July 10, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour Two of A&G features...
- A new plot to assassinate Trump?
- National French Fry Day...
- Our guest, Craig the Heathcare Guru, brings us the cold-hard truth on the future of healthcare...
- The unfortunate end to an open-relationship.
Stupid Should Hurt: https://www.armstrongandgetty.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and
Jetty and no He Armstrong and Yetty. This new reporting
(00:25):
comes from the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It says Israeli intelligence uncovered what it called a fresh
Iranian plot to assassinate the president. Now, look, those types
of threats are nothing new. Is Iran is openly vowed
to retaliate against Trump for assassinating Iran's top general, Coussin Solimani,
even going back to twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, I'm number one on the killer list for the run.
I'm number one on the list for killing. Yeah. Trump
had been talking about that a lot this week. It
had come up several times, and that's probably because he
got this information before it broken the Walls Street Journal
overnight of this fresh new assassination plot. We have had
(01:10):
forty five different people serve as president. Four US presidents
have been assassinated in office. So that's about nine percent.
And Trump brought that percentage up the other day. When
you look at it that way, that's still relatively high.
(01:31):
It's more dangerous, as he said, than being a race
car driver or lots of other supposedly dangerous things being
president of the United States. Now, we have not had
a president assassinated by a foreign country. A lot of
speculation around that, specifically with JFK obviously in the fact
that Lee Harvey Oswald had been to Russia, and we're
(01:53):
not going to rehash all that, but there's never been
any proof that the Soviet Union was actually behind that.
But if Iran flat out killed the sitting president of
the United States and we knew it, I can't imagine
what that would do to the world. How would we
react to that. I don't know. I actually do not know.
I would assume that the gloves would be completely off
(02:15):
and we would just destroy the country. But first of all,
you got a lot of people who don't like Trump,
and a lot of the country doesn't like Trump, and
I don't know how the world would react to that.
And a lot of innocent people would lose their lives
who had nothing to do with wanting to assassinate Trump.
But it would be crazy, ugly. I'm looking at a
TV right now, Charlie Dagata from CBS's there, and they
(02:41):
were just showing the video of those hundreds of thousands
of mourners because of the Iatola's funeral that was going
on this weekend. They unfurled that giant banner saying we
will kill Trump, which is wild. Let's hear a little
(03:03):
more of the reporting. This is from a special report
on Fox around this.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hundreds of mourners dressed in black hold a giant red
flag that reads we will kill Trump. Another group of
women hold up puzzle pieces that read killing you is
not enough for us.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
We want to uproot demons.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And this man holds up a sign that simply reads revenge.
That is the message Iran is sending tonight on this
final day of Ayatola Ali Khameni's funeral.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's not like they're hiding that. And I have
to assume that in Iran, those protesters do not unfurl
that banner without the approval of the RGC or whoever's
currently in charge of crazy Islamic nut job crowds there.
In Iran, you don't get to do whatever you want.
The government probably made the banner that they unfurled. The
(03:54):
report goes on.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Renewed scrutiny tonight on his security. The New York Times
reports it was a secret Service that urged the President
to leave the NATO summit in Turkey aboard the old
Air Force One instead of the new Katari donated plane
he arrived in, raising questions about whether the plane was
retrofitted with sufficient security measures. The White House pushing back,
(04:17):
telling Fox, the new Air Force one is a state
of the art aircraft that has been fitted with high
level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President
and his staff.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
There's no reason to believe anything that anyone is saying
out of the Secret Service or the White House or
leaking to whichever news organization about this story. For them
to tell us actually what's going on would be insane.
It's good cover for the Secret Service or whoever to
(04:48):
leak that, Yeah, the new plane wasn't up to speed
on anti missile technology, so that's why we switch planes.
We don't have any idea, and we shouldn't have any
idea to me. The key detail was that they hurried
the President on to the old Air Force one plane
and had everybody pulled down their their their sheep blind
or the window blinds, whatever you call those things, close
(05:10):
the windows there so no light could get in or out.
For whatever reason, there, what the heck was going on?
So again, this is the Wall Street Journal with this
exclusive today. Israel recently shared intelligence with the United States
about a new Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump. According
to the report, comes after years of threats from Iran
to kill Trump as revenge, specifically for the twenty twenty
(05:34):
killing of their IRGC leader Cossam Salamani by US forces,
and that's now six years ago. When asked for com out,
the Wise House referred to the post to Trump's Wednesday
remarks at the NATO summit when he said they want
to take out the US leader. Me, I'm on whatever
list I saw this morning. I'm on every single one
(05:55):
of their lists, and so far, I guess I've been
a bit lucky. But maybe that doesn't last very long.
How about that comment from a sitting president in the
United States. Maybe I've been lucky and that doesn't last
very long. That's a pretty fatalist view of a country
wanting to assassinate you and your country's ability to keep
(06:15):
you protected. These are evil, sick people, Trump went on,
and we have to root out that cancer. That cancer.
You know what you do. You got to cut out
the cancer early. And that's the way I feel, said Trump.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Pete Hegzeth, the Secretary of War who accompanied the President
to the summit, was instructed not to travel to Israel
as was planned before Trump chose to switch planes in Turkey.
So Hegzeth was going to go to Israel and they
told him not to. So that possibly probably had something
to do with the assassination plot, whatever was going on there.
(06:48):
The Wall Street Journal does not have details on the
alleged assassination plot, and they shouldn't. We should not know
what the plan was or how we figured out what
it was. The Israelis tipped the United States off about
the plot earlier this week. That's why Trump was talking
about it all week long. The specific threat was not
being tracked by US officials before Israel's warning, and as
(07:11):
yet to be vetted. CNN reported, So it's something Israel
got onto with their amazing intelligence abilities there in the
region better than ours. Something Israel got onto that we
didn't know about that they alerted us to. Again, banners
vowing revenge against Trump were on full display and tran
(07:33):
this week. Is Ranians prepared to bury the late Supreme
Leader with their giant banner that they that unferled that
read we will kill Trump in all caps. Now that's provocative.
What kind of a ceasefire is that? What kind of
a These are good people, you know. What's cool is
that they now realize that being an enemy of the
(07:55):
United States, there was a bad plan, said JD. Vans.
A couple of weeks ago, the official ceremonies for the
death of their leader included a banner that says, we
will kill the President of the United States. What the hell?
I have no idea where the story is going, and
neither does anybody else. I want to talk about the
(08:18):
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(09:24):
in cognit dot com slash armstrong. I've noticed maybe this
has been going on for a while. I just didn't
pick up on it, but I've noticed the way I
get treated as I've reached a become a man of
a certain age, and it's actually working to my benefit.
I pointed this out to my son while we were
on vacation, and he started laughing once I pointed it
(09:45):
out to him, and it became obvious what was going on.
He found it very amusing. So I've got that and
a bunch of other actual news of the day on
this National French Friday coming up Armstrong. Now, Michael, we
(10:05):
have three jokes about the same topic, National French Friday.
Why did you not present this as a what do
we call that? A late night joke?
