Did I Just Unite America?

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Did I Just Unite America?"

Host: George Kamel (Ramsey Network)
Date: October 8, 2025

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Overview

In this sharp, humorous episode, George Kamel tackles the one topic seemingly capable of uniting Americans across the political spectrum: their dislike of debt. By reacting to real soundbites from leading political figures—Republican, Democrat, and otherwise—Kamel highlights how concerns over various kinds of debt (credit cards, student loans, medical bills, national spending, and payday loans) transcend partisan lines. With his signature wit and no-nonsense style, he unpacks how financial traps play out in society and what everyday people can do to avoid them.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Credit Card Debt: Corporate Greed Under the Microscope

(00:54–03:57)

• Senator Josh Hawley (R - MO) grills credit card company executives about their profit margins and their relationships with massive retailers like Walmart.
  • Hawley exposes how big corporations negotiate lower fees, leaving small businesses and consumers to pay higher rates.
  • Notable Stat: Americans owe $1.17 trillion on credit cards, with average APRs near 29%.
• Kamel’s Take:
  • "It is straight up highway robbery." (03:41)
  • The host notes that transaction fees get passed on to consumers through higher prices—a hidden cost for everyone.
  • Emphasizes the need to be wary of monopolies in the financial sector.

2. Medical Debt: Crushing Consequences

(03:58–06:15)

• Bernie Sanders (I - VT) passionately explains the devastating impact of medical debt, particularly for cancer patients.
  • "About one out of every four cancer patients in America either declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt." (03:59)
  • 42% of cancer patients have depleted all their savings within two years of diagnosis.
  • In 2018, 8 million Americans slipped into poverty due to medical expenses.
• Kamel’s Take:
  • Praises Sanders’ empathy, regardless of political persuasion.
  • "This is a serious issue, and Bernie has it right on this one." (06:14)
  • Urges listeners to secure health insurance and explains how high-deductible plans can offer savings if paired with a Health Savings Account.

3. National Debt: Kicking the Can Down the Road

(06:15–09:13)

• Senator Rand Paul (R - KY) warns about the consequences of deficit spending.
  • "This is the money that your children and your grandchildren will pay back with interest." (06:44)
  • Paul voted against a major spending bill, arguing it would add $270 billion to the deficit next year.
  • Kamel highlights the rising national debt, now over $37 trillion.
• Kamel’s Take:
  • Playfully references his own anxiety from watching the debt clock rise in real time.
  • Commends Paul’s fiscal consistency regardless of personal political cost.

4. Student Loans: Predatory Lending Exposed

(09:14–12:03)

• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D - NY) lays out how student loan companies pushed risky loans on unprepared borrowers.
  • "They were setting people up to fail." (09:52)
  • Some loans had projected default rates as high as 64%.
• Kamel’s Take:
  • Emphasizes that while borrowers have responsibility, predatory lending practices share the blame.
  • "These predatory companies should just all go to jail. That's my hot take." (12:02)
  • Advises attacking student debt aggressively with the debt snowball method—listing debts smallest to largest and paying them off in succession, since forgiveness programs are uncertain.

5. Payday Lending: Predation in Plain Sight

(12:04–14:05)

• Barack Obama addresses the ubiquity of payday lenders—especially in low-income areas.
  • "Here in Alabama, there are four times as many payday lending stores as there are McDonald's." (12:04)
  • Highlights the cycle of debt they create: "Most payday loans aren't taken out for one time expenses. They're taken out to pay for previous loans." (12:40)
• Kamel’s Take:
  • Calls payday lenders "the most predatory in all the financial industry."
  • "We should revert them back to Pizza Huts and put the title loan people in jail. Bring back Pizza Huts. That was good architecture." (13:21)

6. International Perspective: UK Politics

(14:05–14:18)

• Boris Johnson (Former UK Prime Minister) makes a colorful jab, calling the opposition “supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies.”
• Kamel’s Response:
  • Jokes about British "jelly-based insults" and insists that's enough politics for today, signaling the episode’s conclusion.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sen. Josh Hawley:
  • "That's absolutely unbelievable. 50% profit margin." (01:03)
  • "You’re getting charged so much more. It’s... in my–" (01:42)
• Bernie Sanders:
  • "One out of four cancer patients in America either declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt." (03:59)
• Rand Paul:
  • "The spending chart is a red line of red ink that goes on forever..." (06:18)
  • "This is the money that your children and your grandchildren will pay back with interest." (06:44)
• AOC (Ms. Kirkpatrick):
  • "If a borrower can create condensation on a mirror, they need to get a loan this year..." (09:14)
• Obama:
  • "Here in Alabama, there are four times as many payday lending stores as there are McDonald's. Think about that." (12:04)
  • "Most payday loans aren't taken out for one time expenses. They're taken out to pay for previous loans." (12:40)
• George Kamel:
  • "[Medical debt] is a serious issue, and Bernie has it right on this one.” (06:14)
  • "These predatory companies should just all go to jail. That's my hot take." (12:02)
  • "Bring back Pizza Huts. That was good architecture." (13:21)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:54 – Hawley on credit card profiteering
• 03:58 – Sanders on medical bankruptcy
• 06:15 – Rand Paul on national debt and deficit spending
• 09:14 – AOC exposes student loan predation
• 12:04 – Obama on payday lending dangers
• 14:05 – Boris Johnson's 'jelly' insult; host wraps up

