November 12, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 1 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show dives deep into the political fallout from the recently ended government shutdown, framing it as a strategic misfire by Democrats. The hosts argue that the shutdown was a cynical attempt to secure election gains and force permanent funding for temporary Obamacare subsidies, originally enacted during the COVID-era American Rescue Plan. They highlight commentary from Steven Miller and Hakeem Jeffries, dissecting the partisan blame game over healthcare costs and the broader implications for the 2026 elections.
The episode features a comprehensive critique of the U.S. healthcare system, emphasizing the broken nature of insurance markets, the inflationary impact of government subsidies, and the lack of consumer choice. Clay and Buck explore how Obamacare has failed to deliver affordability, instead enriching insurance companies and burdening younger Americans. They discuss the economic strain caused by aging demographics and the overuse of medical procedures driven by litigation fears. The hosts also spotlight GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy as potential game-changers in reducing obesity-related healthcare costs, advocating for government subsidies to expand access.
In a media analysis segment, the show examines the timing of renewed Epstein-related stories, suggesting they are a deliberate distraction orchestrated by Democrats and legacy media to shift attention away from the shutdown debacle and smear Donald Trump. Clay and Buck reject the narrative, calling it baseless and politically motivated.
Additional topics include the inefficiencies of medical bureaucracy, the potential for AI to streamline healthcare paperwork, and the need for Republicans—especially Trump—to present clear healthcare reform plans ahead of the midterms. The hour wraps with lighter commentary on the phasing out of the penny, sparking a humorous debate on the future of physical currency and digital tracking.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of d Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton Show. The shutdown has come to a shutdown,
I guess, or they've unshut it down.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's something that we can certainly have a moment of, well,
if not satisfaction over, we can definitely look at each
other and say, what the heck was that about? And
we're going to do that. Also got some discussion underway
after appearances by the President himself and also his Secretary
of Homeland Security on H one B visas on immigration,
(00:39):
some interesting points coming across, particularly in an interview with
Trump and Fox News's Laura Ingraham. We will have those discussions.
We've also got hopefully an end to the flight delays
or pretty close to an end of the flight delays here,
so that's going on. That is certainly a good thing.
(01:00):
A Secretary of War, not to be confused with Secretary
of Defense, heg Seth has some thoughts about the reformation
of some of the military that he has put into effect,
and we will discuss that too. But Clay, I want
to start with this. Stephen Miller had some thoughts to
share on the Democrat shutdown. The White House is own
(01:22):
Stephen Miller. This is what he has to say, Play eleven.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It was worse than pointless.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
It was cruel, It was capricious, It was dangerous, It
was radical, It was extreme. The Democrats shut down the
government in a failed attempt to extort one point five
trillion dollars for their pet projects, including, as has long
been documented in Black and White, full funding for healthcare
leagal aliens for several.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Hundred billions of dollars.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
They resulted in, as a consuluence their shutdown, massive flight
delays for the American people, huge impacts on public safety, federal.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Workers going without pay, people.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Who are living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to
make ends meet. This was a Democrat sabotage of the
Trump economy.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It was clay, and it was used to try to
get maximum turnout result on election day. And Democrats did
have good results, unfortunately in those elections. But it was
deeply cynical. It was destructive, and I hope that the
American people, who are open to the evidence of their
own eyes and ears, will remember the madness that was
(02:28):
inflicted upon us for a month by Democrats pouting and
demanding that they get their way, and it was outrageous.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Do you think it's a test potentially for twenty twenty six?
In other words, are they trying to look at the
numbers that came out in Virginia and New Jersey and say,
if we're shutting down the government, does the idea that
there's chaos work against Trump? Is there a larger game
(02:57):
plan here? We know that they gained nothing essentially from
this shutdown, but going forward, did they learn something that
they want to apply? Is there any resonance here or
is this just going to vanish? They're already moving on.
I'm watching the news stories right now. They're not even
(03:17):
discussing anything having to do with the shutdown. They've moved
on to emails and Epstein and everything else there, which
they're trying to turn into a story to connect Trump
to Epstein. And they've been trying to do this for
years candidly. But so is the what is the takeaway?
Right you go into a game, you lose. They lost.
(03:40):
Did they test anything, did they learn anything? It's just
so dumb and ineffective that a part of me thinks
there has to be a larger strategic comparative in play
here than just we shut down everything for forty three
days and now everything is fine.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, if we look at cut twelve here for a
second Clay, this is Hakeem Jeffries, and he is saying
the following about where House Democrats stand on this play twelve.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not
decisively address the Republican health care crisis. We want to
reopen the government. We'll continue to stand by our hard
working federal employees and civil servants. But we have a
responsibility to make sure that we extend the Affordable Care
Act tax credits so that tens of millions of Americans
(04:27):
don't experience dramatically increase health care costs that's going to
prevent them from being able to see a doctor when
they need one.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Let's unpack this a little bit for second Clay, the
Republican healthcare crisis. Okay, let's really look at the facts here.
The facts are as follows. The Democrats during COVID put
in place a multi multi billion dollar temporary all agreed
that it was temporary at the time, basically win fall
(05:00):
for Obamacare exchanges. It's gonna throw billions of dollars into
a on a temporary basis. And now we have come
to a point where the Democrats under Schumer earlier this
year agreed to spending levels without those temporary billions in subsidies.
But then they say, you know what, they're not really temporary.
(05:23):
We want them forever, and we're going to shut down
the government. And this is a Republican problem. I mean
that is, I think when people look at what has
happened here, there's an understanding that the Democrats are being
incredibly dishonest, which is not a surprise to any of us.
But they really don't have a leg to stand on
other than line about what's really happened here.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Also, this is reflective of everything that is in any
way not permanent.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
If you end it is.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Described as a cut right like, the reality is this
was a temporary program that was for its entire existence
predicated on the idea that it would not exist forever
as soon as the temporary program runs out. And the
reason why it was temporary program, buck is they didn't
want to have the cost tallied for decades into the
(06:16):
future of just how expensive this was going to be
as soon as that temporary program runs out. A decision
not to continue with the temporary program is seen as
a cut. The big flaw here that is, I think
becoming increasingly clear to so many Americans of all different backgrounds,
is the healthcare industry is broken. And the idea that
(06:41):
by subsidizing healthcare insurance you're going to help with health
care costs, I think has been proven to be frankly
one wrong. And all it is done is inflated the
bureaucracy of the healthcare insurance companies and given them way money.
Obamacare is just a big giveaway to the healthcare insurance industry.