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Off?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I guess I could, but we don't have Joe here,
the judge. He usually judges this. Whenever a bunch of
the late night comedians take on one topic, Joe usually
judges them and gives them letter grades, and whoever gets
the lowest grade is banned from comedy, which you know
is a symbolic Rather, it's not a It doesn't have
(10:34):
the power of law, as they say. It's kind of
like the whatever that Act is where Congress can say
you're not allowed to prosecute this war. Mister Trump doesn't
have any teeth. They can vote all they want, they
still can't stop him from doing what he wants. Do
know that, no, they never tell you that. Anyway, Back
to the jokes. It's a National French Friday, and several
of the late night comics took on that topic.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
The Frozen foods brand a Ride at at least a
limited edition line of skis designed to look like French fries.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now you and your health can both go downhill.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
America is reportedly on the verge of a French fries
shortage for real because of all the cold, wet weather
this year, fewer potatoes are expected. This really tells you
all you need to know about how we eat in
this country. The two hardest foods in America to get
are French fries in the Popeye's Chicken Safwes, one of.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
The biggest French fry factories in North America is closing
because Americans are eating fewer French fries.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
People are eating fewer.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
French fries than every Uber East driver was like, speak
for yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, I asked, what do I use? I Usequaud mostly, Oh,
elon with some nice things to say about nthropy yesterday.
I'll get to that later. He says. Claude is the
best anthropy, is the best current AI out there. Anyway,
ask Claude if she should ever eat French fries. From
a nutrition angle, really hard to make the argument for
(12:01):
French fries. Calorie dents high in salt and oil, and
with uh, lots of carbs and fat and almost no
nutrition whatsoever. They just they got they got nothing good
for you. It's like if you're eating really tasty styrofoam
or something, or rocks, like really delicious rocks, would you
(12:23):
do that? I love French fries, though, I like all
different kinds of French fries. I like the like thin, crispy,
salty kind like you get at McDonald's. Those are really
really good. But I also like it when they're the big, meaty,
thick potatoy kind. Oh those good like it? Red Robin,
Red Robin has really good French fries, big thick French fries.
I eating potato and you slatter those with ketchup. Damn
(12:45):
that's good. Who's got the best French fry? Michael?
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I say, Red Robin and McDonald's definitely come on.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Give you I know what what I didn't mention?
Speaker 6 (12:54):
You gotta well, I've had wey so far away from
the microphone, nobody can hear me.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No, you just used examples I've gotten. Give me an
example in and out as good fries, uh huh if
you eat them right away, in my opinion, as soon
as they hand them to you. They're delicious, Like five
minutes later. I don't like him there as much like
Wendy's too good good French fry right there. No nutritional
value is that. Went to a restaurant yes day with
my son and uh dang, I almost got pulled into
(13:20):
the French five vortex there. But I stayed healthy with
some sort of rice and meat, which is a boring
lifestyle because I'm old. Speaking of being old, I've come
to this realization. I am now old enough that people
want to help me because they're kind of worried about
me and feel bad for me. Used to be when
I was younger, if I was not understanding something or
(13:43):
having trouble with this or that, people got annoyed with me.
But now I've reached the age where people see me
as a oh that poor old guy's lost or confused
or whatever, and they helped me. And I pointed this.
I became aware of it. Then I pointed it out
to my son while we were on vacation, and I
started to lean into it. I can't figure out something
(14:04):
at the hotel, and I ask him something at the desky.
I can't figure out how to do this, Oh well,
let me help you with that, says the twenty eight
year old woman or whatever it is. And they really
take their time and walk me through the thing because
they think that poor old guy is going to wander
out into traffic or something. And I used it over
and over again. It is really fantastic that poor lost
(14:26):
old man if I can't figure out where something is
or how to use something, or the self checkout at
the grocery store, now anybody younger than me, oh, let
me help you with that, they'll like take stuff out
of my hands and start doing it for me. It's
really kind of nice. I feel like my parents don't
take advantage of this. I'm obviously a lot younger than
my parents. I don't think they're taking advantage of this
(14:47):
yet in their eighties. I already I just became sixty recently,
and I already am leaning into thee. Help this doddering
old man figure out how to do this or that.
It's kind of relaxing.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
I get the people think I'm lost and confused, but
not old, right, And it annoyed people when I was younger,
when I was in my forties and fifties and I
couldn't figure out how to use the self checkout or
do something at the hotel or whatever it was.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
People were kind of angry with me in including the
people behind me in line. Now somebody in line behind
me will move on. Oh, I'm sorry. I can help
you with that again. That poor, nice, kindly old man
probably fought in World War II, or I don't know
how they think I have. They helped me out with things,
so it's got its advantages. Came across this article just
(15:36):
going through my notes from everything I read yesterday. Ninety
percent of US adults have this syndrome, but most have
never heard of it. New guidelines may soon make the disorder,
known as c k M syndrome, a common diagnosis. I
wanted to bring this to your attention in case you
hear about it. It's got to do with your blood,
(15:58):
your heart strokes, heart attack, all this different sort of stuff.
The reason I'm not going to go into kind of
a deep dive on this and explain it to you
is if ninety percent of adults have something, is there
any point to declare that you've got this? How about
we all just assume we've all got it. That's almost
(16:18):
all of us, right, It's like Joe is talking about
the other day. At some point when what's the threshold
for people having depression anxiety and people are on drugs
for depression and anxiety, or the same with the weight
loss pills. At what point do you cross the line
to where it's not a it's not really even hardly
(16:38):
anything to comment on. It's just the human condition. Oh,
so you're a human being too, here's the pills you
should take. Oh, you're a human being too, here's the
exercises you should do. Or you're a human being, here's
the things you should watch out for. Because so many
of us have it. I don't know, but this ninety
percent of us have this thing c KM syndrome. I
should actually get tested. Wouldn't be great to be in
(16:59):
the ten percent that I don't have to worry near
as much about strokes and heart attacks. Elon Musk said
this yesterday. Since I brought it up, he tweeted this out.
This is one of the reasons I don't understand the
hate for Elon. I get flipped off practically daily in
my cyber truck because people hate Elon so much. I
was clearly wrong about anthropic Elon texted yesterday there are
(17:21):
obvious they are obviously currently the leader in AI. No
company has released a model as good as Mythos Fable,
and they will undoubtedly have Mythos too ready soon. That's
the one I'm using on my phone now, and I
would never cut them off in a way that hurt
them badly, even as a competitor. That's not my style.
Tesla open sourced its patents and we made the supercharger
network available to all competitors, even though we could have
(17:43):
made it a walled garden. Yeah. I see people charging
their various vehicles that compete with Tesla's all the time
at the Tesla supercharger. And he didn't have to do that.
In fact, I don't think most people would have done that.
They would have used that as a competitive advantage, he said.
SpaceX launches competing satellite systems with no increase in price
or use of unfair terms of any kind. You want
(18:05):
your satellite up there and you're a competitive, fine, I'll
launch it up there. And even my worst enemies can
criticize me on this platform, which is Twitter. How are
people so down on Eline? Who else would do the
things that I just mentioned? And he's the words richest man.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
He doesn't have to Armstrong and Getdy.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
We've been talking to Craig Gottwals for years for a
variety of reasons. He is a healthcare expert. That's actually
what he does for companies is he helps him with
their healthcare plan. So he's got to know exactly what's
going on. And he warned us about the Affordable Care
Act Obamacare long before it started, how it was going
to turn out, and he has been completely right. Craig Gottwells,
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Thank you Jack.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
How you doing? First of all, it's National French Friday.
What's your favorite French fry? In and out?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Extra crispy hot out of the friar.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
You can order them extra crispy.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
If you haven't done that, you haven't lived. Order them
extra crispy. It's like a whole new experience. I have
totally different.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I have never done that, and I guarantee you and
you know I mean it, I will do that today. Awesome, Well,
that's cool. There's so many hacks around in and out.
