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- [00:00]
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:06]
Joe Getty
Broadcasting live.
- [00:07]
Jack Armstrong
From the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center.
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Joe Getty
Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty.
- [00:16]
Jack Armstrong
And now here's Armstrong and Getty. So if you're an NFL fan, the very first game of the, of this year was last night. Chargers, Lions. Chargers beat the hell out of the Lions in the hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio. Anyway, I came across this at Harbaugh. Jim Harbaugh, one of our favorite people back when he was a 49ers coach, said to his team or media or somebody, because people are talking about, you know, it's freaking July and there's an NFL game and preseason and who cares and all that sort of stuff. And he said this game will get higher ratings than a World Series baseball game or any NBA Finals game. And he's right. That's how much bigger the NFL is than the other sports. Wow.
- [01:11]
Michael
Is that right?
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Jack Armstrong
Yeah, I didn't look it up. But that's historically, that's true, that sort of thing. That's how much bigger the NFL is.
- [01:19]
Michael
Wow.
- [01:20]
Jack Armstrong
They are the 500 pound gorilla. Anyway, so Kamala Harris was on Colbert last night. We talked about this a lot yesterday. She's got a book out. She's, she announced she's not running for governor of California. She's clearly running for president or at least trying to put together a team to run for California. And if, if she can get the money people behind her, she will run. She's delusional. She was on Colbert. She was always good at those. That's why she did them. She's good at the smiling, laughing. And if you have a host that wants to help you along, she's fine at it. And I think that's what convinced her in her head she could be president because she was good at those. She couldn't do any interview where she is challenged on policy. But I just wanted to hear this a little bit about the, the, the intro because I haven't heard this, I've just read about it and it sounds appalling.
- [02:07]
Michael
Ladies and gentlemen, my guest tonight was Vice President of the United States. Please welcome her back to the Late Show, Vice President Kamala Har.
- [02:25]
Jack Armstrong
Listen to that crowd. Keep it going there, Michael.
- [02:32]
Joe Getty
She stands there and waves because they're.
- [02:34]
Jack Armstrong
All on their feet, grinning ear to ear, excitement in the air, cheering wildly. And here you go with the USA chants.
- [02:56]
Michael
Can you imagine what the state of the USA would be if that half witted one.
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Jack Armstrong
Aside from that though, what, what does that tell you? That's good, Michael. What does that tell you politically, though? Now, Colbert famously has a very left audience. That's what he crafted on purpose. He was the number one show, so blah, blah, blah. But he's got that crowd. But she got beaten by Donald Trump and the crowd is chanting usa. And he can't get him to quiet down enough to even ask her a question.
- [03:35]
Michael
Yeah, I'm just trying to think of an analogous situation on the other side of the aisle. Like if Republicans, conservatives had just erupted in rapturous cheers when Bob Dole was introduced or Mitt Romney, after all, after his defeat. Although you can argue Mitt Romney was a. Was a very good man.
- [03:54]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [03:54]
Michael
But nobody could have won. Blah, blah, blah.
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Jack Armstrong
You know the history. You always have that quote about when people run for president and lose. That's the history of people, when they run for president, lose. Even if you're a good gut person, people are. Parties are done with you. You don't come out to chance of usa.
- [04:09]
Michael
Yeah, yeah. Especially because she. She was such a weak candidate.
- [04:13]
Jack Armstrong
Is that just. I'm reading it as. It's just an opportunity to express your anti Trump enthusiasm, particularly given the fact.
- [04:24]
Michael
That anti Trump enthusiasm is kind of tied up in the whole Colbert show is getting canceled thing. Right. Because the first chant was Steven. Steven.
- [04:32]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [04:32]
Michael
So I think it's all kind of wrapped up for those people.
- [04:35]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [04:35]
Michael
I don't know.
- [04:35]
Jack Armstrong
I thought that was an interesting political moment. She's not only a losing candidate, she lost to a guy whose negatives were higher than anybody who's ever won the presidency. And she was horrible at it. And thunderous applause in chants of usa I mean, that is if.
- [04:54]
Michael
Hey, keep cheering, folks. Maybe you can get to Kamala and Mamdani as the VP nominee.