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Takeaways

• Regardless of political affiliation, Americans (and their leaders) share deep concerns about predatory debt practices and massive lending institutions.
• Kamel encourages personal financial responsibility—cutting through political noise to focus on how listeners can protect themselves:
  • Secure effective health insurance,
  • Aggressively pay down debt (using the debt snowball),
  • Avoid payday lenders and other predatory products,
  • Be aware that waiting for political quick fixes is a losing game.

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Tone & Style

George delivers this episode with bold humor, snark, and a dash of righteous indignation—making complex money issues accessible and engaging for everyone, regardless of political leanings.

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Transcript

[Narrator/Host]

I don't mean to brag, but I may have just found a way to finally unite America because I've recently discovered that Republicans and Democrats, two groups that would ordinarily argue over the color of the sky, do actually agree on something. And no, I'm not talking about their love of taking credit for things they had nothing to do with. I'm talking about debt, baby. More specifically, they don't like it. And to prove it, I'll be reacting to clips of politicians and political commentators on both sides of the aisle speaking out against different types of debt. And let me just tell you, I don't have any skin in the game. I have no political backbone. Do not me. I am just simply responding to what they're saying. I don't know or care about who these people are. Except, Bernie, protect that man at all costs. Let's hop into the political waters, shall we?

[Senator Josh Hawley]

I mean, what's your profit margin, Ms. Kirkpatrick?

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

It's circa 50%, Mr. Sheedy.

[Narrator/Host]

Slightly higher.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Higher than 50% profit margin.

[Narrator/Host]

Slightly higher than MasterCard?

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Yes. Yeah, that's incredible. 50% profit margin. I mean, that's absolutely unbelievable. What's the answer to the Walmart question, by the way, that Senator Welch posed to you? What's Walmart's interchange fee that you negotiate with them?

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

I don't have it with me today.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

You don't have any idea whatsoever is it higher or lower than 2 1/2%?

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

Walmart negotiates their rates based on the business that they do with us.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Meaning they're big. They're really big. They're gigantic. So they get a better deal than Mr. Callahan or most small businesses in Missouri. Is that. Is that what you're telling me?

[Bernie Sanders]

Yeah, Senator, we. We have volume discounts that we offer to some merchants. I suspect Walmart is one of them.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

When you've got Walmart and other major competitors getting charged much less than you are, why in the world would you stick with these guys? I mean, why is it that small businesses continue to use Visa and MasterCard when they're getting. You're getting charged so much more? It's. In my.

[Barack Obama]

In my opinion, it's a matter of convenience for the customer.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

And customers matter to our business. Maybe. Is it because that Visa and MasterCard are effectively monopolies? They control 80% of the market. Certainly part of the 80% of the market. Let's talk about what you're doing to consumers who hold your cards. Last year, as I understand it, there were 726 million Visa and MasterCard issued, MasterCard credit cards issued in the United States. That's about two for every one person in the United States of America. To either you know how much debt is owed on your networks, Ms. Kirkpatrick, it's $1.17 trillion.

[Narrator/Host]

Got him.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

$1.17 trillion is what consumers now owe on your credit card network. So either you know what the average interest rate is on your networks. Forbes magazine just estimated last week that the average, Average credit card APR in your networks is 28.75%. Average 29%, let's call it 29%. It's nearly doubled in the last four years.

[Narrator/Host]

That right there was Republican Senator Josh Hawley from November 2024 grilling Visa, MasterCard and others over how much they're screwing over American consumers. Now, he mentioned that the average APR across their networks is about 29%. What we're seeing is still 2022% current average credit card interest rate. We're now over $1.2 trillion in credit card debt as a nation, just amongst the consumers, which is very scary. And I think we can all agree part of it is making sure we're not getting screwed by the major corporations out there, the monopolies out there. Because when you make any purchase, you're paying that transaction fee. The businesses aren't just gonna eat that. They're gonna pass it on to you in the form of higher prices. And the fact that every business in America has to raise their prices and 3.3.5% to make up for that interchange fee is insane. It is straight up highway robbery. So good on you, Senator. Keep up the good fight. Next up, let's head to Bernard.