(07:07):
And we talked about this some earlier this week and
last week, but I do think it's significant that if
you pulled the Americans and you said what companies do
you hate the most dealing with in America? Don't you
think healthcare insurance would be number one overall?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Right now? Buck?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
If you asked Americans, hey, what for profit industry out
there that you have to deal with on a regular
basis do you hate the most? I don't even think
there's a close second. I think it's the healthcare insurance companies,
and unlike car insurance, which is frustrating, but as these
self driving cars come on, the market. I actually think
(07:47):
the overall cost of car insurance is going to plummet.
I mean, you can argue as we move into more
and more of a self driving car industry and future,
that that's one where you look at that you say, oh,
the amount of money that we're having to spend on
cars could end up going down in the future. And
I'm optimistic that that could occur. The problem with healthcare
(08:09):
insurance is we're getting more and more older people in
the country, and the amount of healthcare that you need
skyrockets as you age, and so I don't see any
way that this is going to get better. And really,
the only way healthcare works, the only way healthcare insurance
(08:31):
works is if there are tons of young people who
basically never need insurance that are paying for older people
who do need insurance. I was meeting with a healthcare
industry guy recently, buck and he said, Hey, we got
killed in our company. He said, how do you think
we got killed in the company recently? And I said,
(08:52):
I don't know. He said, we had people going out
and signing up young people. What is the one thing
that could crush you If you're a health insurance company
and you're signing up young people, pregnant women because the
cost of having a baby is high, and so somehow
the cost of these insurance companies pregnant women all got
(09:15):
signed up. A cost of having a baby is expensive,
and that's basically for young people.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
For people under the age of thirty five.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
The only way under forty the only way that these
health insurance companies really get hit is when they have
expensive when people have kids. Otherwise, most people putting money
in never use it, and elderly people are able to
benefit from that. The problem is now we have way
too few young people and a huge exit, huge influx
(09:47):
of older people. It's gonna bring Well.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
This is where you see the problem lies. It's all
about hiding what's really going on from people so that
they can't understand where the money is being spent and
what their role in this whole system is. Because if
you buy insurance as an individual, something like seventy percent
they estimate clay of the people who buy insurance on
(10:12):
the individual marketplace, right, so not company subsidized, which is
a whole other component of this. Seventy percent of them
said that if without the billions in subsidies from the government,
the enhanced subsidies, they would have a huge increase in
their premiums that they would not be able to afford.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Why is that right?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Why are the individual marketplaces so very expensive? Why is
it that people keep seeing their premiums going up year
after year. It's not insurance. If you are young and healthy,
you are forced into this system. And when I say young,
I mean relatively young, thirties, forties, fifties. You are forced
(10:56):
into this system to subsidize the care for the old
and the sick.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
Now, if that's what we have to do as a society.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's one thing, but we at least need to have
an honest conversation about that. You are not getting a
good deal if you are in your thirties, forties, and
fifties and you are getting anything that is a health
insurance plan on the individual market, anything that is Obamacare approved, Medicaid,
any of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Well, and I may be I think there's a lot
of people around my age that kind of are in
this world. I care less about the individual expense and
more about just having catastrophic protection. It's highly unlikely that
you're going to have a catastrophic health issue. We hope
(11:45):
in the same way that I bet you, Buck have
taken out life insurance now that you have a baby.
A lot of dads and moms out there, when they
have kids, they go back and they look at their
overall expenses and they say, Okay, what if the worst
case scenario happens to me? Highly unlikely? The insurance companies
look at you. If you get a decent amount of
(12:05):
health insurance, they come out and take as much of
your blood as they can. They run your all your
vitals to try and make sure that there's not something
out there that is an issue. Most people only are
concerned about catastrophic issues, particularly when you're in your forties,
your thirties, your twenties, and that isn't actually that expensive
(12:29):
in the grand scheme of things. But the problem is,
again that's just a math equation. We don't have enough
young people to deal with what people in their sixties
and seventies are going to be costing for health care.
Here's another part of this, Buck that very few people
talk about. Probably fifty percent of the medical coverage that
(12:50):
our average people get in the United States is completely
unnecessary because doctors are afraid of being sued and so
they don't think that you need that MRI. They don't
think that you need that cat scan, but they go
ahead and check the box because if they get sued
and something really wrong, something is really wrong with you,
(13:13):
then they want to be able to say, oh, we
gave as much standard of care as we could, not
to mention the hospital makes money on it.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
So I'm not even kidding.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I think we could eliminate fifty percent of all healthcare
one positive buck. I do think some of these glps,
which could drive down obesity, if they are widely distributed,
could could start to decline because obesity is probably the
leading cause of Now I.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Tell you right now, and I'm not a doctor, but
I am allowed to have opinions on national policy when
it comes to health.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
If we took some of.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The tens of billions of dollars wasted on nonsense in
the healthcare apparatus and directly subsidiz GLP medicaid because right now,
I look, these companies, they're going to make their money.
They have a right to make their money because they
did their research all that stuff. Right, we're capitalists. Okay,
But if you want to talk about government subsidies, subsidizing
(14:13):
and this is by the way, it straight for me
Elon Musk, he said the same thing, widely subsidizing GLP
one access to medication for people, not making it free,
but make me know subsidized because it's crazy expensive.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
Now, I don't know that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's thousands of dollars a month or something if you
can't get your insurance to cover it, and insurance doesn't
want to cover it because it's so expensive. The healthcare
costs that this would actually bring down clay for individuals
and the whole nation. It would It would pay for
itself many many times over. That's just the reality of
the way that obesity is two hundred billion dollars a
(14:47):
year of healthcare spending.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm cautiously optimistic that that is if you want to
have a positive on healthcare, I am cautiously optimistic. These
are for by the way, what are the companies Jarrow
we Go The ozempic is the super famous one. This
is Eli Lilly, this is Pfizer, this is the big
drug giants. These drugs are changing people's lives all over
(15:09):
the place. And so if we can drive down obesity,
we drive down the need for as much medical coverage.
To your point, buck. We could potentially save hundreds of
billions of dollars in healthcare. It's a positive out there.
If you need to we have AI.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I know, we got we got to jump into break here,
clib We have AI doing all these things first. Now
it's amazing. I get there are cheeseburgers. Maybe this ozempic
and cheeseburgers go ahead, but there are cheeseburgers being delivered
to me by robot? Can AI handle this so that
I don't have to spend thirty minutes filling out paperwork
every time I go to every doctor, even when I
fill out stuff online before I go, like, can't we
(15:43):
get to the point where the bureaucracy of medicine at
least is less of a total disaster.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Doctors want that too, because the amount of time that
they have to spend on paperwork suve furiating.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
By the way, it's all the insurance companies do this
to make it as a whole other conversation. They actually
do this on purpose.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
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Speaker 7 (17:22):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Mike drops that never sounded
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Speaker 4 (17:33):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We got
so fired up talking about the healthcare world that we
got a short turn here we come back. There's some
Epstein's story emails that have come out, nothing new, but
it feels very calculated. We will discuss why we think
they're coming out now when we come back. But in
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Speaker 1 (18:54):
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. I'm not
planning to spend much time on.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
This story today at all.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I think what's interesting is that there's in my opinion,
and I guess I'm putting the I'm putting the card
ahead of the horse here or I'm bearing the lead Clay.
