this had to do with
congressional hearings and they are the here involved getting the
presidents of the major pharmaceutical companies in front of Congress
and asking a very simple question, and that is, are
(07:12):
you overcharging because medicine and the United States costs more
than any country in the world, same medicine, by the way,
manufactured on the same manufacturing line. The only difference are
the boxes in different languages. And why is it that we,
(07:37):
the people of the United States, the taxpayers, pay so
much more, in some cases ten times as much.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And the argument from big Pharma.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Was, and I love this one, which, by the way,
they don't use anymore, because I thought that was kind
of bizarre. And that is and based on the fact
that if the government gets involved, prices will be much lower,
because that's what national medicine is about, quote, socialized medicine.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And big Pharma.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Actually argued lower prices are bad for the consumer. You
pay less money for the same drugs, and that is
bad for you because if you pay more than any
place else, that's a good thing because R and D
and the companies will invest more in producing new drugs.
(08:28):
And then the argument is, why don't you say that
in France, Why don't you say that in England or
Italy or Germany?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Why don't you make that same argument that is.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Good to pay three times, four times, ten times as much,
and they really couldn't answer that because.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Their argument was it is better for.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Us if you pay more money. Okay, that one didn't
work out very well. So now the argument is, when
you look at the retail price of drugs, the consumer
really doesn't pay that much money because we offer various programs.
Insurance companies pay far less because of the negotiation. You know,
(09:11):
you've seen those ads if you watch national news, for example,
Network News.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
All they have is pharmaceutical ads, and it.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Says, if you can't astrozeneca, if you can't afford this drug,
we'll make it so you pay nothing for the first
three months or five months or whatever. And what they're
arguing is we don't. You don't, as a taxpayer, pay
what you think you're paying. So that question is followed
up with, okay, so we don't pay ten times as much.
(09:43):
So in reality we pay seven times as much based
on all the discounts you give. What is your answer
to that, because you can't answer anymore, it's better to
pay more money than any place else for the same drug.
So when they answered when the question was yes, you're
(10:06):
not paying what the retail price is, but you're still
paying double.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The answer to that, and it's a good answer.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
By the way, the pharmaceutical company came back with great
answers on that.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It was uh uh uhh uh. And the president is
unraveling that.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
And why does it cost so much money here than
a dozen foreign countries.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Why can the pharmaceutical companies get away with it?
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Because they can because everything is privatized, and the pharmaceutical
company has decide what is going to be charged, and
they have huge lobbying interests, and they have been able
to shut down every attempt to.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Lower prices for years. Well, Trump is straightened.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
As a matter of fact, I think he just signed
it today this morning he signed the executive order.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Good for him, big kudos. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I want to talk about what's going on here locally
in the world, in the world of business, in the
world of employment.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
All right, So, Cono, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
When I first met you, yea, what was the first
question I asked?
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Who are you?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Well, that beyond that did not I you don't know
what college? Yeah, did you go to college? And what
degree do you have? And you gave me your degree
which is some kind of broadcast journalism crapple, which you answered.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Yeah, I was in masscom undergrad and then a professional
communications for masters, right, And what did I say about that.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Something online of its crap?
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Yeah, useless crap use Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And the
same thing with everybody who comes to work. Oh, by
the way, will I never asked you that, do you
have an undergrad degree? I don't, but I did go
to two year college for a while in studying music
and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Okay, well music, at least you have a good time
studying music. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
Now for the rest of people that are here, what
I tell people is number one, that's a crap degree.
Congratulations for working here at basically minimum wage is what
you get hired for here at iHeart and how much
money you spend your undergrad degree, which is completely useless. Okay,
(12:44):
that's how I start the conversation. And you wonder why
everybody hates me around here, although you don't wonder why
everybody hates me around here because I completely deride their
degree and tell them how useless, And then I ask
them how much did it cost you to work for
minimum wage?
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Let's go through the numbers, all right.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So with that being set, and by the way, I
am more right than wrong. Now I may attack it,
and attack you by making you feel far more miserable
than you probably deserve. What I say is absolutely true.
Is there an answer, Oh, you bet there is. Let's
go back to high school. I took a wood shop
(13:25):
in high school now, and I love woodshop teachers. I
don't know if you've ever seen an application for wood
shop teachers. You need a credential, a teaching credential, and
you have to be missing at least one finger to
work in wood shop. If you aren't missing a finger,
you cannot get hired. This is a law, by the way,
I want to point that out. This is California state law.
(13:49):
And wood shop and auto shop were considered sort of
the bottom of the barrel. It was the losers, the
ones that weren't academic, the ones that were ever going
to go to college, the ones that we're going to
work as mechanics at gas stations making fairly miserable money,
the ones that could never advance.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
And for the rest of us, Wow, we have college degrees.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Now.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Granted, it took me eight years to finish college, but
that is.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
A whole different story, which I'll discuss in a later time.
But we have college degrees, and what does a college
degree mean. It means a good job coming out of college.
And when I graduated college, there were jobs available. When
I graduated law school, there were jobs available. By the way, today,
(14:43):
very few jobs are available in the legal profession.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And tuition is fifty to sixty thousand dollars per year.