I need to go onto a Reddit page or something
and learn the hacks. Extra crispy in and out French
fry sorry to those you around the country do not
have an inout anyway, Craig. So one of the reasons
(19:26):
I want to bring this up with you is, first
of all, I saw a graph on Twitter the other
day with some sort of bulge in the middle that
said the Affordable Care Act is not so affordable anymore,
and it reminded me, just anecdotally, the bills I've been
getting for every time I take my kids to the
(19:47):
doctor for anything have gotten so much bigger than they
used to be. I'm actually to the point now that
if something happens to my kids, rather than going to
urgent care or making an appointment, I wait and see
how it's going to turn out. Because the bills are
so high. It's like I don't want to go again,
am I Is it just my imagination or is something happening?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
No, No, you're on target. I mean we are. We're
headed toward a cliff of unsustainability here. I mean we've
been headed toward that cliff for quite some time. But
you can't healthcare on a macroeconomic level, Jack. The breaking
started in the sixties when we just dumped a ton
of federal money into it with Medicare and Medicaid, and
then in twenty ten, we dumped another ton of money
(20:30):
into it with Obamacare, but we did nothing to structurally
fix it. So we've got all this federal money slashing around,
and you've got you've created an oligopoly where there's very
few large systems and large insurers that are providers with
a whole parasitic class of ticks that are under that
are middlemanning the system's death. And it's it's just it's killing.
(20:52):
It's killing us. Whether you have an employer plan or
you have an Obamacare plan, or whether you're paying out
of pocket for care. It's just come completely unsustainable.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So you use the word oligarchy around healthcare. How come
the Bernie Sanders and the Elizabeth Warns of the world
aren't worried about this?
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Well, because because this is exactly what socialized medicine looks like.
This is how this is, this is what they aspire to,
and how they those folks in the ruling class get
even richer. Healthcare is our number one employer in the country,
and it's the number one lobby in the country. So
healthcare is greasing the skids everywhere along the along the path.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Okay, let's start. Let's hold on there. Healthcare is the
number one employer in the country and the number one
lobby in the country. Wow, I don't think most people
know that.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
No, And as we've mentioned before on your show, we're
now at a point where it doesn't even matter whether
you live in a blue state or a red state.
Seventy percent of all your health care is now paid
for by taxpayer dollars. But instead of doing it in
a let's call it a quasi efficient method of medicare,
which it's not. But if you had medicares more straightforward
(22:00):
than what we have with Obamacare, you're looping in the PBM,
the insurance companies, the brokers, and all these middlemen that
are all parasitic and in profit upon your owns. Their
job is to maximize profit. And again, if it were
a free market, Jack, you know, I would be entirely
for it. For factors when we come to big drug
(22:22):
and to big insurance, and it's not. It's an oligopoly,
not a free market. And they're paying off the politicians
because that's what happens when you have broken markets.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Well, like I said, I've noticed my bills have gotten
so much bigger over the years that I now hesitate
to go. I think, you know, I want to wait
and make sure this doesn't fix itself on its own
before I go and get a three hundred and eighty
dollars bill for just dropping by and saying, take a
look at this which didn't used to happen. Is there
any reason to think it's going to not get worse?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Realistically, it's it's it's almost certainly going to get worse
before we have any kind of change to get better.
The question will be when it does get this much worse,
will the people opt for something easy like Medicare or
like why I would say it's going to end up
being Medicaid for all. Medicare is too expensive. It's got
to be Medicaid, which is even worse. Or you just
(23:21):
you have to you have to break the system so
badly that you pull the federal government out of it
and you have individuals go back to pure price price
transparency and buying their own health care. But I don't
I don't see that as the most likely option. I mean,
the only the only path where that happens is if
it's all done at the employer level, because employers still
control about thirty to forty percent of health care. And
(23:42):
if employers self ensure their plans and get get out
of the oligopoly as much as they can, that's where
we can make some real change. But we're working with
one third of the pie. You know, as far as
the money goes leaven, less than one third of the pie.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Does rand Paul's argument work? He always uses because he
was an optimal is optomologist. He always uses the example
of laser because it's outside of the insurance thing. You know,
you pay cash for that, and so it was competitive
and you have people, you know, there's a reason for
me to keep my costs down to get more customers
where that doesn't exist if you go into the doctor
(24:18):
for anything else. Does that model work as an example
of what could be.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
It absolutely does. So's that's kind of what we're advocating
for with what I do. And so how you would
do that at the individual level, And I know this
sounds counterintuitive to people, is we need to legalize because
right now it's illegal to do it something like twenty
five thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars deductible plans for individuals.
And the only reason I say that is, you really
(24:45):
only want insurance for those catastrophic events that occur that
you can't afford. And if you if you, for example,
put every American on a plan that either had a
twenty five or a fifty thousand dollars deductible. Now, if
they're super low income, you put them in medicaid, right,
But those people that can budget their own care, you
would start seeing price transparency and negotiation for things like
(25:08):
urgent care, for things like common over the counter drugs,
for things like your doctor visits, and it would all
come down to a reasonable price because you would realize
there's not just a federal slush funds that's washing around
that everybody's trying to feed at the trough of.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I know, you got these stats at the top of
your head. What was back in the sixties when we
came up with these socialized health plans. What was the
original goal versus where we are now in terms of
percentages of people covered?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, I knew you. You love the statistic. So when
Medicaid was passed, Medicaid is for our low income, medicares
for our seniors. And the difference is, you know, at
least in theory, the way the actuary set it up.
We all pay in the medicare as we work, and
then we in theory, the way it was supposed to
be set up is we're paying for our own care
when we then retire. It doesn't work that way. It's
(25:58):
not it's broken. It's not funding enough, just like Social Security.
But if you just look at Medicaid, the idea with
Medicaid was we're going to cover the lowest two percent
of earners in nineteen sixty five. That was the projection
that they said, you know, by about nineteen ninety, we're
going to cover the lowest two percent of earners in
our country. And now four out of every ten babies
(26:19):
born in blue states like California are born onto a
Medicaid plan.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Wow, from two percent to forty percent. Yeah, I mean
that's stunning.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Roughly one third across the country for adults too, third
of all Americans are on a Medicaid plan.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
And so meta caid is the one where studies show
you get worse results than if you didn't have any healthcare.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
There are reputable, university backed studies that have shown that
for certain heart conditions and diabetes care management and certain conditions,
you actually might be worse off on Medicaid than if
you had no insurance at all, because you end up
in such a long line to get care and it
becomes such a headache, and you end up with such
with a much smaller panel of doctors that it's actually
(27:06):
worse than if you were able to scrape up enough
cash to pay for these things on your own and
the outside of that system.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, that's horrifying, and that could be all of us soon.
So moving from the realm of you know, your expertise
healthcare into a realm I know you know a lot
about the politics of it. I just I think it's
going to be a pretty easy sell for Bernie or
Elizabeth Warren or whoever is you know running the campaign
for this, or whoever's the nominee for president for the
(27:32):
Democrats to say, hey, look, the bills are too high,
the PaperWorks, you get me down, let's just go meta.
You said we're going to go meta care for all,
probably for Medicaid.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Well, they'll talk about they'll still say Medicare. They'll say Medicare.
The difference is, and I have I actually have the
numbers right in my finger tip. The difference is the
cost for one enrollee for one single person in Medicare
is just about twelve thousand dollars per year per person,
but the cost on Medicaid is only eight thousand dollar
dollars per year per person. Because Medicaid is cheaper, because
(28:03):
it has less doctors, because it's not as good. The
country can't afford Medicare for All. I mean we're talking
thirty six forty trillion dollars over a ten year span.