They want us to talk about some new Epstein email
with Trump or something meaning the media. There's clearly this effort.
We didn't coordinate this before, and we were talking to Break.
I have a theory on a Clay has a theory
(19:21):
on it. I don't know if we have the same
theory on it, but we'll try this. I think that
this was planned by Democrats in the media as essentially
a smoke screen for the retreat from the disastrous and
obviously cynical shutdown.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
That is that your take to one hund.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I mean that the idea, that the idea, the timing
on this, the shutdown is going to be voted on
in the House. I think tonight to officially end. By
all intents and purposes, it is over because the Senate,
which is where the shutdown had taken root, has voted
sixty senators. They've opened back up the government. The House
will officially rubber stamp that we expect sometime later today.
(20:04):
And then miraculously, this morning you wake up and there
has been a calculated attempt to suddenly shift the talking
points after Democrats were embroiled in a calamity of their
own creation to a multi year old Jeffrey Epstein related scandal,
(20:26):
that they want to try to connect to Donald Trump
because they see it as politically weak for him.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
I mean, it's very calculated, and it was their lead
story this morning.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So I had a feeling we would we see it
exactly the same way, which to me might as well
be gospel. This is the anti Trump media, the Democrat media,
deciding that they're throwing out some smoke bombs to cover
their retreat from their disastrous assault, if you will, which
is the government shutdown, and they want us so I
don't if anyone's gonna say, why aren't you guys, get no,
(20:58):
I don't actually want to play the game that they
want us to play, which is sit here and.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Be like what did he what did he mean in
this email or whatever?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
We've been over this. I do not believe.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You do not believe that Trump had anything to do
with anything elicit that that Jeffrey Epstein was involved in whatsoever.
There's no data or no information, nothing to suggest otherwise.
And I don't want to keep having our our our
Lesia's pulled like dogs whenever the media wants us to go, oh,
(21:27):
let's defend Trump again on this. I so I'm I'm
ready to just move on from this, but I wanted
to you know, you can close.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
The loop on it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Look, I think the way to think about it is this,
And this is the argument I've been making since this
whole thing happened. I don't know what eight months ago
or whatever the heck it was. Democrats and their allies
tried to imprison Donald Trump for the rest of his life.
They tried to bankrupt Donald Trump, and people motivated by
(21:57):
their rhetoric tried to kill Donald Trump. Do you think
there was smoking gun evidence of Trump engaging in criminality
at all? That they would have been raiding mar A
Lago to find out whether there were potentially classified documents there.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Of course not.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
They would have brought every charge they could have against
President Trump during the four years that Joe Biden had
access to all of these Epstein files that no Democrat
demanded be released at all until Joe Biden was already
out office. So again they're trying to tar and feather
(22:33):
Trump with the Epstein connection, and it feels desperate to me.
But this story in particular, I kind of have to
just tip my hat to them, because all they have
to do is wave their arms and say, hey, look
at what we've got here. And suddenly the whole discussion
(22:53):
about the shutdown, What was the basis for it? Why
did Democrats suddenly decide to open the government. It's vanished.
It's vanished, and we haven't even gotten the House vote yet.
Very calculated. I kind of just tip my tap to
him because it is impressive. The degree to which they
can take over the narrative based on their still ownership
of legacy media institutions seems.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Very obvious to me. So let's actually get back to
the shutdown on what really happened here. How about that
for a second. One thing, Clay, I wanted to make
sure that we put out there was all this stuff
about the credits. This was all part of the American
rescue plan in March of twenty twe remember that, everybody.
So while Biden was acting like a maniacal COVID dictator
(23:40):
telling us about we need to get the shot or
else you're gonna get fired, gonna use Osha, his Winter
of Death speech, all this craziness, in twenty twenty one,
they the Democrats, went forward with this, with this plan
to temporarily because of COVID, did make it easier for
(24:02):
people to get subsidies on Obamacare exchanges and essentially shovel
some more money into the health care system, not really
the healthcare system, the insurance system. Yes, to make it
easier for people. So this was emergency funding. I want,
ever to be very clear on this. The Democrats did
emergency funding during COVID. This is a vestige of COVID
(24:27):
that the Democrats shut the government down over. Now, what's
really interesting is you look at this, you say, well,
hold on a second, what would have happened without COVID?
I mean, or rather well, yes, but without the subsidies, oh,
the exchanges that people think that they're operating under everything else,
you'd be paying fifty percent more.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
That's what happened.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
That's how out of control this Obamacare spending actually is.
Now something else has been pointed out Clay by some people.
A lot of Americans, according to all the polling, do
you keep saying everyone hates their healthcare company. People hate
what's going on with healthcare. A lot of people actually
like their health insurance. It's about sixty six percent. So
(25:08):
you know, there's a little bit of nuance here.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, the complicating factor, I've got so many of all this.
It's a big issue with a lot of things. People
are frustrated by the system. That's true, But keep going.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I'll let you know.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, I mean, my thing on it is, there are
so many parts of it that need to be remedied.
For instance, a lot of people have no idea how
much their healthcare plans cost that they get from their companies.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
It's not taxed.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And if you told the average person, hey, did you
know your healthcare is costing thirty thousand dollars a year,
Let's just toss that out there as can be the
case for you and your family. Do you think that
if you got that money yourself as income and you
were then able to go out and shop for the
(25:58):
best health care coverage for you and your family, A
lot of people would say, I'd rather have the thirty
thousand dollars in extra income and be able to make
a decision for me and my family. My point on it,
Buck is we have basically eliminated the market from health care.
And when you eliminate the market from health care, what
(26:18):
do you end up with a broken system because nobody
can make a rational decision by and large for they
and their family as to what they actually need that
fits their families needs.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So I do think this even ties in for those
who like their current insurance. And I will tell you
that my approach to this in Miami Beach, where there's
a lot more of this stuff than I've ever seen before,
is to pay for things that I can pay for
healthcare wise out of the just do that. Now, that
(26:50):
doesn't work when you're having a baby, right, So we've
been getting all these crazy bills and all this stuff.