What are you gonna do with that one?
Speaker 3 (14:54):
You got to serve up a lot of coffees at
Starbucks in order to pay for sixty thousand dollars, by
the way, they do, because that's where you go after
law school, you start working at uh Starbucks?
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Uh? Oh, Heather, I didn't ask you. Do you have
an undergrad degree? Pardon? I do?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Yes, I did? And what theater?
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Wow? Wow, that's worth it?
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Do a show?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, that's worthy.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
That got your work in six seven eight. Listen, you
got to be a little dramatic to work, are right?
Speaker 2 (15:28):
So Heather, let me ask you your degree in theater?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
How how was that involved or how was that Uh,
let's say.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Is a prerequisite for you working in radio news?
Speaker 4 (15:39):
I would not say it was a prerequisite at all.
I think the you know all the years and have
actually worked in television news helped me get this job.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Okay, how did you How did you get your television
news job after theater?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Did it help? Well?
Speaker 4 (15:53):
My uh wait, so you said undergrad.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, the answer is no. It's just it's easy to answer. No, Okay,
got it.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I have journalism in theaters.
Speaker 3 (16:03):
So please crap in hands, crap oa, it means nothing,
all right.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
True.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Let me tell you a story.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Is Wall Street Journal about a kidnam Elijah Rios, not
graduating from high school until next year, but he's already
standing on a job offer right now, sixty eight thousand
dollars a year the second he graduates.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
He took his taking welding.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Classes at Father Judge Catholic High School in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Works with companies looking for workers in the skilled trade.
And that is what's going on.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Employers are dealing with a shortage of workers because baby
boomers retire and they're not being replaced. We're talking about
skilled labor. We're talking about the mechanics. We're talking about people.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
That work in manufacturing. But I'm talking about high level,
not just assembling products.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
And so what these manufacturers are doing are going to
high schools and having job fares. And it used to
be when manufacturing companies would go to job fares and
they wanted people who had the trades.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
No one paid attention, No one paid attention. Now they're
paying attention big time.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
High schoolers who are being trained in shop, plumbing, electrical work, welding,
And now that has spurt a revitalization. Businesses are teaming
up with high schools to enable students to work.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Part time, earning money while they learned.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
These are internships, and they're coming out of high school
with enough skills to walk into sixty seventy thousand dollars
a year jobs and with any kind of experience. If
you're good, you're talking six figures. And that's two or
three years out of high school. And let me tell you,
(18:06):
when I was third year college, I was just starting
to masturbate.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
What I started late.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
What can I tell you, when you're in college, you
develop later than when you're in high school, and.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
You do it like, what does that have to do
with anything?
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Because it's a question of developing skills earlier. Now, granted
it's not a tremendous skill, but it's a skill. Nonetheless,
The point is, if I had gone to a trade school,
if I had been serious about woodshop. Although I don't
know about woodshop because I don't think there's that many
jobs in cabinetry, but certainly welding, certainly in electrical work,
(18:53):
certainly in auto shop.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
The other thing is that it's harder.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
It's not just shop, it's also shop with computer literacy.
For example, there is a company Global Affinity in Pennsylvania,
and he's the manufacturer who offered rios that sixty eight
thousand dollars a year job. Well, the equipment he uses,
for example, is a one point seven million dollar steel
(19:21):
laser cutter, and it needs some technical savvy.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
To work it. So the world has completely changed.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And I'm telling my kids, I'm telling other kids.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Who are going to go to college.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
I say, hang on a minute, you know, let's look
at borrowing money for four years and making no income
and then starting a job after college, and at what
kind of money do you make?
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Now?
Speaker 3 (19:56):
I'm going to not ask specifically, but kno, would you
say you make very good money?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
No? Would you say you make good money. Would you
say you make marginal money?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Answer is no, you make miserable money. With your degree.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Really bad.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
It is really bad. And that's after a four year degree.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
That's after six years I got the master's Oh.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
That's right, let's not forget getting a master's degree. Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, that was not a good choice.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Thank you. That's my point.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Now, if you had taken electronics, for example, and gone
into engineering repair of audio equipment, I'll tell you one thing.
The engineers that work in our building, they do not
make forty thousand dollars a year, not even close. And
(20:52):
how many of them have college degrees. I don't know
the answer to that. But they have a technical skill
much like the one I develop in my third year
of college. But we go in a different level, a
different avenue there, and it makes all the sense in
the world. That's the that's the new dynamic, that's the
(21:14):
new normal.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
It makes a great deal of sense.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
So if you're going to send your kids to college
and spend fifty grand a year for tuition and have
them get a Bachelor of Science degree and any of
the liberal arts, and you know what BS stands for exactly,
(21:36):
that's my point. Gary and Shannon up next. We start
again all over again. And Heather, I know you're out
of here, so thanks for being here this week because
I have to say.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
It, and I will miss you.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, of course you will coming back or coming up.
Gary and Shannon, we'll catch you in the morning. Kf
I am sixty.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
You've been listening to The Bill Handlers Show.
Speaker 3 (22:00):
Catch my show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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