[Bernie Sanders]

The medical debt crisis in America has become so horrific that about one out of every four cancer patients in America either declared bankruptcy or lost their homes to eviction or foreclosure as a result of medical debt. In 2022. Not enough that you're dealing with cancer. One out of four either declare bankruptcy or lose their homes. Now, how outrageous and Disgraceful is that? Further, 42% of cancer patients in our country have been forced to deplete their entire life savings within two years of their diagnosis. And it's not just cancer patients who are struggling financially with medical debt and the high cost of health care. In 2018, 8 million Americans slipped out of the middle class and into poverty due to medical expenses. Again, punished financially for what crime that you're diagnosed with cancer. That should not be happening.

[Narrator/Host]

Man, you gotta love the way Bernie puts it. Agree or disagree with his solutions he has a lot of empathy for the problem. And this problem at hand is that medical debt is crippling so many people. As of 2022, around 41% of adults in the US had medical debt. And histor. Historically, one of the most common causes of bankruptcy is medical debt, which is frightening. And the solution here is obviously to have good health insurance that covers you. And a lot of people go without coverage or they have coverage that doesn't quite cover it, which puts them into medical debt. And especially people who are dealing with things like cancer, they shouldn't be having to think about paying the bills, getting evicted, going into poverty, all because they were diagnosed with this condition. So it's a really sad state of how healthcare is handled in America. We have a long way to go. But the solution, if you're watching this, make sure you have health insurance, regardless of how expensive it is. Find a way to pay for it. Get a high deductible plan, if you can, that has a health savings account attached. That's gonna help keep that premium low. And you're taking on a little bit more risk with the higher deductible. But it's a great bargain for a lot of families out there who are worried about the cost of premiums. And of course it's gonna be cheaper if you get it through your employer. But even if you can't, go check out a place like Health Trust Financial, I'll drop a link in the description if you want to make sure you have the best coverage at the best price. This is a serious issue, and Bernie has it right on this one.

[Rand Paul]

Today's money is gone, so Congress is spending tomorrow's money. The spending chart is a red line of red ink that goes on forever when we talk about spending tomorrow's money. It's not just the money that we need next month. It's the money we might need in a decade. It's the money we will need in one, two, three generations from now for national defense, for infrastructure. This is the money that your children and your grandchildren will pay back with interest.

[Narrator/Host]

That right there was the junior senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul. And this video is from December of 2020. And let it be known, whether you like him or not, he voted against the big beautiful bill. He was one of three Republicans who, who said, in deciding on whether to vote for the big not so beautiful bill, I ask a very specific question. Will the deficit be more or less next year? He went on to say, even using the math, even using the formulas, that the supporters of the bill like the deficit will grow by $270 billion next year. That doesn't sound at all conservative to me. And that's why I'm a no end quote. Listen, you gotta respect that. The guy has his principles, he has his values, and he means it. To where he voted against a bill that could very well hurt his future political career. And here's what I mean by this. He's saying that he doesn't want to see his grandchildren pay the interest for spending money that is not ours. That future money that will come in is already being spent by Congress. That's how out of control this is. And the big beautiful bill, as you may know, is going to increase the deficit, likely by $3.4 trillion. Not reduce it, not get us out of debt. We are just going further in, baby. And it's someone else's problem because the government keeps kicking the can down the road. And to prove it to you, here is the National Debt Clock, which is one of the most frightening websites in all the land. We're currently sitting at $37.26 trillion. And as you can see, that number is going up by hundreds of thousands every few seconds, which is not comforting to say the least. And I probably shouldn't have made this my home screen, but I like a little anxiety in my life. What can I say? What can I say? And speaking of people who don't like debt, let me tell you about my friends at Fairwinds Credit Union, a sponsor of today's video. Unlike those big national banks that slap their names on the side of football stadiums, Fairwinds doesn't shove debt in your face. In fact, they encourage their customers to get out of debt. And their customer service team is the best of the best. So no more dealing with this. Transferring you to a real person. Estimated wait 3 to 4 hours. Ain't nobody got time for that. The best way to get started with Fairwinds is to sign up for their Smart Bundle. You'll get their Spendsmart checking account, their SaveSmart high yield savings account, and free nationwide access to over 33,000 ATMs and 5,000 credit union partners. So go to Fairwinds.org Ramsey to sign up for the Smart Bundle or use the link in the description. Let's get back to more money in politics.

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

Well, in 2009, Sallie Mae's CEO said, quote, if a borrower can create condensation on a mirror, they need to get a loan this year in order to put their subprime lending in place. Navient forwarded Wrong information to credit reporting agencies saying that permanently disabled veterans had defaulted on their loans when they hadn't. Then you have ITT Credit union issuing and using financial aid staff to rush students through an automated application process when they knew that they had projected default rates as high as 64%. Is that correct, Ms. Hu?

