The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four

Summary

Podcast Summary: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Episode: The A&G Replay Friday Hour Four
Release Date: May 23, 2025

Hosts: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty
Produced by iHeartPodcasts

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1. Navigating the Complexities of Drug Pricing

Timestamp: 03:14 - 06:02

Jack Armstrong opens the discussion by sharing an anecdote about a friend's experience purchasing a weight-loss drug in London for a fraction of the cost in New York. He states:

"He's a very smart guy. His big problem is he's seriously overweight. But I don't think the drug worked, okay, to be honest with you, but makes him feel good anyway."
[03:41] Jack Armstrong

This leads to a broader conversation about the disparity in drug prices between the U.S. and other countries. Joe Getty emphasizes the convoluted system involving insurance companies, pharmacies, drug companies, and pharmacy benefit managers:

"From your insurance company to the pharmacies to the drug companies to the pharmacy benefit managers, an unholy group of humans if there ever was one."
[05:13] Joe Getty

Jack adds personal context, discussing his own experiences with multiple medications and the opaque pricing structure:

"I have the slightest idea what the little screen was gonna say they cost... I just pressed okay and tapped my card and walked out the door."
[06:02] Jack Armstrong

2. Analyzing Donald Trump's Saudi Arabia Speech

Timestamp: 06:13 - 15:43

The hosts delve into former President Donald Trump's recent speech delivered in Saudi Arabia. Jack Armstrong references Mark Halperin's analysis, highlighting the lack of media coverage despite the speech's significance:

"Trump's Tuesday speech... was one for the ages... some supporters saying it was one of the best and most important addresses by a US President in many, many years."
[07:00] Jack Armstrong

They discuss Trump's critique of Western interventionism, praising the Middle East's internal efforts to modernize without external interference. Joe Getty notes:

"It's solidly reasoned so far. Decent point though."
[09:37] Joe Getty

However, the conversation takes a critical turn as they address Qatar's influence in America, particularly concerning higher education and support for organizations like the Muslim Brotherhood. Jack asserts:

"But aren't those separate things? We don't have to let them do that."
[14:57] Jack Armstrong

They conclude by expressing skepticism about the feasibility of fully disengaging from such influences.

3. The Four Horsemen: Protecting Relationships from Contempt

Timestamp: 16:03 - 20:19

Shifting gears, Jack introduces a segment on relationship dynamics, focusing on the "Four Horsemen"—criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling—as predictors of divorce. He cites a psychologist's findings:

"The subtle smirk of superiority is the number one red flag for divorce."
[16:03] Jack Armstrong

Joe Getty elaborates, defining contempt as:

"The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless or deserving. Scorn."
[18:21] Joe Getty

They discuss how contempt differs from other negative emotions in relationships, noting its persistent and corrosive nature:

"If you feel scorn or disdain for someone else and if it's not addressed, it just festers and grows and stays at the same level."
[18:23] Jack Armstrong

The hosts emphasize the importance of addressing contempt early to prevent irreparable damage to relationships.

4. Public Opinion on Government Spending and Taxes

Timestamp: 24:03 - 35:32

Jack and Joe present striking statistics from a Cato Institute and YouGov survey, revealing widespread public dissatisfaction with government spending:

"85% of Americans say all that spending has either not done anything for me or actually made my life worse."
[25:58] Jack Armstrong

They discuss the bipartisan nature of this sentiment, highlighting that both Democrats and Republicans share concerns over excessive government expenditure:

"Eight in 10 Democrats and nine in 10 Republicans believe that the increase in federal spending has either made their lives not better or worse."
[26:30] Jack Armstrong

The conversation shifts to taxation, noting that a majority of Americans find their taxes too high and support the permanency of the 2017 Trump tax cuts:

"55% of Americans think their taxes are too high, and 85% support extending the 2017 tax cuts."
[28:34] Jack Armstrong

Joe criticizes media narratives that portray the wealthy negatively, arguing that public perception differs significantly from media representation:

"This is a different country than the media would have you believe. I'd say vastly different."
[31:26] Joe Getty

The hosts express optimism that the alignment of public opinion could pave the way for conservative fiscal policies, despite bureaucratic challenges.