- [04:59]
Jack Armstrong
That got the juices in her brain. Do you have juices in your brain? That got the juices in her brain that were thinking, should I run for president or not? Into full tilt mode. I guarantee you. Look at this. Should I run? How is that even a question?
- [05:13]
Michael
Look at these people, right?
- [05:15]
Jack Armstrong
The people want me. I would be a bad American if I did not become their leader.
- [05:20]
Michael
Right. They're begging me. That is wild.
- [05:24]
Jack Armstrong
Okay, so there's that. And who knows what's going to happen in 28? Because who knows what the issues will be? It's possible that one of the biggest issues for the midterm or the presidential election are going to be how great the tariffs were or what a disaster the tariffs were, depending on how this all turns out. But so as so Trump last night announces, I think it was 68 new tariffs. He had this big board with 68 countries on there and what their new tariffs are, including a 35% tariff on Canada that kicks in today. And it was a, it was a big deal. So on msnbc, I was watching their late night show that's on at 11 o' clock east coast, 8 o' clock in California. And you know, it's all about hating Trump all the time. And Stephanie Rule, the host of that show, had a guest on and she sets him up with this anti Trump question, hoping they're all just going to get to do some good Trump bashing. And I thought the guy's answer was pretty interesting. Trump wants people to focus on the big new tariff rates, but the reality.
- [06:23]
Joe Getty
Is he's just pushing the deadline again. Like, has Taco Tuesday become Taco Thursday at the White House? You know, Steph, I don't think so. I think these are for real. I think tonight's a fairly historic night where I think you can go back and when you write the history, you'll.
- [06:39]
Michael
Say this is the night that the global free trade era begun by the United States in the post war era.
- [06:45]
Joe Getty
Led by the United States really came to an end. There is now, I think, a permanent tariff curtain around this country.
- [06:53]
Jack Armstrong
I thought that was some pretty good analysis and there should be more of that. Whether it's going to be a good. And he says, he goes on to say, which is abNormallyally fair for MSNBC. He goes on to say, whether this turns out to be a good thing for the United States or not, you know, will be proven over time. He didn't automatically say it was going to be a bad thing, but it's a giant deal. The whole taco thing is a stupid narrative. New York Times wrote that a week or so ago. I mentioned that. The New York Times said, hey, I know the taco joke is funny, but the reality is Trump has done it. We live in a much different world of tariffs now than before he came into office. It's real. It's not. It's not. He talked big in there and things didn't change. No, things changed a lot. And we'll see how it turns out, right?
- [07:43]
Michael
Yeah. And this story doesn't really lend itself very well to hit and run, you know, media of whatever sort. And what you just quoted the fellows saying, kind of anticipating one of the points I was going to make, I have some pretty strong opinions about some aspects of this, but we won't know until time passes. Well, Hell, we don't even know if the tariffs are gonna be enacted standby for that. But if it were, if, if, if what Trump is doing were 100% right and wise and patriotic and far seeing, there would be a period of disruption and discomfort that we would have to get through to get to that better result. Which is one of the reason modern democracies often don't solve their problems. I mean, like our budgetary problems, it's fairly obvious how we need to do that, but we will never put up with the difficult period that we need to go through to fix it. And so I readily admit, knee jerk analysis of what Trump is doing is either going to be wrong or it's just unfair. It's just dumb. Having said that, and it is absolutely hilarious to me how little coverage this is getting. The U.S. court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday yesterday heard oral arguments in a challenge to the worldwide tariffs. And the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal's lead is, well, that was painful for the Trump administration's lawyer. That is, judge after judge doubted the administration's arguments. And so what you need to know is the administration says the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers act, also known as IEP or whatever it is, grants the President sweeping authority to impose tariffs. And the judges seemed very, very skeptical, which doesn't necessarily prove anything. They'll put out a ruling then. We don't have to guess. But one of the judges right out of the gate pointed out that no president has ever used the emergency law to impose tariff tariffs. And they got into a discussion with the lawyers about, well, that's true, but the law is written broadly to give the President the right to use whatever tools he deems appropriate. The judges weren't buying it. Why should we read tariffs into that statute? Is the plain meaning of regulate. And that has to do with the verbiage in the statute to impose tariffs or taxes. And isn't the administration upending the entire tariff schedule that Congress enacted? Then you have to get into Nixon's across the board, 10% tariffs in 1971. It would take too long to explain, but they said no. This is very different in a number of different ways. And it ends up being whether you like it or not. And it'll get to the Supreme Court, almost certainly, unless they think the appeals court is right. And they say, no, we're not gonna take it because we think they're right.