It's we can't afford it. So I think ultimately what
they'll do is they'll pitch Medicare for All, but I'll
end up looking a lot more like Medicaid for All,
(28:23):
where we really have this this horrific system that nobody
wants to be in if they can avoid it. And
then you'll get a bifurcated system where those that have
money will go out and just pay. They'll pay cash prices,
they'll negotiate deals directly with doctors.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And they'll do it on their own like they do
in England with NHS.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Like they do in England. But there are some countries,
and I believe Canada is one of them where that's illegal, Like, oh,
I don't think we'll go that far. Yeah, I don't
think we'll go that far, but yeah, there are some
of the socialized countries jack where you can't pay cash
for service. They don't let you buy a separate policy, and.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So my that's crazy. So my concern is that pople
wouldn't know what it's costing. It'll just get rolled into
just kind of general taxes which half the country doesn't pay,
and so you won't have a concrete, getting a bill
understanding of what we're all paying for this.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
No, and what will happen is it'll be like like
the scandals and now you spoke about them. I think
it was a baby yesterday. But the scandals with the
Medicare fraud you've seen in Minnesota and California, those will
just get worse because see, the real sin with Medicare
and Medicaid is they've looped in the prescription benefit managers,
(29:33):
the drug companies, and the insurance companies are all part
of it in the supplement space, and so there's a
whole bunch of people getting rich rich and farming the
federal taxpayer. Then you've got brokers that farm that as well.
So you have this whole parasite class that's farming on
it because again because number one lobby in the United States,
number one employer in the United States, they have the power,
(29:56):
they have Congress's ear, and the taxpayer just gets steamrolled.
But you're absolutely right, it'll be some of the Frankenstein
hybrid Medicare Medicaid, and you'll you'll have all those dollars
just we won't know what things really cost.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And then there's no going back, Nope, And and.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
It'll just keep eroding our quality of life. Right, We'll
have less cars at smaller houses, you know, Right, that's
like we see in France or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
God that's depressing, are you It's great?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I always do this to you, Jack, I know.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
But you know one of the hallmarks of conservatism. George
Will taught me this. I heard him say this once
and I always remember recognizing what is is one of
the hallmarks conservatives, whether it's good news or bad news,
just recognizing what are the facts? And these are the facts.
And I don't think there's any disputing it. Are you
getting any fishing done?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Very little?
Speaker 5 (30:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I made a work transition a couple of years ago,
and I've been working too darn much. But a little
bit here and there, and it's it's been all right,
but not like it was back in the old days
when I was sponsored bass fishermen and putting in fifty
to one hundred days on the water a year.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Wow, one hundred days a year fishing. That had to
be awesome.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
It was, But that's that's a little bit of a
cheat because I'd get out on fulsome lake and fish
until nine am and then be in the office by ten,
So I would count that as a day on the water.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Cool. If people want your expertise, how do they get
a hold of you?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Gottwalls dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Okay, and we will link that at our website. Can
we do that? Hanton, really appreciate your time today. I
was excellent.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Craig, of course, Jack, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah. The whole healthcare thing is so depressing. And he
started talking about this. We've been talking to Craig for
years and it was before Obamacare, is when the national
debate was going on about Obama Obamacare. He was predicting
on where this was headed and he's been right about
all of it. And you know, lots of conservative pundits
(31:51):
were saying the same thing. But Craig, because he's so
detailed and in that industry on how it was going
to be such an easy sell at some point politically
for socialized medicine because it's more expensive and more complicated
and more annoying to where people just throw up their hands.
They might as well just have socialized medicine, at which point,
(32:13):
again we don't have the slightest idea what it's costing,
because you never pay any actual bills. It's just kind
of factored into the overall cost of America, which again
is he just pointed out, just kind of drags down
the whole economy with smaller houses and smaller cars and
just a small, sluggish economy, and nobody will understand that.
There'll be no it's depressing. This is not what you want.
(32:34):
Do you have it, handy, Michael. We need it on
a Friday. And then I'm gonna stop being depressing at
least on this topic, I promise, because it's just it's
overwhelming to me. Armstrong and Getty the most depressing radio
show ever. I don't want to be that. I don't
want to be that. We have something fun next, promise, Armstrong.
(33:02):
I want to talk about these street people around the
radio station. Here in a second. But before I get
to that, just came across this story in the California Post.
It's it's a horrifying story. I mean, it's a it's
a it's a murder, a couple of murders. This guy
shot and killed his girlfriend and her lover. But this
is an interesting wrinkle on this. So this dude in
(33:26):
San Diego, him and his girlfriend, they're in their late
twenties at twenty seven and twenty eight. Uh, they agreed
to have an open relationship. Okay, you know, let your
freak flag fly. I guess I've never quite understood that,
but fine, they agreed to have an open relationship. She
brings a homeless dude into their home as her lover.
(33:51):
So I'm thinking when he hit agreed to an open relationship,
he was pictured some you know, you're gonna find some
college guy or something like that, and you know whatever,
she brings a homeless dude into their house and then
lets him live there. This homeless guy had been living
in their house for a couple of weeks there in Ramona,
San Diego area, and then the scumbag guy twists off
(34:15):
and kills them both, which is obviously incredibly uncool. But man,
when you go for the open relationship, you don't think
the other one's going to go homeless.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Love.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Speaking of the homeless, we got a lot of them
right around the radio station here, specifically over by the
Wells Fartho Bank and the Cane's Chicken Hanson, our executive producer,
he's really become enthralled with the rats, the number of
rats that they have around there, and he likes watching
them scurry around and run up and down the poles
and everything like that. But he told me he plays
(34:45):
a game when he comes to work now, when he's
sitting at the stoplight, sleeping or dead, he sees somebody
there on the street to the sidewalk and tries to
determine whether they're sleeping or dead. And he had one
today that he is really wondering sleeping or dead because
there were the rats were within feet of the guy,
and you wouldn't think the rats would get that close
(35:07):
to guy. And he tried to decide if he should
call nine one one or go over and nudge the
guy or whatever. But he thought, you know, if he's dead,
what good is it gonna do. Somebody will figure this
out and if he's sleeping. Of course, you know, the
guy's got a full day of work ahead of him.
You don't want to wake him up when he's trying
to get a slumber before he you know, gets to
the office. Whatever the guy does, Oh my god, you're
(35:31):
passed out, methed up, passed out with rats around you.
Nice lifestyle. And I mentioned that to Jensen, who we've
had on the air many many times over the year.
She's out there in the newsroom. I mentioned that playing
the game homeless or sleep, sleeping or dead with the
homeless guy. She says, she plays let me pass by
(35:52):
or lunge is the game she plays when they're standing
up in the street. Is this guy just gonna let
me drive by? Or is he going to lunge in
front of my are What a great environment, Oh my god.
I know parts of parts of the country where some
of you are listening, you can't even imagine that this
goes on. If you're in a town over five thousand
(36:15):
people in California, you've got lots of street people around.
This is just a common thing. Thank you, Gavin Newsom
and the Blue voters in the lifestyle part of the deal.
Let me pass her Lunge sleeping or dead. It's a
fun game to start your dead
Speaker 4 (36:33):
Armstrong and Getty
Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George
Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty Armstrong and
Jetty and no He Armstrong and Yetty. This new reporting
(00:25):
comes from the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It says Israeli intelligence uncovered what it called a fresh
Iranian plot to assassinate the president. Now, look, those types
of threats are nothing new. Is Iran is openly vowed
to retaliate against Trump for assassinating Iran's top general, Coussin Solimani,
even going back to twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, I'm number one on the killer list for the run.