5. Education System Reforms: Successes and Failures

Timestamp: 39:26 - 43:22

The hosts discuss recent developments in the U.S. education system. Joe shares a positive example from Tufts University, where a professor successfully engages students in American conservatism through balanced curricula:

"He's systematically steel manning conservative arguments for the college kids. And the really encouraging part about this is the kids love it."
[40:51] Joe Getty

Contrastingly, they highlight systemic issues where states have lowered standardized test scores to show improvement. Jack relates this to Goodhart's Law:

"Once a measure becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good measure."
[43:01] Jack Armstrong

They cite examples from Oklahoma, New York, Wisconsin, and Illinois, where proficiency scores in subjects like math were artificially inflated by adjusting standards rather than genuine educational improvements.

Joe criticizes these practices, emphasizing the need to raise educational standards rather than lowering them:

"We need to lift up the children, don't drop the standards."
[44:03] Joe Getty

6. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Medical Education

Timestamp: 43:56 - 45:52

Continuing the education theme, Jack discusses a report on Brown University Medical School, revealing that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are now prioritized over clinical excellence in faculty promotions:

"They give DEI more weight than excellent clinical skills... how is that even possible?"
[45:23] Jack Armstrong

This raises concerns about the shifting priorities in medical education, potentially impacting the quality of patient care and teaching.

Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty tackle a range of pressing issues—from healthcare pricing and political speeches to relationship dynamics and systemic education reforms. Their discussions are interspersed with insightful commentary and critical analysis, providing listeners with a comprehensive overview of each topic.

Notable Quotes:

• "Contempt is the kiss of death."
  [17:07] Jack Armstrong

• "There's gotta be a better way."
  [30:25] Jack Armstrong

• "Once a measure becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good measure."
  [43:01] Jack Armstrong

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantive discussions between the hosts.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Ah, come on.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Ryan Seacrest]

A.

[Jack Armstrong]

Friend of mine who's slightly overweight to put it mildly. Went to a drugstore in London and he was able to get one of the fat shots. I call it the fat shots, the jabs that you lose weight. He knows exactly who I was talking about. He called, he said that was interesting. He said he was very concerned that I might use his name, it might slip. Now he doesn't have to worry. But he called me, he said, hey, strange thing happened. I just bought a drug.

[Joe Getty]

Same company, same plan, same everything.

[Jack Armstrong]

Everything was the same in New York, $1300. And in London, I'm paying $88. He said, what's going on now? He knew nothing. He's a very smart guy. He's a very rich guy. His big problem is he's seriously over. But I don't think the drug worked okay, to be honest with you, but makes him feel good anyway. That's like day three of Trump's story about his fat friend, his drugs.

[Joe Getty]

He so workshops his comedy routine, you know, tries it in different audiences.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't want to. I'm going to get into the foreign policy speech he gave yesterday. I don't want to get sidetracked by this whole drug prescription thing. It is so complicated, though. I've listened to a number of podcasts where they got into the details, and it's. It's so easily easy to be misled by a lot of statistics. So a lot of the. Now I. It sounds like they're his fat friend, very fat, incredibly fat fat friend there was paying $1300 in New York and paid $80 in London. Wanted to know why. That's a perfectly reasonable question, like, why am I paying so much in the United States and so cheap here? When we developed in the U.S. reasonable question, but just in general, a lot of the stuff you hear about drugs, the statistics for costs, it's for the name brand, which practically none of us are actually getting. We're getting the generic. So it's the tiniest percentage of that. So it misleads the statistics. There's all kinds of things going on in that world that make it hard to nail down.

[Joe Getty]

And the way money flows into and out of various entities, from your insurance company to the pharmacies to the drug companies to the pharmacy benefit managers, an unholy group of humans if there ever was one. Yet so complicated.

[Jack Armstrong]

Complicated. I'm on eight drugs for the swooping cough right now, which is crazy. But like, so I went to the doctor on Saturday after spending time there, and I think I picked up four new drugs just like everybody else when they Go to the pharmacy. I have the slightest idea what the little screen was gonna say they cost. No idea. I wasn't very worried about it because it probably wasn't gonna be very much. So, like, one of them was three cents, one of them was a dollar five. One of them was 44 bucks, and then the other one was like four. And I just pressed okay and tapped my card and walked out the door. And I don't have any.