And I have insurance, but we got a baby. They
didn't cover this, they cover that, They didn't cover this,
but for day to day. And I'm not saying this
is for everybody, because is obviously expensive and people have
they have their concerns about their their budgets. But a
lot of a lot of medicine is just going to
go more. Just I'll pay for this, Just get it
(27:11):
to me, don't make me wait in a room for
an hour, don't make me fill out all this paperwork before, after,
and during. So that's one part of this. But people
on their insurance plans that they like, there are all
of these subsidies that exist. You mentioned that your employer
gets this on a preferential basis. Employers, especially large employers,
(27:31):
have more bargaining power get better plans. Where you see
the real pain of the system is people who are
earning a living, who are on the Individual Exchange, who
are not in medicaid, and who are trying to make
that's where all of a sudden, the premiums go crazy
and everything else, because that's the first place. That is,
(27:52):
if you will, the canary in the coal mine or
the camel's nose in the tent, pick your preferred That's
why everyone is seeing those crazy increases place. So to
your point, a lot of people like what they've got
because they're actually sheltered from the realities of the healthcare
system totally.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
And as you age, your healthcare expenditure is going to
skyrocket on average, and the healthcare companies know it. And
this is again, all we have done is broken the
marketplace and subsidized the broken marketplace, which breaks the marketplace
that much more. And to me, the only way we
(28:31):
can solve healthcare in this country is to give consumers choices,
as we do in every other product. Yeah, everybody doesn't
drive the same car, everybody doesn't buy the same groceries.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
It's a product.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Healthcare is a product, and people can make rational choices,
and we don't allow that.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I'm also gonna just point this out, and I have
doctor friends who listen to this show. They're great doctors,
and their crappy doctors, and that's always going to be
the case, having a little card that says you're covered
doesn't mean that you're getting the even if the procedure
is covered.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Right, there's all this.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
You're talking about a vast system of goods and services
within healthcare, and people need to be understanding or need
to be advocating for themselves within that system and being proactive.
I think that our system of healthcare Clay. We're sheltered
from the call. We're not even allowed to know the costs.
(29:31):
We're not allowed and it prevents people from being more
proactive and figuring out look. I mean, I'll tell you
guys this. One of the reasons that I went on
my health journey and I've got my supplements and everything else,
is my blood sugar started to get a little high
on a blood test and not like high enough what
it was alarm bells. But you know, it's one of
these things where I don't want to be thinking about
(29:53):
type two diabetes in ten or fifteen years. If I
can avoid it, I want to start doing more. So
you know, you really had to kick it into high
gear and work on some things. People are led to
believe you go to the doctor when you're sick, you
have a magic little card where everything's going to be
paid for. And this is the wrong approach. This is
the wrong approach financially, it's the wrong approach as policy,
(30:16):
and it's the wrong approach for individual's health. Think about this,
and I know that a bunch of you have probably
done it. If you have to get a knee replacement
or a hip replacement, you can travel to Europe. You
can travel and pay out a pocket, and still it
can be infinitely cheaper.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Than what it costs in the United States. You read
some of these stories, people can decide, Hey, I want
to go on a European vacation for three weeks, and
some of you have looked into this, and I'm going
to stay in an incredible for profit hospital that focuses
on giving treatments to Americans, and the cost of the
(30:55):
procedures that you get there in Sparkling, brand new, exquisite
facilities when you're paying out a pocket, are better than
the options you have in the United States. I would
submit to you that's a function of a broken marketplace.
And again I come back to it over and over again.
But they can't tell you what anything costs. Name something
(31:15):
else you buy that you choose that you have no
idea what it costs. It doesn't exist in any other America.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
There's a doctor's office that's very near to where I
live here in Miami Clay where they actually do a
lot of these injections for women for like faced botox
kind of stuff or whatever. Yep, and you walk into
the You walk into that place, and you know they're
given like free massages, champagne. There's gentle music there in
(31:45):
the background. Yes, because they're competing. They want women to
come in there and spend out of pocket. Mind you,
I don't even I don't know. I have not gotten.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Botox as olders. But it's actually a sign of a
competitive marketplace creating a better option for consumer when it
comes to, you know, the cost.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
They compete for your business.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
But I want to go into like a local clinic
here because I think I have, you know, an ear
infection or something. It's it's pandemonium, it's weights, it's where's
your insurance?
Speaker 6 (32:20):
Oh, we don't take that anymore.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
We all.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Once you've seen this and experienced this, it becomes very
apparent and very clear. I think this is why this
matters everyone, not just because the Democrats have lied to
you about the shutdown, and we don't want to let
them get away with that.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
They're lying, They've made a mess of all this.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Obamacare is an absolute Obamacare is a failure top to bottom,
a failure. That's one big part of this. But also
Clay Trump and the Republicans need to get it together
for these midterms with ideas to make the healthcare system better.
It's not going to be like the border where he
fixes it in thirty days, but we need to have
some plans to make this better. We'll also talk about immigration,
(32:57):
by the way, coming up here in the next hour,
because some very interesting stuff happening there and people are
asking questions about what's going on with policy and this
White House.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
So we'll discuss that.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
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Speaker 2 (34:11):
Want to be in the know when you're on the go.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
The Team forty seven podcast Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast
f Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We'll take
some of your calls. Let you guys react to a
variety of different topics out there. I saw this and
we could have some fun with it.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
Buck.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Charlotte Mage, the god fellow iHeartRadio employee, says that Jasmine
Crockett is a phenomenal messenger and should be used more
frequently by the Democrat Party, to which I would soundly
and roundly agree. We'll have some fun with that.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I want I want Jasmine Crockett elevated, and I want
Sonny Houston to be the chief strategist for the Democrats
twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
I think they're wasting their talents. It would be racist
and sexist if you did not take advantage of the
talents of these profoundly successful, brilliant women inside of the party.
I just put up a poll question Buck, that we
can have some fun with this too. Today, the last
pennies are being produced, that is, the one cent coin
(35:27):
is basically being phased out. Trump came in and said
the penny doesn't make sense, it costs more than to
produce it. Should we eliminate all coins? This may be
stepping into this, making it like when I went after
flute players.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I'm a hard yes on this one, Producer, Greg, I'm
gonna get We're gonna give you a minute. I don't
know if he's by the mic in NYC or if
he wants to just do a talkback or whatever. He
seems like he's not down for And I want to
why would anyone want there to still be pennies?
