April 15, 2025 • 10 mins
Chris tackles the ballooning $850 billion Medicaid program, exposing how it’s morphed into a permanent entitlement for able-bodied adults, with 60% reporting no earned income. Drawing parallels to a societal “drug,” he cites historical warnings from FDR and studies linking welfare to poverty, crime, and dependency. Markowski calls for bold reforms like work requirements to foster self-reliance, warning that political cowardice may derail efforts to fix a broken system draining America’s spirit and resources. www.watchdogonwallstreet.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Medicaid and drug pushers. Okay, so the Senate, the Senate
in the House got together and they passed their budget outline.
Do you remember back when you were in it was
probably like ninth grade, eighth or ninth grade. I can't
remember exactly where they started teaching how to write papers.
(00:37):
They were preparing kids for college, and they would have
a system where things were set up. I remember we
had to write an outline for our paper, and then
I remember the teacher made us use note cards to
write the various different information they would put down. And
they made the process of real pain in the butt.
(00:58):
But anyway, not neither nor there. That's what they put
together as they put together an outline, an outline, this
is what we want to get to. Okay, almost look
at it right now, Almost look at this whole budget process.
I haven't used this in a while, but I've used
it before. The underwear gnomes from South Park now again,
(01:21):
I'm a big South Park van. The Underwear Noomes early
part of the series, there were these gnomes that went
around and they, you know, the kids recognized that their
underwear was being stolen from their drawers and they saw
that these gnomes did it and the nomes. The children
follow the nomes down to their layer, and the gnomes
(01:42):
explained that they were running a business, and they showed
the children of South Park their business plan. Number one
on their business plan collect underpants. Number two on their
business plan was a question mark, and number three was profit.
So basically what the congressional Republican gnomes did as they
(02:05):
put together a very similar type of plan. You know,
cut taxes, collect taxes, tariffs, What are we going to cut?
Question mark number three, Golden Age of America. Whatever, their
their little thing is that they put together. They have
(02:26):
to have to lay some things out and they're going
to have to have some fights. But I'm not confident
you're already seeing Republicans have a collective Many Republicans have
a collective freak out talking about cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid
keeps growing. It's an entitlement we have that we spend.
(02:47):
Get this again, you try to get your arms around
the size of this eight hundred and fifty billion dollars
a year. Eight hundred and fifty billion dollars a year. Again,
you know, if you're watching any of the news programs
(03:07):
out there, Republicans that want to put cuts into Medicaid
and reform it are cruel, heartless people that want people
to bleed out in the streets. I don't know with
Donald Trump at the helm being, you know, the populace
(03:29):
that he is, if he's going to even look to
cut this research research and recent polling on Medicaid and
work requirements. Here's some of the numbers that we're at
right now. More than six in ten able bodied adults
(03:51):
on Medicaid report no earned income sixty percent. Now, the
public thinks that Medicaid is a safety net for low income,
pregnant women, and disabled Americans. When Barack Obama passed the
(04:14):
Obamacare Affordable Care Act, he expanded it in essence to
a permanent entitlement for childless men in the prime working
age of their life. What it was it last week,
a week before here on the program, we talked about
over you know, was it over seven million men here
(04:34):
in this country? Prime working age, no problems whatsoever. That
are just saying, Scot I'm watching Netflix. I can live
on the government. I don't need this nonsense. Now, the
left Democrats claim those on medicaid are working. Now that
(04:56):
the actual studies and statistics that they cite, there's one
from the Kaiser Family Foundation and several others. They are
garbage surveys if you actually take a look at them.
A few dozen people were actually looked at in these things,
the medicaid agencies. They actually looked at the administrative records. Okay,
(05:19):
the receipts from state medicaid agencies in twenty three states. Again,
this is a complete picture of earnings for nearly twenty
one million able bodied adults on medicaid. Millions are declining
to work at all. Now that's bad more ways than one. Okay, Yeah,
(05:48):
it's not just the economics of it. This is a
poison to our society. It is a mess for our society.
I want to talk a little bit about this. I'm
actually going to bring a piece that I did some
thirteen years ago, and piece was the titled drug Pusher
(06:13):
and as nineteen thirty five State of the Union message,
Franklin Roosevelt proposal, security on employment insurance, and aid to
dependent children to help the deserving poor. But he also
added a warning. The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence
immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief
(06:37):
induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the
national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is
to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.