[Joe Getty]

Can you imagine if groceries were like that? Let's see, this ham will be $175. This bread is 2 cents. This cheese will be a dollar one. And you think, okay, right.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I don't have. Well, it's way more complicated than even that example because, like, somebody may have that one that cost 8 cents my insurance company might have paid $500 for, and it got spread around everybody else that's insured by that company for some reason. I don't know. I don't have any idea what it actually cost the insurance company. And then what are. What are my options anyway? To not press? Okay, I will not pay $44 for whatever that drug is. It should be much less than that.

[Joe Getty]

And incur the wrath of the already surly pharmacy employee. No way.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel bad for those people. The other day, I got to the pharmacy. I've been there way too much lately. I get there and some old guy's walking my way and he says, he said something old time. He said, it's like railroading me. It's train robbery or something like that. I said, what's that? He said, it's train robbery around here. That's what it is. Yeah. I just kind of said, like, the poor girl who's, you know, at pharmacy school has any role in it whatsoever. What's she supposed to do? I don't know. It's your insurance. I work for cvs. They. I don't know. What am I? What do you want? Such a mess. Okay, different topic than Trump's fat, fat friend. Who? People who know Trump and his friends are trying to figure out which fat friend that he's talking about. So Donald Trump gave like a 45 minute speech yesterday in Saudi Arabia, and this was Mark Halperin's write up of it today in which he said Trump's Tuesday speech, which shockingly gets almost zero coverage in the American media, was one for the ages, with some observers not unreasonably calling it extraordinary and some supporters saying it was one of the best and most important addresses by a US President in many, many years. It warrants your time to watch it in full if you have not to understand Trump's unusual, distinctive worldview. Now, I'm going to read a little bit from you that will, you know, portray that worldview. But I also wonder, since Trump is a very interesting guy who's primarily interested in economics and that sort of stuff, although he was pretty hardcore anti the Iraq war back in the day, like how much of this speech did he sit down with speech writers and explain to them what he wanted to communicate? Did JD Vance write most of this? And Trump is like, sure, fine, I don't care. Or what I don't, I don't actually know, but let me read some of it. Oh, and he's talking about the success of all the people in that room because he had people from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and you know those, those incredibly rich areas of the Middle east that we see with their gleaming buildings and more modern than anything we've got in the United States. It's crucial for the wider world to know this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. In the end, the so called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. And the interventionalists were intervening in societies they did not understand themselves. Know the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so called nation builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Baghdad and so many other cities. That's a good point.

[Joe Getty]

Wow, this is very. J.D. vance.

[Jack Armstrong]

All right, that's what I thought.

[Joe Getty]

Solidly reasoned so far.

[Jack Armstrong]

Decent point though. We poured trillion, I don't know about trillions, but lots of money into Baghdad. It's still everything it's ever been. Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, that was ground up from the inside. Anyway, back to.

[Joe Getty]

Never mind the zillions of dollars spent in Afghanistan.

[Jack Armstrong]

Instead, the birth of a modern Middle east has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives. Developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves. Peace, prosperity and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing the same heritage that you love so dearly. You achieved a modern miracle, the Arabian way. No wonder people respect you so Much. I thought that was really interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, agreed. It's really good outreach too. I think it's savvy.

[Jack Armstrong]

The most gleaming modern look, like something from the Jetson cities in the world did come from those local societies. Whether you hate their culture or politics or the way they treat women or whatever, they were able to build these unbelievable cities. And we've tried so hard to turn Kabul and Baghdad and a whole bunch of other different places in the Middle east into, God, you know, anything close to Cincinnati, and we haven't come within a million miles.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, this gets a little more complicated. But, you know, the broad outlines of your point, I think, are true. It helps to have unlimited numbers of petrodollars. And the whole modern gleaming thing is partly because there wasn't anything there 20 years ago. So, yeah, it's modern gleaming because what else would it be?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but I think a certain amount of it has to do with taking off the restrictions of here's the way we feel like you need to treat women, gay people, minorities, the disenfranchised, all this different sort of stuff, all these ties that come with it, as opposed to Trump saying, hey, it's your society, it's your customs, it's your heritage, you know, you building it the way you want and hey, look at your city.