Speaker 8 (35:59):
I need to have currency for every person. Because you
eliminate the penny, you eliminate the nickel. That's the It's
the first step on the slippery slope to getting rid
of all currency, and then everything can be tracked by
the government.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Okay, well, I'm I'm with you on the digital dollar thing,
Producer Greg, so that you're i'm with you on that.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
But pennies, when was the last time you used a penny?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
You'd be surprised how much jangling coins does producer Greg
have in his pocket right now, just jangling around, weighing
down his pants, dragging him down. I'm with you, Buck,
I think we should eliminate all coins. I don't think
there should be coin currency anymore.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That may be it's gonna be a scorching hot take
that we didn't expect to be scorching.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Maybe we may get fired up, we get attacked on
this one, But we're right,
Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of d Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton Show. The shutdown has come to a shutdown,
I guess, or they've unshut it down.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So that's good.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's something that we can certainly have a moment of, well,
if not satisfaction over, we can definitely look at each
other and say, what the heck was that about? And
we're going to do that. Also got some discussion underway
after appearances by the President himself and also his Secretary
of Homeland Security on H one B visas on immigration,
(00:39):
some interesting points coming across, particularly in an interview with
Trump and Fox News's Laura Ingraham. We will have those discussions.
We've also got hopefully an end to the flight delays
or pretty close to an end of the flight delays here,
so that's going on. That is certainly a good thing.
(01:00):
A Secretary of War, not to be confused with Secretary
of Defense, heg Seth has some thoughts about the reformation
of some of the military that he has put into effect,
and we will discuss that too. But Clay, I want
to start with this. Stephen Miller had some thoughts to
share on the Democrat shutdown. The White House is own
(01:22):
Stephen Miller. This is what he has to say, Play eleven.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It was worse than pointless.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
It was cruel, It was capricious, It was dangerous, It
was radical, It was extreme. The Democrats shut down the
government in a failed attempt to extort one point five
trillion dollars for their pet projects, including, as has long
been documented in Black and White, full funding for healthcare
leagal aliens for several.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Hundred billions of dollars.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
They resulted in, as a consuluence their shutdown, massive flight
delays for the American people, huge impacts on public safety, federal.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Workers going without pay, people.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Who are living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to
make ends meet. This was a Democrat sabotage of the
Trump economy.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It was clay, and it was used to try to
get maximum turnout result on election day. And Democrats did
have good results, unfortunately in those elections. But it was
deeply cynical. It was destructive, and I hope that the
American people, who are open to the evidence of their
own eyes and ears, will remember the madness that was
(02:28):
inflicted upon us for a month by Democrats pouting and
demanding that they get their way, and it was outrageous.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
Do you think it's a test potentially for twenty twenty six?
In other words, are they trying to look at the
numbers that came out in Virginia and New Jersey and say,
if we're shutting down the government, does the idea that
there's chaos work against Trump? Is there a larger game
(02:57):
plan here? We know that they gained nothing essentially from
this shutdown, but going forward, did they learn something that
they want to apply? Is there any resonance here or
is this just going to vanish? They're already moving on.
I'm watching the news stories right now. They're not even
(03:17):
discussing anything having to do with the shutdown. They've moved
on to emails and Epstein and everything else there, which
they're trying to turn into a story to connect Trump
to Epstein. And they've been trying to do this for
years candidly. But so is the what is the takeaway?
Right you go into a game, you lose. They lost.
(03:40):
Did they test anything, did they learn anything? It's just
so dumb and ineffective that a part of me thinks
there has to be a larger strategic comparative in play
here than just we shut down everything for forty three
days and now everything is fine.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Well, if we look at cut twelve here for a
second Clay, this is Hakeem Jeffries, and he is saying
the following about where House Democrats stand on this play twelve.
Speaker 5 (04:06):
House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not
decisively address the Republican health care crisis. We want to
reopen the government. We'll continue to stand by our hard
working federal employees and civil servants. But we have a
responsibility to make sure that we extend the Affordable Care
Act tax credits so that tens of millions of Americans
(04:27):
don't experience dramatically increase health care costs that's going to
prevent them from being able to see a doctor when
they need one.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Let's unpack this a little bit for second Clay, the
Republican healthcare crisis. Okay, let's really look at the facts here.
The facts are as follows. The Democrats during COVID put
in place a multi multi billion dollar temporary all agreed
that it was temporary at the time, basically win fall
(05:00):
for Obamacare exchanges. It's gonna throw billions of dollars into
a on a temporary basis. And now we have come
to a point where the Democrats under Schumer earlier this
year agreed to spending levels without those temporary billions in subsidies.
But then they say, you know what, they're not really temporary.
(05:23):
We want them forever, and we're going to shut down
the government. And this is a Republican problem. I mean
that is, I think when people look at what has
happened here, there's an understanding that the Democrats are being
incredibly dishonest, which is not a surprise to any of us.
But they really don't have a leg to stand on
other than line about what's really happened here.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
Also, this is reflective of everything that is in any
way not permanent.
Speaker 6 (05:53):
If you end it is.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Described as a cut right like, the reality is this
was a temporary program that was for its entire existence
predicated on the idea that it would not exist forever
as soon as the temporary program runs out. And the
reason why it was temporary program, buck is they didn't
want to have the cost tallied for decades into the
(06:16):
future of just how expensive this was going to be
as soon as that temporary program runs out. A decision
not to continue with the temporary program is seen as
a cut. The big flaw here that is, I think
becoming increasingly clear to so many Americans of all different backgrounds,
is the healthcare industry is broken. And the idea that
(06:41):
by subsidizing healthcare insurance you're going to help with health
care costs, I think has been proven to be frankly
one wrong. And all it is done is inflated the
bureaucracy of the healthcare insurance companies and given them way money.
Obamacare is just a big giveaway to the healthcare insurance industry.
(07:07):
And we talked about this some earlier this week and
last week, but I do think it's significant that if
you pulled the Americans and you said what companies do
you hate the most dealing with in America? Don't you
think healthcare insurance would be number one overall?
Speaker 6 (07:23):
Right now? Buck?
Speaker 4 (07:24):
If you asked Americans, hey, what for profit industry out
there that you have to deal with on a regular
basis do you hate the most? I don't even think
there's a close second. I think it's the healthcare insurance companies,
and unlike car insurance, which is frustrating, but as these
self driving cars come on, the market. I actually think
(07:47):
the overall cost of car insurance is going to plummet.
I mean, you can argue as we move into more
and more of a self driving car industry and future,
that that's one where you look at that you say, oh,
the amount of money that we're having to spend on
cars could end up going down in the future. And
I'm optimistic that that could occur. The problem with healthcare
(08:09):
insurance is we're getting more and more older people in
the country, and the amount of healthcare that you need
skyrockets as you age, and so I don't see any
way that this is going to get better. And really,
the only way healthcare works, the only way healthcare insurance
(08:31):
works is if there are tons of young people who
basically never need insurance that are paying for older people
who do need insurance. I was meeting with a healthcare
industry guy recently, buck and he said, Hey, we got
killed in our company. He said, how do you think
we got killed in the company recently? And I said,
(08:52):
I don't know. He said, we had people going out
and signing up young people. What is the one thing
that could crush you If you're a health insurance company
and you're signing up young people, pregnant women because the
cost of having a baby is high, and so somehow
the cost of these insurance companies pregnant women all got
(09:15):
signed up. A cost of having a baby is expensive,
and that's basically for young people.