I'm number one on the list for killing. Yeah. Trump
had been talking about that a lot this week. It
had come up several times, and that's probably because he
got this information before it broken the Walls Street Journal
overnight of this fresh new assassination plot. We have had
(01:10):
forty five different people serve as president. Four US presidents
have been assassinated in office. So that's about nine percent.
And Trump brought that percentage up the other day. When
you look at it that way, that's still relatively high.
(01:31):
It's more dangerous, as he said, than being a race
car driver or lots of other supposedly dangerous things being
president of the United States. Now, we have not had
a president assassinated by a foreign country. A lot of
speculation around that, specifically with JFK obviously in the fact
that Lee Harvey Oswald had been to Russia, and we're
(01:53):
not going to rehash all that, but there's never been
any proof that the Soviet Union was actually behind that.
But if Iran flat out killed the sitting president of
the United States and we knew it, I can't imagine
what that would do to the world. How would we
react to that. I don't know. I actually do not know.
I would assume that the gloves would be completely off
(02:15):
and we would just destroy the country. But first of all,
you got a lot of people who don't like Trump,
and a lot of the country doesn't like Trump, and
I don't know how the world would react to that.
And a lot of innocent people would lose their lives
who had nothing to do with wanting to assassinate Trump.
But it would be crazy, ugly. I'm looking at a
TV right now, Charlie Dagata from CBS's there, and they
(02:41):
were just showing the video of those hundreds of thousands
of mourners because of the Iatola's funeral that was going
on this weekend. They unfurled that giant banner saying we
will kill Trump, which is wild. Let's hear a little
(03:03):
more of the reporting. This is from a special report
on Fox around this.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Hundreds of mourners dressed in black hold a giant red
flag that reads we will kill Trump. Another group of
women hold up puzzle pieces that read killing you is
not enough for us.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
We want to uproot demons.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
And this man holds up a sign that simply reads revenge.
That is the message Iran is sending tonight on this
final day of Ayatola Ali Khameni's funeral.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, it's not like they're hiding that. And I have
to assume that in Iran, those protesters do not unfurl
that banner without the approval of the RGC or whoever's
currently in charge of crazy Islamic nut job crowds there.
In Iran, you don't get to do whatever you want.
The government probably made the banner that they unfurled. The
(03:54):
report goes on.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Renewed scrutiny tonight on his security. The New York Times
reports it was a secret Service that urged the President
to leave the NATO summit in Turkey aboard the old
Air Force One instead of the new Katari donated plane
he arrived in, raising questions about whether the plane was
retrofitted with sufficient security measures. The White House pushing back,
(04:17):
telling Fox, the new Air Force one is a state
of the art aircraft that has been fitted with high
level security protocols that ensure the safety of the President
and his staff.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
There's no reason to believe anything that anyone is saying
out of the Secret Service or the White House or
leaking to whichever news organization about this story. For them
to tell us actually what's going on would be insane.
It's good cover for the Secret Service or whoever to
(04:48):
leak that, Yeah, the new plane wasn't up to speed
on anti missile technology, so that's why we switch planes.
We don't have any idea, and we shouldn't have any
idea to me. The key detail was that they hurried
the President on to the old Air Force one plane
and had everybody pulled down their their their sheep blind
or the window blinds, whatever you call those things, close
(05:10):
the windows there so no light could get in or out.
For whatever reason, there, what the heck was going on?
So again, this is the Wall Street Journal with this
exclusive today. Israel recently shared intelligence with the United States
about a new Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump. According
to the report, comes after years of threats from Iran
to kill Trump as revenge, specifically for the twenty twenty
(05:34):
killing of their IRGC leader Cossam Salamani by US forces,
and that's now six years ago. When asked for com out,
the Wise House referred to the post to Trump's Wednesday
remarks at the NATO summit when he said they want
to take out the US leader. Me, I'm on whatever
list I saw this morning. I'm on every single one
(05:55):
of their lists, and so far, I guess I've been
a bit lucky. But maybe that doesn't last very long.
How about that comment from a sitting president in the
United States. Maybe I've been lucky and that doesn't last
very long. That's a pretty fatalist view of a country
wanting to assassinate you and your country's ability to keep
(06:15):
you protected. These are evil, sick people, Trump went on,
and we have to root out that cancer. That cancer.
You know what you do. You got to cut out
the cancer early. And that's the way I feel, said Trump.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Now.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Pete Hegzeth, the Secretary of War who accompanied the President
to the summit, was instructed not to travel to Israel
as was planned before Trump chose to switch planes in Turkey.
So Hegzeth was going to go to Israel and they
told him not to. So that possibly probably had something
to do with the assassination plot, whatever was going on there.
(06:48):
The Wall Street Journal does not have details on the
alleged assassination plot, and they shouldn't. We should not know
what the plan was or how we figured out what
it was. The Israelis tipped the United States off about
the plot earlier this week. That's why Trump was talking
about it all week long. The specific threat was not
being tracked by US officials before Israel's warning, and as
(07:11):
yet to be vetted. CNN reported, So it's something Israel
got onto with their amazing intelligence abilities there in the
region better than ours. Something Israel got onto that we
didn't know about that they alerted us to. Again, banners
vowing revenge against Trump were on full display and tran
(07:33):
this week. Is Ranians prepared to bury the late Supreme
Leader with their giant banner that they that unferled that
read we will kill Trump in all caps. Now that's provocative.
What kind of a ceasefire is that? What kind of
a These are good people, you know. What's cool is
that they now realize that being an enemy of the
(07:55):
United States, there was a bad plan, said JD. Vans.
A couple of weeks ago, the official ceremonies for the
death of their leader included a banner that says, we
will kill the President of the United States. What the hell?
I have no idea where the story is going, and
neither does anybody else. I want to talk about the
(08:18):
advantages of being old, at least for me coming up soon. First,
I want to tell you about Incognate, which is just
a dang good idea. They got the law on their side.
We do have laws out there that you can get
your information off of data brokers, but you don't know
how to do it. You don't have the time or expertise,
and Cogni does. Every time you get a spam call,
(08:39):
every scam text, every sketchy email with your name all
starts the same way. Somebody knows your info, somebody found you,
and we all know our infos sitting out there on
data brokers because it gets sold, it gets stolen, it
gets sold. Yeah, everything you sign up for you have
to give your information and then they sell it. And
so every scam starts with one thing, you personal info
(09:00):
being available, and so you need to get it off
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They can't spam you if they can't find you. And
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ni dot com slash armstrong. Take back your privacy. That's
(09:24):
in cognit dot com slash armstrong. I've noticed maybe this
has been going on for a while. I just didn't
pick up on it, but I've noticed the way I
get treated as I've reached a become a man of
a certain age, and it's actually working to my benefit.
I pointed this out to my son while we were
on vacation, and he started laughing once I pointed it
(09:45):
out to him, and it became obvious what was going on.
He found it very amusing. So I've got that and
a bunch of other actual news of the day on
this National French Friday coming up Armstrong. Now, Michael, we
(10:05):
have three jokes about the same topic, National French Friday.
Why did you not present this as a what do
we call that? A late night joke?
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Off?
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, I guess I could, but we don't have Joe here,
the judge. He usually judges this. Whenever a bunch of
the late night comedians take on one topic, Joe usually
judges them and gives them letter grades, and whoever gets
the lowest grade is banned from comedy, which you know
is a symbolic Rather, it's not a It doesn't have
(10:34):
the power of law, as they say. It's kind of
like the whatever that Act is where Congress can say
you're not allowed to prosecute this war. Mister Trump doesn't
have any teeth. They can vote all they want, they
still can't stop him from doing what he wants. Do
know that, no, they never tell you that. Anyway, Back
to the jokes. It's a National French Friday, and several
of the late night comics took on that topic.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
The Frozen foods brand a Ride at at least a
limited edition line of skis designed to look like French fries.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Now you and your health can both go downhill.