[Joe Getty]

And honestly, in spite of the lack of success with China doing this, I think there's probably a fair amount of, hey, let's get these guys up and involved in world economics and international diplomacy and have them intertwined with bunches of other countries and it'll drag them into the modern era much more effectively than brow beating them will anyway.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, there's zero. Are there any good examples of us trying to build from the ground up one of these, turn one of these sitters around, having it work? Certainly not in the Middle East.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it depends, you know, how much involvement over what period of time you're talking about. And interestingly enough, there were some pretty good success stories in Africa, but those have gone completely to hell now. And you could argue that, well, that's because they didn't build up the infrastructure. It's like we're watching the. We're doing a bit of a remodel on our house and it's been super interesting to see how they dig the hole for the footings and then pour the foundation, all the rebar and the cinder blocks and stuff like that. And we've made the point many times that our system of government, our rights that we enjoy, our constitution are built on the concrete and Rebar and cinder blocks of hundreds of years of English common law, Judeo, Christian principles, the rest of it. And then if you try to build, at the risk of belaboring the metaphor, if you try to build the house of that sort of thing on sand, it's not going to work. And so Trump is saying, y' all build your foundations the way you want and then let's do business.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you think J.D. vance had a hand in that whole speech?

[Joe Getty]

Both hands.

[Jack Armstrong]

The. It was. It's completely re. It's a complete rejection of George Bush's ideas.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of nation building. And it's a rejection of Democratic presidents with their coming in there with, we'll give you money, but here's the way we think you should live.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's a complete rejection of that, too.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I'm still, for the record, I'm super uncomfortable with the fact that Qatar, for instance, is trying to buy influence in America. Hundreds of billions of dollars perverting our colleges, having them become just vipers, nests of Islamism, anti Israel rhetoric. The rest of it. They're huge supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization that would like Sharia law to conquer the entire earth. And they're not spending hundreds of billions of dollars backing that because they don't believe it or don't agree with it.

[Jack Armstrong]

But aren't those separate things? We don't have to let them do that. We can let them build their big gleaming city. We don't have to let them, you know, influence our colleges.

[Joe Getty]

Well, right. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

President's planes.

[Joe Getty]

Well, right, yeah. For instance, that's not going to happen. But more on that later. Yeah. Well, the argument would be, well, we don't want to participate in enriching them, so they have even more finances to back terrorism. But, you know, if J.D. vance were to say to me, dude, that'll go away of its own.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's what I think.

[Joe Getty]

Own accord. It's not a stupid argument. I'm not sure I agree with it, but it's worth considering.

[Jack Armstrong]

They play. They. They beat. They more than play footsie with the terrorists. No doubt about it. But I don't think mbs, his goal in life is not to establish a Muslim caliphate.

[Joe Getty]

I don't think so. No.

[Jack Armstrong]

He wants to be a rich people.

[Joe Getty]

Not to be starving poor when the oil runs out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, exactly.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Joe Getty]

Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Ryan Seacrest]

The Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Jack Armstrong]

You want to know if your marriage is heading to splitsville, don't check your partner's phone, check their face like any of that, you know, oh, there's so many stupid things out there. You know, the one sign that he's gonna cheat or whatever the hell. I mean, they're just all dumb. But clickbait. The subtle smirk of superiority is the number one red flag for divorce according to this psychologist. And they get into why. Research found that four nasty little habits, criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling are the four horsemen of the apocalypse when it comes to dooming relationships. I'll read those four again. Criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling. But contempt is the kiss of death. That's the one. And you've said that for years. That's the one you can't get past. Done. The largest marriage experiment ever done. They think of couples that, you know, survive and don't survive. Body language experts, which we've mocked for years and all that sort of thing. Because they're usually stupid also.

[Joe Getty]

Well, on cable TV they are.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Brought couples into a lab and if one member of the couple shows a one sided mouth raise, which I had never heard before as like a physical contempt thing, but I guess we're just programmed when we're feeling that feeling of contempt for something or you know, the old pleaser, get out of here with that BS or whatever feeling. You raise one side of your mouth. It's funny, if one member of the couple shows a one sided mouth raised towards the other, he can tell you if they're going to get divorced because it's contempt. He could predict divorce with an astonishing 94 accurate fear. Now this is part I thought was really interesting. Fear comes in a burst and then you calm down. Happiness comes and then you go back to normal. Anger comes and then you calm down. But not contempt. If you feel scorn or disdain for someone else and if it's not addressed, it just festers and grows and stays at the same level. Fear, anger, and then obviously happiness, you get back to a normal level. Contempt does not go away.