Speaker 6 (09:22):
For people under the age of thirty five.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
The only way under forty the only way that these
health insurance companies really get hit is when they have
expensive when people have kids. Otherwise, most people putting money
in never use it, and elderly people are able to
benefit from that. The problem is now we have way
too few young people and a huge exit, huge influx
(09:47):
of older people. It's gonna bring Well.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
This is where you see the problem lies. It's all
about hiding what's really going on from people so that
they can't understand where the money is being spent and
what their role in this whole system is. Because if
you buy insurance as an individual, something like seventy percent
they estimate clay of the people who buy insurance on
(10:12):
the individual marketplace, right, so not company subsidized, which is
a whole other component of this. Seventy percent of them
said that if without the billions in subsidies from the government,
the enhanced subsidies, they would have a huge increase in
their premiums that they would not be able to afford.
Speaker 6 (10:32):
Why is that right?
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Why are the individual marketplaces so very expensive? Why is
it that people keep seeing their premiums going up year
after year. It's not insurance. If you are young and healthy,
you are forced into this system. And when I say young,
I mean relatively young, thirties, forties, fifties. You are forced
(10:56):
into this system to subsidize the care for the old
and the sick.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
Now, if that's what we have to do as a society.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's one thing, but we at least need to have
an honest conversation about that. You are not getting a
good deal if you are in your thirties, forties, and
fifties and you are getting anything that is a health
insurance plan on the individual market, anything that is Obamacare approved, Medicaid,
any of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Well, and I may be I think there's a lot
of people around my age that kind of are in
this world. I care less about the individual expense and
more about just having catastrophic protection. It's highly unlikely that
you're going to have a catastrophic health issue. We hope
(11:45):
in the same way that I bet you, Buck have
taken out life insurance now that you have a baby.
A lot of dads and moms out there, when they
have kids, they go back and they look at their
overall expenses and they say, Okay, what if the worst
case scenario happens to me? Highly unlikely? The insurance companies
look at you. If you get a decent amount of
(12:05):
health insurance, they come out and take as much of
your blood as they can. They run your all your
vitals to try and make sure that there's not something
out there that is an issue. Most people only are
concerned about catastrophic issues, particularly when you're in your forties,
your thirties, your twenties, and that isn't actually that expensive
(12:29):
in the grand scheme of things. But the problem is,
again that's just a math equation. We don't have enough
young people to deal with what people in their sixties
and seventies are going to be costing for health care.
Here's another part of this, Buck that very few people
talk about. Probably fifty percent of the medical coverage that
(12:50):
our average people get in the United States is completely
unnecessary because doctors are afraid of being sued and so
they don't think that you need that MRI. They don't
think that you need that cat scan, but they go
ahead and check the box because if they get sued
and something really wrong, something is really wrong with you,
(13:13):
then they want to be able to say, oh, we
gave as much standard of care as we could, not
to mention the hospital makes money on it.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
So I'm not even kidding.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
I think we could eliminate fifty percent of all healthcare
one positive buck. I do think some of these glps,
which could drive down obesity, if they are widely distributed,
could could start to decline because obesity is probably the
leading cause of Now I.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Tell you right now, and I'm not a doctor, but
I am allowed to have opinions on national policy when
it comes to health.
Speaker 6 (13:49):
If we took some of.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
The tens of billions of dollars wasted on nonsense in
the healthcare apparatus and directly subsidiz GLP medicaid because right now,
I look, these companies, they're going to make their money.
They have a right to make their money because they
did their research all that stuff. Right, we're capitalists. Okay,
But if you want to talk about government subsidies, subsidizing
(14:13):
and this is by the way, it straight for me
Elon Musk, he said the same thing, widely subsidizing GLP
one access to medication for people, not making it free,
but make me know subsidized because it's crazy expensive.
Speaker 6 (14:25):
Now, I don't know that's right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
It's thousands of dollars a month or something if you
can't get your insurance to cover it, and insurance doesn't
want to cover it because it's so expensive. The healthcare
costs that this would actually bring down clay for individuals
and the whole nation. It would It would pay for
itself many many times over. That's just the reality of
the way that obesity is two hundred billion dollars a
(14:47):
year of healthcare spending.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
I'm cautiously optimistic that that is if you want to
have a positive on healthcare, I am cautiously optimistic. These
are for by the way, what are the companies Jarrow
we Go The ozempic is the super famous one. This
is Eli Lilly, this is Pfizer, this is the big
drug giants. These drugs are changing people's lives all over
(15:09):
the place. And so if we can drive down obesity,
we drive down the need for as much medical coverage.
To your point, buck. We could potentially save hundreds of
billions of dollars in healthcare. It's a positive out there.
If you need to we have AI.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I know, we got we got to jump into break here,
clib We have AI doing all these things first. Now
it's amazing. I get there are cheeseburgers. Maybe this ozempic
and cheeseburgers go ahead, but there are cheeseburgers being delivered
to me by robot? Can AI handle this so that
I don't have to spend thirty minutes filling out paperwork
every time I go to every doctor, even when I
fill out stuff online before I go, like, can't we
(15:43):
get to the point where the bureaucracy of medicine at
least is less of a total disaster.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
Doctors want that too, because the amount of time that
they have to spend on paperwork suve furiating.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
By the way, it's all the insurance companies do this
to make it as a whole other conversation. They actually
do this on purpose.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
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Speaker 7 (17:22):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Mike drops that never sounded
so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We got
so fired up talking about the healthcare world that we
got a short turn here we come back. There's some
Epstein's story emails that have come out, nothing new, but
it feels very calculated. We will discuss why we think
they're coming out now when we come back. But in
(17:54):
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Speaker 1 (18:54):
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. I'm not
planning to spend much time on.
Speaker 6 (18:58):
This story today at all.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I think what's interesting is that there's in my opinion,
and I guess I'm putting the I'm putting the card
ahead of the horse here or I'm bearing the lead Clay.
They want us to talk about some new Epstein email
with Trump or something meaning the media. There's clearly this effort.
We didn't coordinate this before, and we were talking to Break.
I have a theory on a Clay has a theory
(19:21):
on it. I don't know if we have the same
theory on it, but we'll try this. I think that
this was planned by Democrats in the media as essentially
a smoke screen for the retreat from the disastrous and
obviously cynical shutdown.