Speaker 5 (11:07):
America is reportedly on the verge of a French fries
shortage for real because of all the cold, wet weather
this year, fewer potatoes are expected. This really tells you
all you need to know about how we eat in
this country. The two hardest foods in America to get
are French fries in the Popeye's Chicken Safwes, one of.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
The biggest French fry factories in North America is closing
because Americans are eating fewer French fries.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
People are eating fewer.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
French fries than every Uber East driver was like, speak
for yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, I asked, what do I use? I Usequaud mostly, Oh,
elon with some nice things to say about nthropy yesterday.
I'll get to that later. He says. Claude is the
best anthropy, is the best current AI out there. Anyway,
ask Claude if she should ever eat French fries. From
a nutrition angle, really hard to make the argument for
(12:01):
French fries. Calorie dents high in salt and oil, and
with uh, lots of carbs and fat and almost no
nutrition whatsoever. They just they got they got nothing good
for you. It's like if you're eating really tasty styrofoam
or something, or rocks, like really delicious rocks, would you
(12:23):
do that? I love French fries, though, I like all
different kinds of French fries. I like the like thin, crispy,
salty kind like you get at McDonald's. Those are really
really good. But I also like it when they're the big, meaty,
thick potatoy kind. Oh those good like it? Red Robin,
Red Robin has really good French fries, big thick French fries.
I eating potato and you slatter those with ketchup. Damn
(12:45):
that's good. Who's got the best French fry? Michael?
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I say, Red Robin and McDonald's definitely come on.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Give you I know what what I didn't mention?
Speaker 6 (12:54):
You gotta well, I've had wey so far away from
the microphone, nobody can hear me.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
No, you just used examples I've gotten. Give me an
example in and out as good fries, uh huh if
you eat them right away, in my opinion, as soon
as they hand them to you. They're delicious, Like five
minutes later. I don't like him there as much like
Wendy's too good good French fry right there. No nutritional
value is that. Went to a restaurant yes day with
my son and uh dang, I almost got pulled into
(13:20):
the French five vortex there. But I stayed healthy with
some sort of rice and meat, which is a boring
lifestyle because I'm old. Speaking of being old, I've come
to this realization. I am now old enough that people
want to help me because they're kind of worried about
me and feel bad for me. Used to be when
I was younger, if I was not understanding something or
(13:43):
having trouble with this or that, people got annoyed with me.
But now I've reached the age where people see me
as a oh that poor old guy's lost or confused
or whatever, and they helped me. And I pointed this.
I became aware of it. Then I pointed it out
to my son while we were on vacation, and I
started to lean into it. I can't figure out something
(14:04):
at the hotel, and I ask him something at the desky.
I can't figure out how to do this, Oh well,
let me help you with that, says the twenty eight
year old woman or whatever it is. And they really
take their time and walk me through the thing because
they think that poor old guy is going to wander
out into traffic or something. And I used it over
and over again. It is really fantastic that poor lost
(14:26):
old man if I can't figure out where something is
or how to use something, or the self checkout at
the grocery store, now anybody younger than me, oh, let
me help you with that, they'll like take stuff out
of my hands and start doing it for me. It's
really kind of nice. I feel like my parents don't
take advantage of this. I'm obviously a lot younger than
my parents. I don't think they're taking advantage of this
(14:47):
yet in their eighties. I already I just became sixty recently,
and I already am leaning into thee. Help this doddering
old man figure out how to do this or that.
It's kind of relaxing.
Speaker 6 (15:00):
I get the people think I'm lost and confused, but
not old, right, And it annoyed people when I was younger,
when I was in my forties and fifties and I
couldn't figure out how to use the self checkout or
do something at the hotel or whatever it was.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
People were kind of angry with me in including the
people behind me in line. Now somebody in line behind
me will move on. Oh, I'm sorry. I can help
you with that again. That poor, nice, kindly old man
probably fought in World War II, or I don't know
how they think I have. They helped me out with things,
so it's got its advantages. Came across this article just
(15:36):
going through my notes from everything I read yesterday. Ninety
percent of US adults have this syndrome, but most have
never heard of it. New guidelines may soon make the disorder,
known as c k M syndrome, a common diagnosis. I
wanted to bring this to your attention in case you
hear about it. It's got to do with your blood,
(15:58):
your heart strokes, heart attack, all this different sort of stuff.
The reason I'm not going to go into kind of
a deep dive on this and explain it to you
is if ninety percent of adults have something, is there
any point to declare that you've got this? How about
we all just assume we've all got it. That's almost
(16:18):
all of us, right, It's like Joe is talking about
the other day. At some point when what's the threshold
for people having depression anxiety and people are on drugs
for depression and anxiety, or the same with the weight
loss pills. At what point do you cross the line
to where it's not a it's not really even hardly
(16:38):
anything to comment on. It's just the human condition. Oh,
so you're a human being too, here's the pills you
should take. Oh, you're a human being too, here's the
exercises you should do. Or you're a human being, here's
the things you should watch out for. Because so many
of us have it. I don't know, but this ninety
percent of us have this thing c KM syndrome. I
should actually get tested. Wouldn't be great to be in
(16:59):
the ten percent that I don't have to worry near
as much about strokes and heart attacks. Elon Musk said
this yesterday. Since I brought it up, he tweeted this out.
This is one of the reasons I don't understand the
hate for Elon. I get flipped off practically daily in
my cyber truck because people hate Elon so much. I
was clearly wrong about anthropic Elon texted yesterday there are
(17:21):
obvious they are obviously currently the leader in AI. No
company has released a model as good as Mythos Fable,
and they will undoubtedly have Mythos too ready soon. That's
the one I'm using on my phone now, and I
would never cut them off in a way that hurt
them badly, even as a competitor. That's not my style.
Tesla open sourced its patents and we made the supercharger
network available to all competitors, even though we could have
(17:43):
made it a walled garden. Yeah. I see people charging
their various vehicles that compete with Tesla's all the time
at the Tesla supercharger. And he didn't have to do that.
In fact, I don't think most people would have done that.
They would have used that as a competitive advantage, he said.
SpaceX launches competing satellite systems with no increase in price
or use of unfair terms of any kind. You want
(18:05):
your satellite up there and you're a competitive, fine, I'll
launch it up there. And even my worst enemies can
criticize me on this platform, which is Twitter. How are
people so down on Eline? Who else would do the
things that I just mentioned? And he's the words richest man.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
He doesn't have to Armstrong and Getdy.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
We've been talking to Craig Gottwals for years for a
variety of reasons. He is a healthcare expert. That's actually
what he does for companies is he helps him with
their healthcare plan. So he's got to know exactly what's
going on. And he warned us about the Affordable Care
Act Obamacare long before it started, how it was going
to turn out, and he has been completely right. Craig Gottwells,
Welcome to the Armstrong and Getty Show.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Thank you Jack.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
How you doing? First of all, it's National French Friday.
What's your favorite French fry? In and out?
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Extra crispy hot out of the friar.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
You can order them extra crispy.
Speaker 4 (19:00):
If you haven't done that, you haven't lived. Order them
extra crispy. It's like a whole new experience. I have
totally different.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
I have never done that, and I guarantee you and
you know I mean it, I will do that today. Awesome, Well,
that's cool. There's so many hacks around in and out.