It is an immical to the dictates of sound policy.
It is a violation of the traditions of America. Whenever,
(07:02):
whenever there is discussion about reforming entitlements that we put
in play, the left has a collective freak out. When
it's you know, social Security. They'll go and they'll do
like some sort of religious ritual down at the FDR
statue in Washington, d C. It's like they're one because
(07:24):
they're one of their patrons, saints for crying out loud.
But again, even he agreed that this is not good.
There was a study that I've cited often over the years,
Welfare and the Culture of Poverty, was put together by Cato,
and basically the study showed that welfare is both a
(07:44):
consequence and a cause of several conditions that we would
all agree, all agree our social pathologies. Now, these conditions
include dependency, poverty, out of wedlocked, Berth's, non employment, abortion,
(08:09):
violent crime. Now one would I list those things? One
is going to say, well that you know that sounds
like drug abuse, substance abuse, all the money that we've
spent on welfare and entitlements and the horrible side effects.
You want to go all the way back, Yeah, I
(08:29):
mean go FDR, go to release. When of the stuff
got put on steroids and Lyndon Johnson in the nineteen sixties,
It theoretically could make it. You know, our nation's one
of our most destructive drug problems. Now you go through
I said, look at the receipts. Look at the trillions
of dollars that have been spent since nineteen sixty four
(08:51):
on a myriad of things. Have things gotten better? Take
a look at the SNAP program. You can take a
look at Medicare and Medicaid, a myriad of things. This
does not make you cold, mean, heartless because you want
to reform entitlement programs. You want to reform entitlement programs
(09:15):
because you want a better outcome. You want a better outcome.
I've almost come to the point in time for certain people,
certain people, once they're addicted, good luck trying to get
them off. Good luck trying to get them off. You know.
(09:35):
The problem that we have is is oftentimes these same
people that have figured out how the system works can
live off that system, have children, and then their children
grow up in a household where they're not taught the
type of worth ethic that you need to live to
(09:57):
truly live, to truly be a free human being, overcoming
obstacles and achieving goals. I don't know what type of
reform they're going to put in. I think work requirements
are fantastic. I do, but you watch and see the
nature of politics here in this country. They'll punt, they will,
(10:24):
they will punt on this. They don't want to upset anyone.
I hope I'm wrong, because again, can you truly want
to help someone, well, then you got to help them
to get on their feet and off the couch. Watchdog
on Wall Street dot Com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Medicaid and drug pushers. Okay, so the Senate, the Senate
in the House got together and they passed their budget outline.
Do you remember back when you were in it was
probably like ninth grade, eighth or ninth grade. I can't
remember exactly where they started teaching how to write papers.
(00:37):
They were preparing kids for college, and they would have
a system where things were set up. I remember we
had to write an outline for our paper, and then
I remember the teacher made us use note cards to
write the various different information they would put down. And
they made the process of real pain in the butt.
(00:58):
But anyway, not neither nor there. That's what they put
together as they put together an outline, an outline, this
is what we want to get to. Okay, almost look
at it right now, Almost look at this whole budget process.
I haven't used this in a while, but I've used
it before. The underwear gnomes from South Park now again,
(01:21):
I'm a big South Park van. The Underwear Noomes early
part of the series, there were these gnomes that went
around and they, you know, the kids recognized that their
underwear was being stolen from their drawers and they saw
that these gnomes did it and the nomes. The children
follow the nomes down to their layer, and the gnomes
(01:42):
explained that they were running a business, and they showed
the children of South Park their business plan. Number one
on their business plan collect underpants. Number two on their
business plan was a question mark, and number three was profit.
So basically what the congressional Republican gnomes did as they
(02:05):
put together a very similar type of plan. You know,
cut taxes, collect taxes, tariffs, What are we going to cut?
Question mark number three, Golden Age of America. Whatever, their
their little thing is that they put together. They have
(02:26):
to have to lay some things out and they're going
to have to have some fights. But I'm not confident
you're already seeing Republicans have a collective Many Republicans have
a collective freak out talking about cuts to Medicaid. Medicaid
keeps growing. It's an entitlement we have that we spend.