[Joe Getty]

May I throw in a definition of contempt? The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless or deserving. Scorn.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Coming back from that, I've not felt.

[Jack Armstrong]

Contempt, but I, I have been on the wrong end of contempt, I think. And having read this, I thought, yeah, that's what was insurmountable. Because once you have contempt for someone, you don't agree, you don't think they are worth listening to on anything.

[Joe Getty]

Right. This is how I feel. This is my priority. I don't care.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, yeah, that's A tough one to get past. So look out for contempt. And whatever started to bring it on, the point is you start to deal with it right away. Otherwise it does just grow and fester and then it gets into a situation where it might not, might not be reversible. They also believe that many couples get stuck in an endless loop of the same three arguments throughout the relationship. They just don't realize it. And if you can nail down what your three most common arguments are, you and your partner, you can solve a lot of problems. And like, you get into something, you say, okay, here we're in argument number two again. We always argue about this. And you, you can, you know, realize that, you know, you don't see eye to eye in this particular thing and how you've dealt with it in the past, which is a pretty good idea. Actually.

[Joe Getty]

Distracted by the details or the trivia, you realize, oh, this is argument B. Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that interesting back to the contempt thing. Disgust and contempt are to a relationship with gasoline and matches are to a fire. The telltale signs are eye rolling, mouth crimping and then subtle fidgeting like picking it clothes or cleaning fingers mid conversation as signals of disdain. This person said that they dubbed this move the lint picker, a behavior that he says screams contempt louder than words ever could.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting. You know, it's probably worth presenting the other side of the coin at some point. We don't have time now, but how do you prevent that sort of thing? Nip it in the bud.

[Jack Armstrong]

Having lint on your shirt?

[Joe Getty]

No. Contempt in your mar. No.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Oh, Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty Show.

[Jack Armstrong]

Biden spoke at a bipartisan event to encourage Democrats and Republicans to work to protect Social Security together. Which seems about as likely to happen as a reboot of Fiddler on the Roof starring Kanye West. But Social Security is number one for Joe Biden. Literally his Social Security number is one that's kind of interesting as a lead into this, Republicans and Democrats not being able to work together, it would seem that they could work together on cutting spending based on this polling that just came out from the Cato Institute. Cato is a serious think tank. It's a conservative think tank. They worked with YouGov on this survey and it's one of your, you know, really big, large number of people, wide reaching, lots of questions sort of survey that comes out every once in a while from these think tanks. I don't know which of these numbers is my favorite. There's a lot of them that are just mind blowingly make me happy. But I can't believe because public will is a real big part of getting anything done in a democracy, obviously if, if you got big majorities of people that want something to happen, you should be able to get it to happen and run on it. Here's my favorite. Of all the spending we've done in the last 10 years and we've done a lot of spending in the last 10 years. 85%. Now that's a big number. Whenever you get 85% of people in agreement on something, you'd think you could get political will to do something. 85% say that spending has either not helped them or made their lives worse. 85%. That's astounding. You wouldn't get that from taking it in through the mainstream media who feels like all government programs are wonderful and doge trying to cut back on any of them is a horror. 85% of Americans say all that spending has either not done anything for me or actually made my life worth worse. 42% no impact. 43% say it reduced their quality of life.

[Joe Getty]

Wow, that's got to be inflation, which is the greatest teacher of economic principles in the history of mankind.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, or is it just. I regularly say, and this, this is true for me, that in my own personal life I believe the government stops me from doing things more than it helps me?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, and, and well, do you drive on the roads? Yeah, we, we know you're an idiot.

[Jack Armstrong]

Go listen to music, you.

[Joe Getty]

I'm not even going to explain why you're a moron. You.

[Jack Armstrong]

And by the way, this is a nonpartisan observation. Eight in 10 Democrats and nine in 10 Republicans believe that the increase in federal spending has either made their lives not better or worse.

