Loading summary
iHeart Advertising Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
Washable Sofas Advertiser
Let's be real. Life happens, kids spill, pets shed and accidents are inevitable. That's why you need a washable sofa that can keep up. Our sofas are fully machine washable inside and out so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry free living. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics, they're kid proof, pet friendly and built for everyday life. Plus changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa anytime to fit your space, whether it's a growing family room or a cozy apartment. Plus, they're earth friendly and trusted by over 200,000 happy customers. Get early access to Black Friday pricing starting at just $699. It's time to upgrade to a stress free mess proof sofa. Visit washablesofas.com today and save that's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
Clay Travis
Wishing the holidays could come early.
Buck Sexton
If you own or manage your business, they can, with help from iHeartradio. People are already shopping for their loved.
Clay Travis
Ones and hunting for deals wherever they can find them, including right here.
Buck Sexton
They're listening to the radio. They're listening to podcasts.
Clay Travis
They could be listening to you. Don't wait for everyone else to kick off the holidays. Get your best season of the year up and running today. Call 844-844-IHEART or visit iheartadvertising.com.
Buck Sexton
Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. The shutdown has come to a shutdown, I guess, or they've unshut it down. So that's good. That's something that we can certainly have a moment of, well, if not satisfaction over. We can definitely look at each other and say what the heck was that about? And we're going to do that. Also got some discussion underway after appearances by the President himself and also his Secretary of homeland security on H1B visas on immigration. Some interesting points coming across, particularly in a interview with Trump and Fox News, is Laura Ingram. We will have those discussions. We've also got hopefully an end to the flight delays or pretty close to an end to the flight delays here. So that's going on. That is certainly a good thing. Secretary of War, not to be confused with Secretary of Defense Hegseth, has some thoughts about the reformation of some of the military that he has put into effect and we will discuss that too. But Clay, I want to start with this. Stephen Miller had some thoughts to share on the Democrat shutdown, the White House's own Stephen Miller. This is what he has to say. Play 11. It was worse than pointless. It was cruel, it was capricious, it was dangerous, it was radical, it was extreme. The Democrats shut down the government in a failed attempt to extort $1.5 trillion for their pet projects, including, as has long documented in black and white, full funding for health care for legal aliens for several hundred billions of dollars. They resulted in, as a consequence of their shutdown, massive flight delays for the American people, huge impacts on public safety, federal workers going without pay, people who are living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to make ends meet. This was a Democrat sabotage of the Trump economy. It was Clay, and it was used to try to get maximum turnout result on Election Day. And Democrats did have good results, unfortunately, in those elections. But it was deeply cynical. It was destructive. And I hope that the American people who are open to the evidence of their own eyes and ears, will remember the madness that was inflicted upon us for a month by Democrats pouting and demanding that they get their way. And it was outrageous.
Clay Travis
Do you think it's a test, potentially, for 2026? In other words, are they trying to look at the numbers that came out in Virginia and New Jersey and say, if we're shutting down the government, does the idea that there's chaos work against Trump? Is there a larger game plan here? We know that they gain nothing essentially, from this shutdown, but going forward, did they learn something that they want to apply? Is there any resonance here, or is this just going to vanish? They're already moving on. I'm watching the news stories right now. They're not even discussing anything having to do with the shutdown. They've moved on to emails and Epstein and everything else there, which they're trying to turn into a story to. To connect Trump to Epstein. And they've been trying to do this for. For years, candidly. But. So what is the. What is the takeaway? Right? You go into a game, you lose, they lost. Did they test anything? Did they learn anything? It's just so dumb and ineffective that a part of me thinks there has to be a larger strategic imperative in play here than just, we shut down everything for 43 days and now everything is fine.
Buck Sexton
Well, if we look at cut 12 here for a second. Clay, this is Hakeem Jeffries, and he is saying the following about where House Democrats stand On this play. 12 House Democrats will strongly oppose any legislation that does not decisively address the.
Clay Travis
Republican Health care crisis.
Buck Sexton
We want to reopen the government. We'll continue to stand by our hardworking federal employees and civil servants, but we have a responsibility to make sure that we extend the Affordable Care act tax credits so that tens of millions of Americans don't experience dramatically increased health care costs. That's going to prevent them from being able to see a doctor when they need one. Let's unpack this a little bit for a second. Clay. The Republican health care crisis. Okay, let's really look at the facts here. The facts are as follows. The Democrats during COVID put in place a multi, multi billion dollar temporary all agreed that it was temporary at the time. Basically windfall for Obamacare exchanges. It's going to throw billions of dollars into this on a temporary basis. And now we have come to a point where the Democrats under Schumer earlier this year agreed to spending levels without those temporary billions in subsidies. But then they say, you know what, they're not really temporary. We want them forever and we're going to shut down the government. And this is a Republican problem. I mean, that is, I think when people look at what has happened here, there's an understanding that the Democrats are being incredibly dishonest, which is not a surprise to any of us. But they really don't have a leg to stand on other than lying about what's really happened here.