- [10:43]
Jack Armstrong
Is this.
- [10:43]
Michael
It's a great question. Hang on a second. It's a great question about Congress versus the Executive branch and who gets to do how to interpret broad statutes. And you remember us on the libertarian conservative side were really happy last year. The high court put out a ruling, happened to be called Loper Bright, that says no judges don't automatically defer to the administrative state, the regulators interpretations of vague laws. You got to figure out what Congress meant. And remember the major questions doctrine says Congress must give the President express authority for actions with economic or political significance. Otherwise he's overstepping his bounds.
- [11:21]
Jack Armstrong
But you said it'll get to the Supreme Court. Is that something they could rule on before October, like jump in and, you know, take off their summer shorts and put on the robes and look at this. Because October is a long way away.
- [11:34]
Michael
Oh yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah. They could do a couple of things. They could announce immediately that they're not taking the case after this. The appeals court rules and. Which means it stands.
- [11:47]
Jack Armstrong
And you're anticipating the appeals court will rule that Trump can't do this.
- [11:51]
Michael
I'm leaning that way with, you know, just a moderate level of confidence because, you know, as you pointed out earlier, you can try to leap to conclusions based on the oral arguments, but it's, it's a, it's a slippery thing to do.
- [12:05]
Jack Armstrong
Okay, I got a question about that. But first we ought to tell you about Simplisafe, which is a good way to protect your home. School starts here. Pretty soon you're gonna be, you know, running around all day long. You know, most home break ins happen during the day. They do. And you got your SimpliSafe system set up there like I do, with all the sensors on the doors and the windows and the cameras and the liveguard protection and AI involved and all that sort of stuff, you're going to feel a lot better.
- [12:29]
Michael
And of course the alarm goes off after they've smashed your window. No, with simply safe. And this is the amazing part, the AI powered cameras and live monitoring agents detect suspicious activity before the break and they can talk to the scumbags, turn on your spotlights, call the cops before the crime occurs. And all of this monitoring plans start around a dollar a day. So it's a fraction of the price of the crappy old systems that never worked, right. Anyway. Visit simplisafe.comarmstrong to get 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan, you get your first month free. That's simplisafe.com Armstrong Again, it's just around a dollar a day. Simplisafe.com Armstrong there's no safe like SimpliSafe.
- [13:09]
Jack Armstrong
We'Re out of time. And we'll have plenty of time to talk about tariffs in the coming days, weeks and months.
- [13:14]
Michael
But just on a broad principle, though, how many times did we say during the Biden administration to Democrats, don't you understand your president using these extraordinary wild powers to do things that are probably not the executives to do? Don't you understand the other side will be in power at some point? And how unwise you're being? Well, I am consistent. If nothing else, same thing applies.
- [13:39]
Jack Armstrong
Well, my question was going to be Trump has been talking about wanting to do tariffs his whole life. Was he always planning on using this emergency act or how was he planning on doing it?
- [13:50]
Michael
I don't know.
- [13:51]
Joe Getty
Huh.
- [13:51]
Jack Armstrong
I haven't heard that question answered. Are you familiar with the Ocho Network? The The TERSH does 8th tier sports network. It's a thing and it's kind of funny. Among other things on the way. Stay here.
- [14:04]
Michael
Armstrong and Getty at the Presidential Fitness Test is back. Now Trump says he wants to ensure America's future generations are strong, healthy and successful. At least I think that's what he said. He was gnawing on a KFC12 piece at the time.
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Jack Armstrong
The Presidential Fitness Test, if you're old enough to remember doing that, they had some pretty high standards. Either you're going to be a Navy SEAL or you're gonna, you know, not pass. I guess those are.
- [14:31]
Michael
You fail. That's right. Yeah. Marshmello, get out of my sight, said my gym teacher coming up.