[Joe Getty]

Boy, this is really heartening.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know.

[Joe Getty]

If the Republican. If the Republicans can keep between the ditches and not roll the car of their messaging over, it seems to me like the. The ground is super fertile for some good solid conservatism in the years to come.

[Jack Armstrong]

Three quarters of Americans say the government spends too much.

[Joe Getty]

Love that.

[Jack Armstrong]

76% the government spends too much. And again, it's not a partisan thing at all. Majorities of Democrats, 50, 59% of Democrats think the government spends too much money. Well, you'd never get that from the main. From your mainstream media coverage.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And the question of what do you cut and how and how much? That's, you know, the devil is in the details. But we do have an enormous generalized agreement that, yeah, we need to cut again, 2/3. You get the opposite message from all of the coverage of Doge, for instance.

[Jack Armstrong]

So almost everyone agrees there is waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. The number is 98%. I don't know if I've ever seen a poll that reached 98%. Usually you have more than 2%. They're like, no opinion or, I don't know, refused to answer.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, but would you like me to stab you right now? You might get 98% saying no, no opinion. I'm not sure. Stab me with what?

[Jack Armstrong]

98% broadly agree there is waste, fraud, or abuse in the federal government. Of course, to say no, you'd be a crazy person. About half say there is a great deal. Oh, yeah, and 20%, a moderate amount.

[Joe Getty]

If hundreds of millions of dollars isn't a great deal to you. What are you, Elon Musk or something, man?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, like I said, there's so many good numbers here, I don't even know which ones to pick out the most. This one. One of the reasons this got attention was some of the tax stuff yesterday. 55% of Americans think their taxes are too high, which I thought was really interesting.

[Joe Getty]

Especially. Especially given what we were talking about yesterday on tax day, that the top 40 or so of income levels pay all of the income tax, but 55.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of Americans think their taxes are too high. 55, same number believe they pay more than their fair share in taxes. That obviously is interesting given the fact that half the country does not pay federal taxes.

[Joe Getty]

Federal income tax, although you have to remember, you know, property tax hammers a lot of people.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sales tax, sales tax, I think is probably what gets a lot of people.

[Joe Getty]

Sure.

[Jack Armstrong]

How about the controversial Trump tax cuts from 2017 and whether they should be extended or not? According to this, 85% of Americans support extending the 2017 tax cuts. 85%.

[Joe Getty]

It's a gift of millionaires and billionaires.

[Jack Armstrong]

How is this a controversial issue?

[Joe Getty]

If the mainstream media was not what they are, could Democrats win a single election as they're currently constituted? I don't think so. They need some of the best wordsmiths. Well, actually, most journalists are wordsmiths at all. They're parrots. But they need the power of the media colossus to polish their. Their. Their poop, if you will. I'm sorry, I just didn't want to use that common expression, polishing a turd, because it's disgusting. But that's essentially. But it's good, though. It's illustrative, Jack.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, it really makes the point. There's got to be a better way. There's got to be a better one. Is there?

[Joe Getty]

There's got to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

That doesn't include the T word.

[Joe Getty]

Thoroughly lipsticking the pig of their policies. I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

So, three quarters of people agree with the statement the 2017 tax cuts should be made permanent because businesses and families need stability of the tax code to plan for the future. 3/4 agree with that. Also, 3/4 agree that tax cuts should be made permanent because taxes are too high. Three quarters of Americans think the Trump tax cuts should be made permanent because taxes are too high.

[Joe Getty]

Wow. Did you hear the part about the millionaire? Oh, you did? Or you're rejecting it?

[Jack Armstrong]

I gotta get to that then, since you brought that up, do the spending, because you'll. That fits in perfectly what you just said. A majority of Americans admire the rich. 65. Two thirds disagree with the statement wealth should be taken from the rich and given to the poor. Two thirds of Americans disagree with that. Wow.

[Joe Getty]

This is a different country than the media would have you believe. I'd say vastly different.

[Jack Armstrong]

Three out of five Americans strongly agree. 90% strongly or somewhat agree that, quote, there is nothing wrong with trying to make as much money as you can. 90% strongly or somewhat agree with that.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

When asked specifically about billionaires, 71% disagree that it's immoral for society to allow people to become billionaires. 71% don't agree with that statement. You hear it all the time from the AOC Bernie crowd ELIZABETH Warren crowd. And they put it on the news like that's, you know, representing half of America.