Speaker 6 (19:37):
That is that your take to one hund.
Speaker 4 (19:40):
I mean that the idea, that the idea, the timing
on this, the shutdown is going to be voted on
in the House. I think tonight to officially end. By
all intents and purposes, it is over because the Senate,
which is where the shutdown had taken root, has voted
sixty senators. They've opened back up the government. The House
will officially rubber stamp that we expect sometime later today.
(20:04):
And then miraculously, this morning you wake up and there
has been a calculated attempt to suddenly shift the talking
points after Democrats were embroiled in a calamity of their
own creation to a multi year old Jeffrey Epstein related scandal,
(20:26):
that they want to try to connect to Donald Trump
because they see it as politically weak for him.
Speaker 6 (20:31):
I mean, it's very calculated, and it was their lead
story this morning.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
So I had a feeling we would we see it
exactly the same way, which to me might as well
be gospel. This is the anti Trump media, the Democrat media,
deciding that they're throwing out some smoke bombs to cover
their retreat from their disastrous assault, if you will, which
is the government shutdown, and they want us so I
don't if anyone's gonna say, why aren't you guys, get no,
(20:58):
I don't actually want to play the game that they
want us to play, which is sit here and.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Be like what did he what did he mean in
this email or whatever?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
We've been over this. I do not believe.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You do not believe that Trump had anything to do
with anything elicit that that Jeffrey Epstein was involved in whatsoever.
There's no data or no information, nothing to suggest otherwise.
And I don't want to keep having our our our
Lesia's pulled like dogs whenever the media wants us to go, oh,
(21:27):
let's defend Trump again on this. I so I'm I'm
ready to just move on from this, but I wanted
to you know, you can close.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
The loop on it. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Look, I think the way to think about it is this,
And this is the argument I've been making since this
whole thing happened. I don't know what eight months ago
or whatever the heck it was. Democrats and their allies
tried to imprison Donald Trump for the rest of his life.
They tried to bankrupt Donald Trump, and people motivated by
(21:57):
their rhetoric tried to kill Donald Trump. Do you think
there was smoking gun evidence of Trump engaging in criminality
at all? That they would have been raiding mar A
Lago to find out whether there were potentially classified documents there.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
Of course not.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
They would have brought every charge they could have against
President Trump during the four years that Joe Biden had
access to all of these Epstein files that no Democrat
demanded be released at all until Joe Biden was already
out office. So again they're trying to tar and feather
(22:33):
Trump with the Epstein connection, and it feels desperate to me.
But this story in particular, I kind of have to
just tip my hat to them, because all they have
to do is wave their arms and say, hey, look
at what we've got here. And suddenly the whole discussion
(22:53):
about the shutdown, What was the basis for it? Why
did Democrats suddenly decide to open the government. It's vanished.
It's vanished, and we haven't even gotten the House vote yet.
Very calculated. I kind of just tip my tap to
him because it is impressive. The degree to which they
can take over the narrative based on their still ownership
of legacy media institutions seems.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
Very obvious to me. So let's actually get back to
the shutdown on what really happened here. How about that
for a second. One thing, Clay, I wanted to make
sure that we put out there was all this stuff
about the credits. This was all part of the American
rescue plan in March of twenty twe remember that, everybody.
So while Biden was acting like a maniacal COVID dictator
(23:40):
telling us about we need to get the shot or
else you're gonna get fired, gonna use Osha, his Winter
of Death speech, all this craziness, in twenty twenty one,
they the Democrats, went forward with this, with this plan
to temporarily because of COVID, did make it easier for
(24:02):
people to get subsidies on Obamacare exchanges and essentially shovel
some more money into the health care system, not really
the healthcare system, the insurance system. Yes, to make it
easier for people. So this was emergency funding. I want,
ever to be very clear on this. The Democrats did
emergency funding during COVID. This is a vestige of COVID
(24:27):
that the Democrats shut the government down over. Now, what's
really interesting is you look at this, you say, well,
hold on a second, what would have happened without COVID?
I mean, or rather well, yes, but without the subsidies, oh,
the exchanges that people think that they're operating under everything else,
you'd be paying fifty percent more.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
That's what happened.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
That's how out of control this Obamacare spending actually is.
Now something else has been pointed out Clay by some people.
A lot of Americans, according to all the polling, do
you keep saying everyone hates their healthcare company. People hate
what's going on with healthcare. A lot of people actually
like their health insurance. It's about sixty six percent. So
(25:08):
you know, there's a little bit of nuance here.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Well, the complicating factor, I've got so many of all this.
It's a big issue with a lot of things. People
are frustrated by the system. That's true, But keep going.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
I'll let you know.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
Yeah, I mean, my thing on it is, there are
so many parts of it that need to be remedied.
For instance, a lot of people have no idea how
much their healthcare plans cost that they get from their companies.
Speaker 6 (25:35):
It's not taxed.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
And if you told the average person, hey, did you
know your healthcare is costing thirty thousand dollars a year,
Let's just toss that out there as can be the
case for you and your family. Do you think that
if you got that money yourself as income and you
were then able to go out and shop for the
(25:58):
best health care coverage for you and your family, A
lot of people would say, I'd rather have the thirty
thousand dollars in extra income and be able to make
a decision for me and my family. My point on it,
Buck is we have basically eliminated the market from health care.
And when you eliminate the market from health care, what
(26:18):
do you end up with a broken system because nobody
can make a rational decision by and large for they
and their family as to what they actually need that
fits their families needs.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
So I do think this even ties in for those
who like their current insurance. And I will tell you
that my approach to this in Miami Beach, where there's
a lot more of this stuff than I've ever seen before,
is to pay for things that I can pay for
healthcare wise out of the just do that. Now, that
(26:50):
doesn't work when you're having a baby, right, So we've
been getting all these crazy bills and all this stuff.
And I have insurance, but we got a baby. They
didn't cover this, they cover that, They didn't cover this,
but for day to day. And I'm not saying this
is for everybody, because is obviously expensive and people have
they have their concerns about their their budgets. But a
lot of a lot of medicine is just going to
go more. Just I'll pay for this, Just get it
(27:11):
to me, don't make me wait in a room for
an hour, don't make me fill out all this paperwork before, after,
and during. So that's one part of this. But people
on their insurance plans that they like, there are all
of these subsidies that exist. You mentioned that your employer
gets this on a preferential basis. Employers, especially large employers,
(27:31):
have more bargaining power get better plans. Where you see
the real pain of the system is people who are
earning a living, who are on the Individual Exchange, who
are not in medicaid, and who are trying to make
that's where all of a sudden, the premiums go crazy
and everything else, because that's the first place. That is,
(27:52):
if you will, the canary in the coal mine or
the camel's nose in the tent, pick your preferred That's
why everyone is seeing those crazy increases place. So to
your point, a lot of people like what they've got
because they're actually sheltered from the realities of the healthcare
system totally.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
And as you age, your healthcare expenditure is going to
skyrocket on average, and the healthcare companies know it. And
this is again, all we have done is broken the
marketplace and subsidized the broken marketplace, which breaks the marketplace
that much more. And to me, the only way we
(28:31):
can solve healthcare in this country is to give consumers choices,
as we do in every other product. Yeah, everybody doesn't
drive the same car, everybody doesn't buy the same groceries.