- [14:37]
Jack Armstrong
We need to talk about this. I don't know if you're tired of AI talk or not. I'm definitely not. It is now officially much bigger than the dot com boom of the 90s was in terms of the way it has taken over the stock market. And people talk about the dot com boom still because it was such a disruptive force. But AI is significantly bigger than that. Nvidia is worth more than it's got more than the GDP of like every country on earth, like but three or something. Anyway, more amazing stats about that coming up. Are you familiar with the ocho? It started with the as a joke. There was the movie Dodgeball that was quite hilarious. And in the movie Dodgeball it aired on the Ocho Network and so it became a thing where ESPN would talk about the Ocho for like really third tier sports. And then they started doing it and now this will be the ninth year in a row where they have they set aside, I think three days of programming on the Ocho for all these Sports that, you know, aren't, aren't really sports that, I mean, they've got everything from paintball, which is kind of a sport. There's some.
- [15:45]
Michael
I've had some great times playing paintball.
- [15:46]
Jack Armstrong
There's some.
- [15:47]
Katie
I was going to ask if you guys have you've ever been shot with one of those?
- [15:50]
Michael
I've never done over and over again, which is surprising.
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Jack Armstrong
You have, Joe? I've never done paintball.
- [15:54]
Michael
Oh yeah, you remember, I used to do it with my son in Sun River, Oregon, out in the woods. Just a big wooded field of play. Katie, it was fantastic. Fantastic.
- [16:05]
Joe Getty
Wow.
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Katie
So I, I grew up in a canyon and so all the guys that lived near us in our housing community, we would go into the canyon and we'd hide behind the trees. Oh, it was so. Oh, a blast. Go paintballing.
- [16:18]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. My son's super into it, but they have all kind. How much time I got. I don't know what the slippery stairs competition is, but that sounds like something I would like to watch.
- [16:28]
Katie
Oh, they put, they put soap on inflatable stairs and you have to try to.
- [16:32]
Jack Armstrong
Awesome. What is, what is extreme archery? Yikes.
- [16:38]
Michael
They do for the kids.
- [16:39]
Jack Armstrong
They do of course have dodgeball. They have a pillow fight competition. They have a mullet competition. I don't know how that's a sport. They have diving chess. You have to dive down deep into the water. The chessboards on the bottom, move your piece, then come back up for air, among other things. Wow. Robot fighting.
- [16:58]
Michael
Yes.
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Jack Armstrong
The foot golf. You only use your feet.
- [17:03]
Joe Getty
W.
- [17:06]
Michael
There's.
- [17:06]
Jack Armstrong
There's a million of them. Bike polo world Axon knife throwing. That sounds good. I don't know what banana ball is. Coffin wars. Don't know what that is either. Tire wrestling. That sounds good. Big boy Soap hockey. I don't know what that is.
- [17:20]
Michael
Tire wrestling.
- [17:22]
Jack Armstrong
Uh huh. But that's on the Ocho. Look for that over the next several days. Sounds like this sort of thing. If you sat there drunk, you could have a really, really good time.
- [17:31]
Michael
Well, a belated happy birthday to Medicare celebrating its. What was it, 50th birthday yesterday, Jack?
- [17:38]
Jack Armstrong
Six?
- [17:38]
Michael
Seven.
- [17:39]
Jack Armstrong
60Th.
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Michael
60Th. Yes.
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Jack Armstrong
Lyndon Maine Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law 60 years ago this week. It has cost us many, many trillions of dollars. And not sure it's done anybody any good at all. How do you like that?
- [17:53]
Michael
Reminds me of the old Internet meme. How it started, how it's going.
- [17:56]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [17:57]
Michael
And we'll talk to Craig the healthcare guru about that next. Among other Fair.
- [18:03]
Jack Armstrong
Shouldn't you, for all those trillions of dollars have amazing successful results or at least some successful results for tens of trillions of dollars?
- [18:13]
Michael
Are you asking about a government program or like anything else on earth and nobody program different standards.
- [18:18]
Jack Armstrong
Nobody's talking about it anyway. We will.
- [18:20]
Joe Getty
Coming up, Armstrong and Gettysburg.
- [18:24]
Jack Armstrong
We're about to have our healthcare expert Craig Gotwell's on. I'll bet he could do this. So on the OCHO network, one of the sports that they have on the Ocho this weekend, the Microsoft Excel world championship finals. I'll bet Craig would be good at that. I just.