[Narrator/Host]

Yes.

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

They knew that they were, they were issuing loans that they knew had a default rate of 64%. Yes. So they were setting people up to fail.

[Senator Josh Hawley]

Wow.

[Narrator/Host]

You heard it there. There's AOC from September of 2019 just ribbing into these student loan companies for screwing people over. And this is crazy. And we're seeing more and more of this happen. Think about it. Most people who sign up for student loans were just sort of hurried through the process, signing on the dotted line. They're not reading through 19 forms and all the fine print. They don't know what's going on behind the scenes with these companies peddling student loan debt with insane rates without fully understanding what they were getting into. So I feel for a lot of the borrowers out there, yes, they sign on the dotted line, it's their responsibility, but it's not all their fault. This stuff was pushed so hard behind the scenes by predatory companies who intentionally were trying to screw people over, knowing that two out of three would default, they wouldn't be able to make the payments. And I've reacted to multiple videos on this channel of people going, I paid my student loan debt for months, for years, and the balance didn't go down, it went up. Because they got caught up with these income driven repayment programs. They didn't understand that their minimum payment wasn't enough to really attack the principal and the interest was high enough that, that it grew the balance. And today the average student loan debt per borrower, $38,883. And that's a lot of money for someone making 40, 50, 60K to attempt to pay off. So what do they do? They go after these programs that tell them, hey, don't worry about your payments, put it in deferment or forbearance. Not understanding the interest can still accrue, making the balance grow, making it balloon, making it feel impossible to get out. So here's the key. You got to attack it. You got to just work your way through it with the debt snowball. List your debt, smallest to largest. Ignore the interest rates and just start plowing through it. Get your income up as high as possible, expenses down as low as possible, and just get rid of it once and for all. Because no politician is going to forgive this debt. We found that out the hard way with the Biden administration. They tried, the Supreme Court shot it down and it's not on the cards anymore. So it's up to you to pay off your student loan debt, whether you like it or not, whether you understood what you were going through or, or not. And I do think these predatory companies should just all go to jail. That's my hot take.

[Barack Obama]

Here in Alabama, there are four times as many payday lending stores as there are McDonald's. Think about that. Because there are a lot of McDonald's, the folks who run these things. In theory, what they'll say is these loans help you deal with a one time expense. So your car breaks down, you got to get to work, you go there, cash a check real quick or get a quick loan and then that's the end of it. In reality, most payday loans aren't taken out for one time expenses. They're taken out to pay for previous loans.

[Narrator/Host]

Obama is spot on there. This is from March of 2015. So it's 10 years ago and this is still a major, major problem. And I recently was on my friend Ken Coleman's show, Front Row Seat and he asked me this question, if you could remove any financial practice or institution, what should it be? And I said, payday lenders, they are the most predatory in all the financial industry. And I said they should also be in jail. So I think Sallie Mae and payday lenders, those old title loan places that used to be Pizza Huts, we should revert them back to Pizza Huts and put the title loan people in jail, bring back Pizza Huts. That was good architecture. Can I say, and Obama's right, a lot of them get stuck in these cycles where they take out a little bit and then they have to take out another one to pay back the other one. Because it's not uncommon for interest rates to equal 3 or 400%, which is insane. If there was a big sign that said 400% APR on loans, come on in, nobody would show up. But this is all hidden in the fine print and people are desperate, especially in low income communities where they feel like they don't have any other option, so they walk into these places and, and get stuck in a cycle of debt. And it may not be a lot of money, but it can balloon and balloon and drag and drag. And I stand by this. And Obama is spot on. All right, so we covered a lot of American politics as it relates to money, but I wanna see what's going on across the pond. So let's check in on the uk, see how they're doing.

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

They have no.

[Barack Obama]

Are you saying they're abdicating their duty to scrutinize me? Are you saying they don't.

[Narrator/Host]

They haven't the guts to put questions to me?

[Ms. Kirkpatrick]

What is it?

[Barack Obama]

Supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies.

[Narrator/Host]

Okay, gonna go ahead and Brexit out of that one real quick. That was former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. And what makes this better is this headline from Real Clear World. Boris Johnson proves he is the master of jelly based insults. So, kids, if you ever think, who am I gonna be when I grow up? You could be the master of jelly based insults if you play your cards right. Okay, that's enough politics for today. But if you're not ready for the civic celebration to end, I've got good news for you. I recently made this video breaking down the ways that President Trump's big, beautiful bill will affect your wallet. So click here to watch it up next or use the link in the description. That's it for today. Be sure to, like, subscribe and leave a comment letting me know who you think I voted for in the 2024 election. No matter who you think it is, you're wrong. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Because I voted for your mom.