Speaker 6 (28:45):
It's a product.
Speaker 4 (28:46):
Healthcare is a product, and people can make rational choices,
and we don't allow that.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I'm also gonna just point this out, and I have
doctor friends who listen to this show. They're great doctors,
and their crappy doctors, and that's always going to be
the case, having a little card that says you're covered
doesn't mean that you're getting the even if the procedure
is covered.
Speaker 6 (29:10):
Right, there's all this.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
You're talking about a vast system of goods and services
within healthcare, and people need to be understanding or need
to be advocating for themselves within that system and being proactive.
I think that our system of healthcare Clay. We're sheltered
from the call. We're not even allowed to know the costs.
(29:31):
We're not allowed and it prevents people from being more
proactive and figuring out look. I mean, I'll tell you
guys this. One of the reasons that I went on
my health journey and I've got my supplements and everything else,
is my blood sugar started to get a little high
on a blood test and not like high enough what
it was alarm bells. But you know, it's one of
these things where I don't want to be thinking about
(29:53):
type two diabetes in ten or fifteen years. If I
can avoid it, I want to start doing more. So
you know, you really had to kick it into high
gear and work on some things. People are led to
believe you go to the doctor when you're sick, you
have a magic little card where everything's going to be
paid for. And this is the wrong approach. This is
the wrong approach financially, it's the wrong approach as policy,
(30:16):
and it's the wrong approach for individual's health. Think about this,
and I know that a bunch of you have probably
done it. If you have to get a knee replacement
or a hip replacement, you can travel to Europe. You
can travel and pay out a pocket, and still it
can be infinitely cheaper.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
Than what it costs in the United States. You read
some of these stories, people can decide, Hey, I want
to go on a European vacation for three weeks, and
some of you have looked into this, and I'm going
to stay in an incredible for profit hospital that focuses
on giving treatments to Americans, and the cost of the
(30:55):
procedures that you get there in Sparkling, brand new, exquisite
facilities when you're paying out a pocket, are better than
the options you have in the United States. I would
submit to you that's a function of a broken marketplace.
And again I come back to it over and over again.
But they can't tell you what anything costs. Name something
(31:15):
else you buy that you choose that you have no
idea what it costs. It doesn't exist in any other America.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
There's a doctor's office that's very near to where I
live here in Miami Clay where they actually do a
lot of these injections for women for like faced botox
kind of stuff or whatever. Yep, and you walk into
the You walk into that place, and you know they're
given like free massages, champagne. There's gentle music there in
(31:45):
the background. Yes, because they're competing. They want women to
come in there and spend out of pocket. Mind you,
I don't even I don't know. I have not gotten.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Botox as olders. But it's actually a sign of a
competitive marketplace creating a better option for consumer when it
comes to, you know, the cost.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
They compete for your business.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
But I want to go into like a local clinic
here because I think I have, you know, an ear
infection or something. It's it's pandemonium, it's weights, it's where's
your insurance?
Speaker 6 (32:20):
Oh, we don't take that anymore.
Speaker 5 (32:22):
We all.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
Once you've seen this and experienced this, it becomes very
apparent and very clear. I think this is why this
matters everyone, not just because the Democrats have lied to
you about the shutdown, and we don't want to let
them get away with that.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
They're lying, They've made a mess of all this.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Obamacare is an absolute Obamacare is a failure top to bottom,
a failure. That's one big part of this. But also
Clay Trump and the Republicans need to get it together
for these midterms with ideas to make the healthcare system better.
It's not going to be like the border where he
fixes it in thirty days, but we need to have
some plans to make this better. We'll also talk about immigration,
(32:57):
by the way, coming up here in the next hour,
because some very interesting stuff happening there and people are
asking questions about what's going on with policy and this
White House.
Speaker 6 (33:06):
So we'll discuss that.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
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Speaker 2 (34:11):
Want to be in the know when you're on the go.
Speaker 7 (34:14):
The Team forty seven podcast Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast
f Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We'll take
some of your calls. Let you guys react to a
variety of different topics out there. I saw this and
we could have some fun with it.
Speaker 6 (34:37):
Buck.
Speaker 4 (34:39):
Charlotte Mage, the god fellow iHeartRadio employee, says that Jasmine
Crockett is a phenomenal messenger and should be used more
frequently by the Democrat Party, to which I would soundly
and roundly agree. We'll have some fun with that.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I want I want Jasmine Crockett elevated, and I want
Sonny Houston to be the chief strategist for the Democrats
twenty twenty eight.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
I think they're wasting their talents. It would be racist
and sexist if you did not take advantage of the
talents of these profoundly successful, brilliant women inside of the party.
I just put up a poll question Buck, that we
can have some fun with this too. Today, the last
pennies are being produced, that is, the one cent coin
(35:27):
is basically being phased out. Trump came in and said
the penny doesn't make sense, it costs more than to
produce it. Should we eliminate all coins? This may be
stepping into this, making it like when I went after
flute players.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
I'm a hard yes on this one, Producer, Greg, I'm
gonna get We're gonna give you a minute. I don't
know if he's by the mic in NYC or if
he wants to just do a talkback or whatever. He
seems like he's not down for And I want to
why would anyone want there to still be pennies?
Speaker 8 (35:59):
I need to have currency for every person. Because you
eliminate the penny, you eliminate the nickel. That's the It's
the first step on the slippery slope to getting rid
of all currency, and then everything can be tracked by
the government.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
All the time.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Okay, well, I'm I'm with you on the digital dollar thing,
Producer Greg, so that you're i'm with you on that.
Speaker 6 (36:21):
But pennies, when was the last time you used a penny?
Speaker 4 (36:23):
You'd be surprised how much jangling coins does producer Greg
have in his pocket right now, just jangling around, weighing
down his pants, dragging him down. I'm with you, Buck,
I think we should eliminate all coins. I don't think
there should be coin currency anymore.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
That may be it's gonna be a scorching hot take
that we didn't expect to be scorching.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Maybe we may get fired up, we get attacked on
this one, But we're right,
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