- [18:37]
Michael
Wow.
- [18:38]
Jack Armstrong
Sort of person that excels at xl. Yeah. So we're talking about Medicare and Medicaid. It's the 60 year anniversary of it being signed into law. Listen to this stat, will you? And the Wall Street Journal was writing about this the other day. That's why we decided to have Craig on, because he an expert in this. We have spent in this country $45 trillion since 1965 on these two programs without evidence of effectiveness, without any evidence that it's done anybody any good. $45 trillion.
- [19:16]
Michael
And to prepare for the chat, I've been flipping through every headline I can find over the last several days about Medicare and Medicaid turning 60. And they are either glowingly positive.
- [19:27]
Jack Armstrong
Yep.
- [19:27]
Michael
Or they talk about the savage, brutal, inhumane cuts that the big beautiful bill is going to enact. Every single one that came up in my G G G G G G Google search. So to discuss that and other fair please welcome the Armstrong and Getty Show Once again, Craig Gottwals. Craig, the healthcare guru, attorney, law benefit consultant, benef Craig. How are you sir?
- [19:49]
Joe Getty
I'm good. Gentlemen, how are you?
- [19:51]
Jack Armstrong
Appalled.
- [19:52]
Michael
Just terrific. Well, he's appalled.
- [19:54]
Jack Armstrong
I'm terrific.
- [19:55]
Michael
So back to the Internet meme. How did it begin or how did it start? How's it going? What was the idea in the first place?
- [20:02]
Joe Getty
Yeah, so, well, if you just take Medicaid, which is the element that was designed to cover the lowest income amongst us, those that were the most downtrodden, that needed the most help, that was designed to cover 2% of the American population, you can go back to the Congressional record and you can see it clearly written. This is just a safety net, folks. This is what we, this is what we have to do at the bare minimum to cover the most downtrodden amongst us. Well, it now covers four out of 10 babies born.
- [20:35]
Michael
Well that's because the standard of living has declined so much in the last 50 years. Oh no, it's actually quite the opposite. Go on, Craig. Sorry.
- [20:43]
Joe Getty
Well, yeah, and that's, that's just Medicaid. If you, when you combine Medicare and Medicaid together, you'll see waste, fraud and abuse studies that range from 25 to 35% across the board within those systems.
- [20:57]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, that's another thing is from the article that maybe a third of it we're spending about a trillion dollars in, about a third of it is waste. I don't want to put you on the spot because you're not a historian, but like backing up even another step. What brought about the legislation that LBJ signed into law 60 years ago this week? There. Was there a real feeling in this country that, you know, people weren't getting medical care and falling through the cracks or what drove it?
- [21:23]
Joe Getty
No, honestly, Jack, it's a perversion of the tax code. So, you know, like third party insurance started in the 20s and 30s. You know, you'd have a little policy that you bought just for hospital services. But then what happened in World War II was we put wage freezes on, but companies still looked for ways to recruit employees so they couldn't do it with wages, so they started to do it with health care.
- [21:48]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, interesting.
- [21:49]
Joe Getty
And the government said, you know what, that's a good idea. We like you buying health care for your workers, so we're not going to tax you on anything you buy health care wise. Well, just like everything else. Right. Just like with, with our college tuition. Once you have this tremendous tax break going on. This thing just blew up. From 1940 through 1960, it just took off and then the government expansion of it was just the next logical step. You've got crony capitalism going on. Let's get the government involved too. And to the point now where, you know, it's literally to the point in blue states where taxpayers fund 71% of all healthcare, and in the country nationally, it's 67% of all healthcare.
- [22:31]
Jack Armstrong
Wow.
- [22:32]
Michael
We don't want socialized medicine. Everybody says we have it to a large extent.
- [22:37]
Jack Armstrong
Well, so the, the headline I've been quoting all week long from that Wall Street Journal opinion piece that we've spent $45 trillion without substantial evidence of effectiveness. Is that overstated or does that sound about right to you?
- [22:49]
Joe Getty
It's close to right. I think it's a little overstated. I think the number is closer to 30 trillion. But I mean, you know, who's counting?
- [22:56]
Jack Armstrong
That doesn't matter.