(02:47):
Get this again, you try to get your arms around
the size of this eight hundred and fifty billion dollars
a year. Eight hundred and fifty billion dollars a year. Again,
you know, if you're watching any of the news programs
(03:07):
out there, Republicans that want to put cuts into Medicaid
and reform it are cruel, heartless people that want people
to bleed out in the streets. I don't know with
Donald Trump at the helm being, you know, the populace
(03:29):
that he is, if he's going to even look to
cut this research research and recent polling on Medicaid and
work requirements. Here's some of the numbers that we're at
right now. More than six in ten able bodied adults
(03:51):
on Medicaid report no earned income sixty percent. Now, the
public thinks that Medicaid is a safety net for low income,
pregnant women, and disabled Americans. When Barack Obama passed the
(04:14):
Obamacare Affordable Care Act, he expanded it in essence to
a permanent entitlement for childless men in the prime working
age of their life. What it was it last week,
a week before here on the program, we talked about
over you know, was it over seven million men here
(04:34):
in this country? Prime working age, no problems whatsoever. That
are just saying, Scot I'm watching Netflix. I can live
on the government. I don't need this nonsense. Now, the
left Democrats claim those on medicaid are working. Now that
(04:56):
the actual studies and statistics that they cite, there's one
from the Kaiser Family Foundation and several others. They are
garbage surveys if you actually take a look at them.
A few dozen people were actually looked at in these things,
the medicaid agencies. They actually looked at the administrative records. Okay,
(05:19):
the receipts from state medicaid agencies in twenty three states. Again,
this is a complete picture of earnings for nearly twenty
one million able bodied adults on medicaid. Millions are declining
to work at all. Now that's bad more ways than one. Okay, Yeah,
(05:48):
it's not just the economics of it. This is a
poison to our society. It is a mess for our society.
I want to talk a little bit about this. I'm
actually going to bring a piece that I did some
thirteen years ago, and piece was the titled drug Pusher
(06:13):
and as nineteen thirty five State of the Union message,
Franklin Roosevelt proposal, security on employment insurance, and aid to
dependent children to help the deserving poor. But he also
added a warning. The lessons of history, confirmed by evidence
immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence on relief
(06:37):
induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the
national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is
to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.
It is an immical to the dictates of sound policy.
It is a violation of the traditions of America. Whenever,
(07:02):
whenever there is discussion about reforming entitlements that we put
in play, the left has a collective freak out. When
it's you know, social Security. They'll go and they'll do
like some sort of religious ritual down at the FDR
statue in Washington, d C. It's like they're one because
(07:24):
they're one of their patrons, saints for crying out loud.
But again, even he agreed that this is not good.
There was a study that I've cited often over the years,
Welfare and the Culture of Poverty, was put together by Cato,
and basically the study showed that welfare is both a
(07:44):
consequence and a cause of several conditions that we would
all agree, all agree our social pathologies. Now, these conditions
include dependency, poverty, out of wedlocked, Berth's, non employment, abortion,
(08:09):
violent crime. Now one would I list those things? One
is going to say, well that you know that sounds
like drug abuse, substance abuse, all the money that we've
spent on welfare and entitlements and the horrible side effects.
You want to go all the way back, Yeah, I
(08:29):
mean go FDR, go to release. When of the stuff
got put on steroids and Lyndon Johnson in the nineteen sixties,
It theoretically could make it. You know, our nation's one
of our most destructive drug problems. Now you go through
I said, look at the receipts. Look at the trillions
of dollars that have been spent since nineteen sixty four
(08:51):
on a myriad of things. Have things gotten better? Take
a look at the SNAP program. You can take a
look at Medicare and Medicaid, a myriad of things. This
does not make you cold, mean, heartless because you want
to reform entitlement programs. You want to reform entitlement programs
(09:15):
because you want a better outcome. You want a better outcome.
I've almost come to the point in time for certain people,
certain people, once they're addicted, good luck trying to get
them off. Good luck trying to get them off. You know.
(09:35):
The problem that we have is is oftentimes these same
people that have figured out how the system works can
live off that system, have children, and then their children
grow up in a household where they're not taught the
type of worth ethic that you need to live to
(09:57):
truly live, to truly be a free human being, overcoming
obstacles and achieving goals. I don't know what type of
reform they're going to put in. I think work requirements
are fantastic. I do, but you watch and see the
nature of politics here in this country. They'll punt, they will,
(10:24):
they will punt on this. They don't want to upset anyone.
I hope I'm wrong, because again, can you truly want
to help someone, well, then you got to help them
to get on their feet and off the couch. Watchdog
on Wall Street dot Com
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