[Joe Getty]

Right? Right. Yeah. And anybody who does think we should make it impossible to, you know, become a billionaire. You, you just, you so dumb. You are so dumb. We just need you to get out of the way, please. As you come up with a great idea that one person likes and it makes you a dollar, that's fine. If a million people like that idea and give you a dollar, that's fine. But if a billion people like that idea and give you a dollar, that's wrong, immoral.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's flat out, it's immoral.

[Joe Getty]

Again, you're just so dumb, you need to get out of the way.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, not near as many people thought. And I've been misled myself and you know, we're in the industry and, and taking lots of media and read lots of polls, but I, I've been misled to think there that in modern America there were way more people that hate the rich and think something is wrong there then it seems to be true. Two thirds think wealth should not be taken from the rich and given to the poor.

[Joe Getty]

I'm sorry, I just didn't know. So I think part of the reason that our perception might be a little warped is that even some of my favorite conservative journalists are of the coastal elite variety. And they're nice fellas and they have great principles, but I don't think they know America. And listen, they don't.

[Jack Armstrong]

Absolutely do not.

[Joe Getty]

This is going to sound awfully like self back patting, but I think as a couple of guys from, you know, fairly average families in the Midwest, I don't feel like an elite anything. I've never hung out with those people. I wouldn't be comfortable there. I would much rather, you know, drink beer with my neighbor Larry the truck driver. I just. And I think maybe we have that advantage and we all of us friends have to trust our own perceptions instead of that of the bizarro funhouse mirror of the media. I know a lot of you already believe that.

[Jack Armstrong]

The fact that 85% of people say all that government spending has done nothing for them or made their lives worse is amazing something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you know, over half of people say my taxes are too high. All that fitting together. How do we not get a government that spends less and keeps taxes low?

[Joe Getty]

Well, I think, you know, part of the answer would be the swamp, which includes many Republicans and Democrats who have a enormous financial interest in keeping government huge. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

There are solid majorities and I could do more of the numbers, but I don't want to bore you to death, but the solid majorities of people that think it's the spending, it's not the taxing. I mean, that is a settled issue in this country. It's the spending, not the taxing. And we need to deal with it from a spending standpoint. So we're not getting the government we deserve on this front.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. So true. It's encouraging. People believe that in the numbers that they do, it is discouraging that we are fighting to make any progress in reining in the insanity. But I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Because our duty as citizens. So I guess we keep trying.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sometimes it's barely. You're barely able to believe that democracy works. I mean, you know, look at the border issue. That's the one I've been saying for years. It's not controversial at all either. Like, 90% of people want a secure border, but we haven't been able to do it in my entire adult lifetime.

[Joe Getty]

Right, Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Very frustrating.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah, it is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Nice job of those of you out there who. Who agree that all this spending has made your life worse. If anything, that's amazing.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Every day, our world gets a little.

[Joe Getty]

More connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind.

[Jack Armstrong]

Us to be more human.

[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry. We'll get you taken care of.

[Joe Getty]

At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking.

[Ryan Seacrest]

It's human.

[Joe Getty]

Ameca.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Joe Getty]

Absolutely need a moonshot style effort to reform education in this country because it is absolutely killing us. Michael It's a Campus Madness update. Good and Bad News edition.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good and bad news. Campus Madness screaming How was that?

[Joe Getty]

That was madness you idiot. On campus.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God. That was quite a scream.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding. Well done Michael.

[Jack Armstrong]

So a disembowelment figures into the story somehow.

[Joe Getty]

So. Well, metaphorically speaking. So we'll start with some good news. Really interesting piece about Tufts University, which is to the left of Trotsky, Boston area. But there's a professor by the name of Hirsch there who teaches a class on American conservatism that is always 100 enrolled and extremely popular. And he, a man of the sane center left, has them read Frederick Hayek's Road to Serfdom, Ayn Rand's the Nature of Government, and then has lefty writers assigned as well that says, all right, let's talk about this issue. And it is a classic American education where you have to understand both sides before you say which one you're on. And he is systematically steel manning conservator arguments for the college kids. And the really encouraging part about this is the kids love it.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's interesting.