I need to go onto a Reddit page or something
and learn the hacks. Extra crispy in and out French
fry sorry to those you around the country do not
have an inout anyway, Craig. So one of the reasons
(19:26):
I want to bring this up with you is, first
of all, I saw a graph on Twitter the other
day with some sort of bulge in the middle that
said the Affordable Care Act is not so affordable anymore,
and it reminded me, just anecdotally, the bills I've been
getting for every time I take my kids to the
(19:47):
doctor for anything have gotten so much bigger than they
used to be. I'm actually to the point now that
if something happens to my kids, rather than going to
urgent care or making an appointment, I wait and see
how it's going to turn out. Because the bills are
so high. It's like I don't want to go again,
am I Is it just my imagination or is something happening?
Speaker 4 (20:09):
No, No, you're on target. I mean we are. We're
headed toward a cliff of unsustainability here. I mean we've
been headed toward that cliff for quite some time. But
you can't healthcare on a macroeconomic level, Jack. The breaking
started in the sixties when we just dumped a ton
of federal money into it with Medicare and Medicaid, and
then in twenty ten, we dumped another ton of money
(20:30):
into it with Obamacare, but we did nothing to structurally
fix it. So we've got all this federal money slashing around,
and you've got you've created an oligopoly where there's very
few large systems and large insurers that are providers with
a whole parasitic class of ticks that are under that
are middlemanning the system's death. And it's it's just it's killing.
(20:52):
It's killing us. Whether you have an employer plan or
you have an Obamacare plan, or whether you're paying out
of pocket for care. It's just come completely unsustainable.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
So you use the word oligarchy around healthcare. How come
the Bernie Sanders and the Elizabeth Warns of the world
aren't worried about this?
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Well, because because this is exactly what socialized medicine looks like.
This is how this is, this is what they aspire to,
and how they those folks in the ruling class get
even richer. Healthcare is our number one employer in the country,
and it's the number one lobby in the country. So
healthcare is greasing the skids everywhere along the along the path.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Okay, let's start. Let's hold on there. Healthcare is the
number one employer in the country and the number one
lobby in the country. Wow, I don't think most people
know that.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
No, And as we've mentioned before on your show, we're
now at a point where it doesn't even matter whether
you live in a blue state or a red state.
Seventy percent of all your health care is now paid
for by taxpayer dollars. But instead of doing it in
a let's call it a quasi efficient method of medicare,
which it's not. But if you had medicares more straightforward
(22:00):
than what we have with Obamacare, you're looping in the PBM,
the insurance companies, the brokers, and all these middlemen that
are all parasitic and in profit upon your owns. Their
job is to maximize profit. And again, if it were
a free market, Jack, you know, I would be entirely
for it. For factors when we come to big drug
(22:22):
and to big insurance, and it's not. It's an oligopoly,
not a free market. And they're paying off the politicians
because that's what happens when you have broken markets.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Well, like I said, I've noticed my bills have gotten
so much bigger over the years that I now hesitate
to go. I think, you know, I want to wait
and make sure this doesn't fix itself on its own
before I go and get a three hundred and eighty
dollars bill for just dropping by and saying, take a
look at this which didn't used to happen. Is there
any reason to think it's going to not get worse?
Speaker 4 (22:59):
Realistically, it's it's it's almost certainly going to get worse
before we have any kind of change to get better.
The question will be when it does get this much worse,
will the people opt for something easy like Medicare or
like why I would say it's going to end up
being Medicaid for all. Medicare is too expensive. It's got
to be Medicaid, which is even worse. Or you just
(23:21):
you have to you have to break the system so
badly that you pull the federal government out of it
and you have individuals go back to pure price price
transparency and buying their own health care. But I don't
I don't see that as the most likely option. I mean,
the only the only path where that happens is if
it's all done at the employer level, because employers still
control about thirty to forty percent of health care. And
(23:42):
if employers self ensure their plans and get get out
of the oligopoly as much as they can, that's where
we can make some real change. But we're working with
one third of the pie. You know, as far as
the money goes leaven, less than one third of the pie.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Does rand Paul's argument work? He always uses because he
was an optimal is optomologist. He always uses the example
of laser because it's outside of the insurance thing. You know,
you pay cash for that, and so it was competitive
and you have people, you know, there's a reason for
me to keep my costs down to get more customers
where that doesn't exist if you go into the doctor
(24:18):
for anything else. Does that model work as an example
of what could be.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
It absolutely does. So's that's kind of what we're advocating
for with what I do. And so how you would
do that at the individual level, And I know this
sounds counterintuitive to people, is we need to legalize because
right now it's illegal to do it something like twenty
five thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars deductible plans for individuals.
And the only reason I say that is, you really
(24:45):
only want insurance for those catastrophic events that occur that
you can't afford. And if you if you, for example,
put every American on a plan that either had a
twenty five or a fifty thousand dollars deductible. Now, if
they're super low income, you put them in medicaid, right,
But those people that can budget their own care, you
would start seeing price transparency and negotiation for things like
(25:08):
urgent care, for things like common over the counter drugs,
for things like your doctor visits, and it would all
come down to a reasonable price because you would realize
there's not just a federal slush funds that's washing around
that everybody's trying to feed at the trough of.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I know, you got these stats at the top of
your head. What was back in the sixties when we
came up with these socialized health plans. What was the
original goal versus where we are now in terms of
percentages of people covered?
Speaker 4 (25:37):
Yeah, I knew you. You love the statistic. So when
Medicaid was passed, Medicaid is for our low income, medicares
for our seniors. And the difference is, you know, at
least in theory, the way the actuary set it up.
We all pay in the medicare as we work, and
then we in theory, the way it was supposed to
be set up is we're paying for our own care
when we then retire. It doesn't work that way. It's
(25:58):
not it's broken. It's not funding enough, just like Social Security.
But if you just look at Medicaid, the idea with
Medicaid was we're going to cover the lowest two percent
of earners in nineteen sixty five. That was the projection
that they said, you know, by about nineteen ninety, we're
going to cover the lowest two percent of earners in
our country. And now four out of every ten babies
(26:19):
born in blue states like California are born onto a
Medicaid plan.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Wow, from two percent to forty percent. Yeah, I mean
that's stunning.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Roughly one third across the country for adults too, third
of all Americans are on a Medicaid plan.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
And so meta caid is the one where studies show
you get worse results than if you didn't have any healthcare.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
There are reputable, university backed studies that have shown that
for certain heart conditions and diabetes care management and certain conditions,
you actually might be worse off on Medicaid than if
you had no insurance at all, because you end up
in such a long line to get care and it
becomes such a headache, and you end up with such
with a much smaller panel of doctors that it's actually
(27:06):
worse than if you were able to scrape up enough
cash to pay for these things on your own and
the outside of that system.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, that's horrifying, and that could be all of us soon.
So moving from the realm of you know, your expertise
healthcare into a realm I know you know a lot
about the politics of it. I just I think it's
going to be a pretty easy sell for Bernie or
Elizabeth Warren or whoever is you know running the campaign
for this, or whoever's the nominee for president for the
(27:32):
Democrats to say, hey, look, the bills are too high,
the PaperWorks, you get me down, let's just go meta.
You said we're going to go meta care for all,
probably for Medicaid.
Speaker 4 (27:42):
Well, they'll talk about they'll still say Medicare. They'll say Medicare.