- [22:56]
Joe Getty
That. Yeah, it's, you know what, the one that you, you'd run into pushback out here in the industry is with Medicare. So if you tried to peel Medicare back, you'd have, I mean, just, you know, right, left and center, you'd have just absolute mutiny on your hands of the oldsters saying I paid into it for all these years. You can't peel it back. And I will say that when you look at the studies on the efficacy of the programs, it's pretty clear that Medicaid isn't able to show that it causes any better health outcomes. And part of that's because of lifestyle of people that are on Medicaid, the longer wait times, etc. But Medicare, it's a much more mixed record where you know, there might actually be some, some benefit to Medicare.
- [23:40]
Jack Armstrong
But listen to what you just said, there might be some benefit. We're spending a trillion dollars a year on these programs and the best you can do is say there might be some benefit?
- [23:54]
Joe Getty
Well, cobbling them both together, Jack, it's like 1, 1 and 3/4 trillion a year when you add them both together. But yeah, so because if you were to fund your own health care outside of Medicare, if you were to completely be a free market system where you had a relationship with a doctor and you funded your own, I think it's, it's really clear that your outcomes would be better, you'd be more invested in it, you'd have a better, a more personal relationship. So that's that. Now if you were to say, well, it's either Medicare or nothing, either I'm going to have a Medicare doctor, I'm going to have nothing. Well then it's also, it's pretty clear that Medicare is better than nothing. But that's, that's a tough choice, you see.
- [24:31]
Michael
So one of the most interesting things we've learned from you through the years, Craig. Oh, before I get to that, it is true, is it not, that there are now healthy working age single men on Medicaid?
- [24:47]
Joe Getty
Yes. And then that was. Yeah, I wanted to circle back to that in your intro because you know, the, the one big beautiful bill that the draconian requirement is that you now have to either volunteer or take a class for at least 80 hours a month to remain on Medicaid. That's this horrible draconian requirement we put in for able bodied humans.
- [25:07]
Michael
Right.
- [25:08]
Jack Armstrong
Which I understand is pretty easy to game. You know, you have a friend or something that signs some paperwork that claims you volunteer.
- [25:15]
Joe Getty
Oh, of course. I was teaching a class at a university during the pandemic and we had something similar that came through the pandemic where if you took a class, you got an extra amount of unemployment, effectively, and the class quadrupled in size from what it normally was. You just had people sitting there not even doing the work, so they could just check the box that they attended and get there and get their government cheese.
- [25:37]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah, it's like when I was trying to hire babysitters through one of the most popular websites in the country and nobody would ever like respond and somebody finally told me, no, no, that's just so they can fill out their paperwork showing they're looking for a job that qualifies you for a variety of things. They don't want the job.
- [25:54]
Michael
Right.
- [25:54]
Joe Getty
So which client? Employers in the same situation where you just like, I've literally walked into one of my clients in a rural county and there's people stand to get their pajamas.
- [26:08]
Michael
Can you repeat that? You glitched out.
- [26:10]
Joe Getty
Oh, I'm sorry. I was one of my clients in a rural county that they get a lot of applicants, they have a lot of turnover. I showed up there one day and there's all these, there's all these employees, potential employees lined up to get their application to hr and some of them are literally standing there in their pajamas. They don't want the job, they just want to check the box.
- [26:27]
Jack Armstrong
God dang it. That's the problem with socialism. People find workarounds.
- [26:31]
Michael
Right. Which brings me to my greater question. Back to one of the most interesting things we've learned from you, Craig. And it has to do with the utterly bizarre, complex and perverse way a lot of this stuff is funded. And I know a lot of those healthy working age males on Medicaid are on it because of the perverse incentives enacted during Obamacare. And God, you get to the provider taxes and hospital taxes, it's probably too much for what we're gonna do here today. But the compensation rates for doctors and hospitals for Medicaid, for instance, is a fraction of the cost. How does that work?
- [27:11]
Joe Getty
Yeah, it's gotten so complicated now, Joe. And that's right, like on average, a physician or a hospital is reimbursed less than their cost, something like 80% of their actual rock cost just to provide surger and facilities. So then what happens is there's additional taxes built into the system primarily on employer sponsored plans that get funneled back to the hospitals on the back end to make sure that they're made whole. Well, of course, this is, this is nothing more than a hidden tax on our employer plans such that we're paying 300% of what Medicare pays for certain services because of the fact that Medicaid pays like 80% of what Medicare pays for certain services, which enables Congress to.