[Joe Getty]

And poll after poll has shown that a lot of college kids resent the cancel culture and the bully culture and the radical culture, but they just, they're afraid or, you know, intimidated into silence. And there's a lot more curiosity out there than I think you would think from looking at college camps.

[Jack Armstrong]

God, are we actually coming out of peak that and we'll never have to deal with it again, at least in our lifetimes. I mean, did we just live through the pendulum swinging to the far end of that nuttiness? I sure hope so.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know. I don't know. I'm a little afraid of it being like a sports team that, you know, has a very bad beginning the season, then they win six in a row and you think, all right, and then that is just a blip and they go back to being bad. I think there's so much of a fight to go on. But let me plunge on here. We can talk about this at length. Great piece in the Free Press about how all over the country, including in some surprising places, educators are covering up for their own failures wholesale. We have, we should have the best education system in the world, they write. We should have an education system that reflects us being a superpower. But there's no one with a straight face who can say that the United States has a world class education system. And that's from a higher up in the New Jersey Department of Education, now retired. But they go through place after place where because they are failing to meet any standard, they are systematically changing the standards. Including this shocked me. In 2024, Oklahoma schools seemed to perform a miracle. They went from 24% proficiency in reading to 47% in two years. You see that number doubling the previous figure.

[Jack Armstrong]

You see that number in a year. You know, something funky happened.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah, indeed. If it sounds too good to be true. That's because it was in. Last year, Oklahoma lowered its cut scores. The score a student needs to hit on test to be considered proficient.

[Jack Armstrong]

Unbelievable. That's good. Hart's law.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Once. Once a measure becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good measure.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. Trend is also happening in New York State after not a single eighth grader in the upstate city of Schenectady tested proficient in math in 2022. State officials lowered the scores the following year. Wisconsin lowered cut scores last year. Illinois is about to lower its scores, et cetera, et cetera. We did. It's a lot of blue states, but Oklahoma shocked me.

[Jack Armstrong]

We've done it in California a couple of times. Well, it speaks as much to the nature of bureaucracy as liberalism. Well, it's Goodhart's law. I mean, that seems to be a law no matter what, no matter your politics. You come up with a goal or you, you measure something, then you come up with a goal and then you just fudge to meet the goal. And so the measure doesn't work anymore. And that's. It happens over and over again. I can come up with 100 examples off the top of my head because I think it's a fascinating aspect of the way the human brain works. But we. We.

[Ryan Seacrest]

How?

[Jack Armstrong]

How are there not People raise their hands. We can't be lowering the standards. We need to raise the quality of education.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, right, right. Lift up the children, don't drop the standards. That'd be a good slogan. Veering back to good news, the Department of Education on Friday, which still exists, apparently canceled $15 million in federal grants that were used to fund diversity programs at three universities. California State, Louisiana, Virginia Commonwealth and University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. All had received giant multimillion dollar grants, part of a. A billion dollars. A billion that the Biden education Department spent on diversity programs in America's schools, nearly half of which went to grants for race based hiring that is at least temporarily on the way out. Now back to bad news. Two stories here that are joined at the hip Brown University Medical School. That's one of your elite Ivy Leaguers, by the way. Elite. I almost vomit when I say that about these universities when they now give diversity equity and inclusion more weight than excellent clinical skills in its promotion criteria for faculty raising questions, duh. About the quality of teaching and patient care at the elite medical school and underscoring how deeply DEI has penetrated medical education. Again, when they decide what faculty to promote, they now give DEI more weight than excellent clinical skills.

[Jack Armstrong]

I saw that over the weekend. I meant to mention it on the air. That is absolutely amazing. I was looking at the actual paperwork, the criteria and really your plan for how you're the answering the question of how you're going to get diversity, equity and inclusion into your your medical practice is more important than your actual skills, right? That is how or as important? How is that even possible?

[Ryan Seacrest]

The Armstrong and Getty show get more Jack, more Joe podcasts and our hot links armstrong.com Clorox Scentiva smells like lavender, cleans like Clorox.

[Jack Armstrong]

And feels like hmm, alright, that could go on for a while.

[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Ryan Seacrest]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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