The difference is, and I have I actually have the
numbers right in my finger tip. The difference is the
cost for one enrollee for one single person in Medicare
is just about twelve thousand dollars per year per person,
but the cost on Medicaid is only eight thousand dollar
dollars per year per person. Because Medicaid is cheaper, because
(28:03):
it has less doctors, because it's not as good. The
country can't afford Medicare for All. I mean we're talking
thirty six forty trillion dollars over a ten year span.
It's we can't afford it. So I think ultimately what
they'll do is they'll pitch Medicare for All, but I'll
end up looking a lot more like Medicaid for All,
(28:23):
where we really have this this horrific system that nobody
wants to be in if they can avoid it. And
then you'll get a bifurcated system where those that have
money will go out and just pay. They'll pay cash prices,
they'll negotiate deals directly with doctors.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
And they'll do it on their own like they do
in England with NHS.
Speaker 4 (28:40):
Like they do in England. But there are some countries,
and I believe Canada is one of them where that's illegal, Like, oh,
I don't think we'll go that far. Yeah, I don't
think we'll go that far, but yeah, there are some
of the socialized countries jack where you can't pay cash
for service. They don't let you buy a separate policy, and.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
So my that's crazy. So my concern is that pople
wouldn't know what it's costing. It'll just get rolled into
just kind of general taxes which half the country doesn't pay,
and so you won't have a concrete, getting a bill
understanding of what we're all paying for this.
Speaker 4 (29:13):
No, and what will happen is it'll be like like
the scandals and now you spoke about them. I think
it was a baby yesterday. But the scandals with the
Medicare fraud you've seen in Minnesota and California, those will
just get worse because see, the real sin with Medicare
and Medicaid is they've looped in the prescription benefit managers,
(29:33):
the drug companies, and the insurance companies are all part
of it in the supplement space, and so there's a
whole bunch of people getting rich rich and farming the
federal taxpayer. Then you've got brokers that farm that as well.
So you have this whole parasite class that's farming on
it because again because number one lobby in the United States,
number one employer in the United States, they have the power,
(29:56):
they have Congress's ear, and the taxpayer just gets steamrolled.
But you're absolutely right, it'll be some of the Frankenstein
hybrid Medicare Medicaid, and you'll you'll have all those dollars
just we won't know what things really cost.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
And then there's no going back, Nope, And and.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
It'll just keep eroding our quality of life. Right, We'll
have less cars at smaller houses, you know, Right, that's
like we see in France or whatever.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
God that's depressing, are you It's great?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
I always do this to you, Jack, I know.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
But you know one of the hallmarks of conservatism. George
Will taught me this. I heard him say this once
and I always remember recognizing what is is one of
the hallmarks conservatives, whether it's good news or bad news,
just recognizing what are the facts? And these are the facts.
And I don't think there's any disputing it. Are you
getting any fishing done?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Very little?
Speaker 5 (30:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
I made a work transition a couple of years ago,
and I've been working too darn much. But a little
bit here and there, and it's it's been all right,
but not like it was back in the old days
when I was sponsored bass fishermen and putting in fifty
to one hundred days on the water a year.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Wow, one hundred days a year fishing. That had to
be awesome.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
It was, But that's that's a little bit of a
cheat because I'd get out on fulsome lake and fish
until nine am and then be in the office by ten,
So I would count that as a day on the water.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Cool. If people want your expertise, how do they get
a hold of you?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
Gottwalls dot substack dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Okay, and we will link that at our website. Can
we do that? Hanton, really appreciate your time today. I
was excellent.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Craig, of course, Jack, thank you.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah. The whole healthcare thing is so depressing. And he
started talking about this. We've been talking to Craig for
years and it was before Obamacare, is when the national
debate was going on about Obama Obamacare. He was predicting
on where this was headed and he's been right about
all of it. And you know, lots of conservative pundits
(31:51):
were saying the same thing. But Craig, because he's so
detailed and in that industry on how it was going
to be such an easy sell at some point politically
for socialized medicine because it's more expensive and more complicated
and more annoying to where people just throw up their hands.
They might as well just have socialized medicine, at which point,
(32:13):
again we don't have the slightest idea what it's costing,
because you never pay any actual bills. It's just kind
of factored into the overall cost of America, which again
is he just pointed out, just kind of drags down
the whole economy with smaller houses and smaller cars and
just a small, sluggish economy, and nobody will understand that.
There'll be no it's depressing. This is not what you want.
(32:34):
Do you have it, handy, Michael. We need it on
a Friday. And then I'm gonna stop being depressing at
least on this topic, I promise, because it's just it's
overwhelming to me. Armstrong and Getty the most depressing radio
show ever. I don't want to be that. I don't
want to be that. We have something fun next, promise, Armstrong.
(33:02):
I want to talk about these street people around the
radio station. Here in a second. But before I get
to that, just came across this story in the California Post.
It's it's a horrifying story. I mean, it's a it's
a it's a murder, a couple of murders. This guy
shot and killed his girlfriend and her lover. But this
is an interesting wrinkle on this. So this dude in
(33:26):
San Diego, him and his girlfriend, they're in their late
twenties at twenty seven and twenty eight. Uh, they agreed
to have an open relationship. Okay, you know, let your
freak flag fly. I guess I've never quite understood that,
but fine, they agreed to have an open relationship. She
brings a homeless dude into their home as her lover.
(33:51):
So I'm thinking when he hit agreed to an open relationship,
he was pictured some you know, you're gonna find some
college guy or something like that, and you know whatever,
she brings a homeless dude into their house and then
lets him live there. This homeless guy had been living
in their house for a couple of weeks there in Ramona,
San Diego area, and then the scumbag guy twists off
(34:15):
and kills them both, which is obviously incredibly uncool. But man,
when you go for the open relationship, you don't think
the other one's going to go homeless.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
Love.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Speaking of the homeless, we got a lot of them
right around the radio station here, specifically over by the
Wells Fartho Bank and the Cane's Chicken Hanson, our executive producer,
he's really become enthralled with the rats, the number of
rats that they have around there, and he likes watching
them scurry around and run up and down the poles
and everything like that. But he told me he plays
(34:45):
a game when he comes to work now, when he's
sitting at the stoplight, sleeping or dead, he sees somebody
there on the street to the sidewalk and tries to
determine whether they're sleeping or dead. And he had one
today that he is really wondering sleeping or dead because
there were the rats were within feet of the guy,
and you wouldn't think the rats would get that close
(35:07):
to guy. And he tried to decide if he should
call nine one one or go over and nudge the
guy or whatever. But he thought, you know, if he's dead,
what good is it gonna do. Somebody will figure this
out and if he's sleeping. Of course, you know, the
guy's got a full day of work ahead of him.
You don't want to wake him up when he's trying
to get a slumber before he you know, gets to
the office. Whatever the guy does, Oh my god, you're
(35:31):
passed out, methed up, passed out with rats around you.
Nice lifestyle. And I mentioned that to Jensen, who we've
had on the air many many times over the year.
She's out there in the newsroom. I mentioned that playing
the game homeless or sleep, sleeping or dead with the
homeless guy. She says, she plays let me pass by
(35:52):
or lunge is the game she plays when they're standing
up in the street. Is this guy just gonna let
me drive by? Or is he going to lunge in
front of my are What a great environment, Oh my god.
I know parts of parts of the country where some
of you are listening, you can't even imagine that this
goes on. If you're in a town over five thousand
(36:15):
people in California, you've got lots of street people around.
This is just a common thing. Thank you, Gavin Newsom
and the Blue voters in the lifestyle part of the deal.
Let me pass her Lunge sleeping or dead. It's a
fun game to start your dead
Speaker 4 (36:33):
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