- [27:58]
Michael
Get away with not using honest numbers to fund the programs. They stick it to everybody with private insurance. And I would, I would guess Fewer than 10% of Americans understand that that is going on.
- [28:13]
Joe Getty
Oh, I probably even fewer than that. It's such a. It took me years in the industry to even figure it out, to follow the money around to all the different convoluted stops it makes just to see that that's what' actually happening.
- [28:27]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah. There's no way 10% of people understand that. Yeah.
- [28:31]
Michael
Yeah. It's unbelievable online. Yeah. Go ahead, Craig.
- [28:36]
Joe Getty
I was going to say, just go say keep in mind, 29% of us have private health care that are, that are greatly funding these underpayments. And this system on the back end.
- [28:46]
Jack Armstrong
I think it's damn interesting.
- [28:48]
Joe Getty
Just keeps. Yeah.
- [28:49]
Jack Armstrong
That Joe did a little search on the news stories and of course every stories I've seen is like this too. It's either a glowing, isn't it fantastic that this happened? Or neutral. But there's certainly outside of that Wall Street Journal opinion piece that I came across, anybody pointing out this has cost us a lot of money for very little good.
- [29:07]
Joe Getty
Yeah, no, that's right. And it just goes to show once you give something away, you can never peel it back because even in my industry, I've had co workers that have been in this industry for years ask me, hey, what are these terrible draconian cuts gonna do with Medicaid? What's that?
- [29:25]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, and he's gone.
- [29:26]
Michael
And he's gone.
- [29:27]
Jack Armstrong
He got tired of us.
- [29:28]
Michael
So. And who can blame him? So Craig is available. He's actually doing some amazing stuff on for companies and individuals to design their own health plan and not pay insurance companies. We'll have a link at Armstrong and getty.com to Craig's substack again, that's Armstrong and yeti.com under hot links.
- [29:50]
Jack Armstrong
A frustrating note that seems to be weaving its way through our Friday show, which is not good. You shouldn't be frustrated on a Friday, but here is the biggest driver of our debt that we've got in all of government. Your Medicare, Medicaid thing. And it's the 60th anniversary and you can't get a debate going over how good is it or how good is it not or could it be improved or tweaked or is it a disaster? No, none of that. No national debate about that at all. Just 60 years ago today, fairy dust angels dropped down. Free health care for the downtrodden. Isn't it wonderful? In other news.
- [30:29]
Michael
And then the mean orange man is trying to end it. Yeah. And this stuff we were discussing about compensation rates and how Congress passes laws, when they pass, you know, the laws that brought us these things or continue to fund it, they will say, and of course, we'll increase the taxes and the compensation to physicians year after year after year after year to fund this. But then it would be politically really unpopular to increase those taxes. And so they say, yeah, yeah, never mind about that. Which increases the gulf between costs and inflow of revenue more and more and more every single year in, you know, requiring it, you know, requiring the government to stick private taxpayers or private insurance people with more and more of the cost without admitting to what's. What's happening. So there's this enormous dishonesty. And perhaps if everybody understood what's going on, we had some honesty. We could have an argument in which lefties would call for very high taxes. And. And there should be no billionaires. And we need universal healthcare. And that's fine. We can have that disagreement and then vote on it. That's what we do around here. But the fact is nobody knows what the facts are. It's so shrouded in mystery.
- [31:45]
Jack Armstrong
So we have figured out why Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are a romantic couple. The answer is there, and it's pretty obvious once you hear it. Among other things, we've got on the way. Stay here.
- [31:59]
Joe Getty
Armstrong and Getty. The longest lightning bolt ever on record. Scientists have now confirmed a single lightning bolt stretching 515 miles across three states, Texas to Missouri was back in 2017. Now confirmed. The mega flash covered the distance in a little more than just seven seconds.
- [32:17]
Jack Armstrong
The longest light bolt lightning bolt. I don't know how they measured that exactly, but seen by many, many people across the Midwest, that's kind of exciting.
- [32:26]
Michael
Measure.
- [32:27]
Jack Armstrong
Is that climate change? Is that something to be worried about?
- [32:30]
Michael
Yes.
- [32:31]
Jack Armstrong
This story, if you haven't seen the video, is getting lots of attention. If you've seen the video, you know what I'm talking about.
- [32:38]
Joe Getty
The terrifying moment a ride at an.
- [32:40]
Michael
Amusement park started losing control. The ride in Saudi Arabia going back.
- [32:44]
Joe Getty
And forth before it appears to come.
- [32:46]
Michael
Loose, and then it just splits in half. Many of those people, as you can imagine, were seriously hurt. With some hospitals nearby declaring a state of emergency. The exact number of people hurt and.
- [32:57]
Joe Getty
What went wrong is still unclear.
- [32:59]
Jack Armstrong
Holy crap. Have you seen that video? Plus, I have not. Plus they show it over and over and over in slow motion so that you can, like, individually look at each person and see did their arm break? Did their foot get cut off? You know, because it's. Yes, Katie, It's.
- [33:16]
Katie
It's one of those pendulum rides that swings and it swings all the way to the top and then the, the, the band that it is on just snaps and the whole part that all the people are on slams all the way to the ground.
- [33:30]
Michael
Yeah.
- [33:30]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, that would have been a terrifying half a moment before. And then you landed. Think, is my neck broken? Geez, that looked like quite the jolt.
- [33:38]
Katie
And that's the day you decide to never go on a ride again.
- [33:41]
Jack Armstrong
And then the woman running the thing runs away as it's crashing. The woman running the thing, it's. Saudi Arabia, is wearing the full beekeeper's outfit where she's just looking through the little slit. That's. That. That what. What an interesting thing that is. Yeah. So you're one of the, I don't know, wife slave people that they have in Saudi Arabia. Not allowed to cover. Allow anything to be seen except your eyeballs while you run the crappily put together ride at the carnival.
- [34:11]
Michael
I'm in favor of carnies being forced to cover themselves.
- [34:16]
Jack Armstrong
That's true. Can we get that. Can we get that going around here? I'd like to see nothing but your eyeballs.
- [34:23]
Michael
And you could wear sunglasses if you want. Yeah. That's horrifying. Terrible.
- [34:29]
Jack Armstrong
Oh, geez. Here's a funny thing I came across. So we mentioned yesterday that Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau, the former Prime Minister of Canada, seemed to be a thing. I'm sorry, Astronaut Katy Perry. I keep. I keep not throwing in that descriptor because.
- [34:43]
Katie
And they're lesbians.
- [34:44]
Jack Armstrong
Yeah.
- [34:44]
Michael
Today, today's hottest lesbian couple.
- [34:47]
Jack Armstrong
Hi, I'm Katy Perry. Let's go to space. So astronaut Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau are a romantic item. And it was pointed out on Mark Halpern's video last night, it is the most romantic Trump derangement story ever. And that is exactly what's going on. Obviously, that's what drives. It's the. I have to be pro Canada with Justin Trudeau and make a big show of it and everything like that. How much we hate America and moving to Canada and blah, blah, blah. That whole world. Isn't that. Isn't that fantastic? A romantic Trump derangement syndrome story.
- [35:23]
Michael
Right, Right. I remember the famous audio from the Hillary Clinton victory party there about Katy Perry's crying Lady Gaga.
- [35:32]
Jack Armstrong
Is crying on a slightly serious note about politics. New York Times and Politico reporting today that Donald Trump is raising money in an unprecedented at an unprecedented clip for a lame duck. Usually he's a lame duck. He can't raise any money. He wants to give money to somebody who's about to be out of office. But the president's primary super PAC brought in an unbelievable $177 million in the first half of the year, and its leadership pack raised $28 million. Nobody's ever seen anything like this before.
- [36:05]
Michael
Yeah, that's something for a lame duck.
- [36:07]
Jack Armstrong
Great Scott. $200 million total in the first six months with people expecting him to still have power. I guess.
- [36:14]
Michael
As I've said a thousand times, Donald J. Makes me insane in a lot of ways. But man, is he making great progress on some fronts. The border, you know, most notably. And rolling back the great stuff on that next hour. Hope you can stay with us, Armstrong and Getty.
- [36:34]
Jack Armstrong
This is an iHeart podcast.