Clay Travis
Also, this is reflective of everything that is in any way not permanent. If you end it is described as a cut, right? Like the reality is this was a temporary program that was for its entire existence predicated on the idea that it would not exist forever as soon as the temporary program runs out. And the reason why it was temporary program buck is they didn't want to have the cost tallied for decades into the future of just how expensive this was going to be as soon as that temporary program runs out. A decision not to continue with the temporary program is seen as a cut. The big flaw here that is I think becoming increasingly clear to so many Americans of all different backgrounds is the healthcare industry is broken. And the idea that by subsidizing healthcare insurance you're going to help with health care costs I think has been proven to be frankly 100% wrong. And all it has done is inflated the bureaucracy of the healthcare insurance companies and given them way more money. Obamacare is just a big giveaway to the health care insurance industry. And I, we talked about this some earlier this week and last week, but I do think it's significant that if you polled Americans and you said what Companies do you hate the most dealing with in America? Don't you think healthcare insurance would be number one overall right now, Buck, if you asked Americans, hey, what for profit industry out there that you have to deal with on a regular basis do you hate the most? I don't even think there's a close second. I think it's the health care insurance companies. And unlike car insurance, which is frustrating, but as these self driving cars come on the market, I actually think the overall cost of car insurance is going to plummet. I mean you can argue as we move into more and more of a self driving car industry and future that that's one where you look at it and you say, oh, the amount of money that we're having to spend on cars could end up going down in the future. And I'm optimistic that that could occur. The problem with health care insurance is we're getting more and more older people in the country and the amount of health care that you need skyrockets as you age. And so I don't see any way that this is going to get better. And really the only way health care works is the only way healthcare insurance works is if there are tons of young people who basically never need insurance that are paying for older people who do need insurance. I was meeting with a healthcare industry guy recently, Buck, and he said, hey, we got killed in our company. He said, how do you think we got killed in the company recently? And I said, I don't know. He said, we had people going out and signing up young people. What is the one thing that could crush you if you're a health insurance company and you're signing up young people, pregnant women, because the cost of having a baby is high. And so somehow the cost of these insurance companies, pregnant women, all got signed up. A cost of having a baby is expensive. And that's basically for young people. For people under the age of 35, the only way under 40, the only way that these health insurance companies really get hit is when they have expensive, when people have kids. Otherwise most people putting money in never use it. And elderly people are able to benefit from that. The problem is now we have way too few young people and a huge exit, huge influx of older people. It's gonna break.
Buck Sexton
Well, this is where you see the problem lies. It's all about hiding what's really going on from people so that they can't undo, understand where the money is being spent and what their role in this whole system is. Because if you buy insurance as an individual, something like 70% they estimate clay of the people who buy insurance on the individual marketplace. Right. So not company subsidized, which is a whole other component of this. 70% of them said that if without the billions in subsidies from the government, the enhanced subsidies, they would have a huge increase in their premiums that they would not be able to afford. Why is that? Right. Why are the individual marketplaces so very expensive? Why is it that people keep seeing their premiums going up year after year? It's not insurance. If you are young and healthy, you are forced into this system. And when I say young, I mean relatively young. 30s, 40s, 50s. You are forced into this system to subsidize the care for the old and the sick. Now, if that's what we have to do as a society, that's one thing, but we at least need to have an honest conversation about that. You are not getting a good deal if you are in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, and you are getting anything that is a health insurance plan on the individual market, anything that is Obamacare, approved Medicaid, any of that stuff.
Clay Travis
Well, and I may be. I think there's a lot of people around my age that kind of are in this world. I care less about the individual expense and more about just having catastrophic protection. It's highly unlikely that you're going to have a catastrophic health issue. We hope in the same way that I bet you, Buck, have taken out life insurance now that you have a baby. A lot of dads and moms out there, when they have kids, they go back and they look at their overall expenses and they say, okay, what if the worst case scenario happens to me, it's highly unlikely. The insurance companies look at you. If you get a decent amount of health insurance, they come out and take as much of your blood as they can. They run your, you know, all your vitals to try and make sure that there's not something out there that is an issue. Most people only are concerned about catastrophic issues, particularly when you're in your 40s, your 30s, your 20s, and that isn't actually that expensive in the grand scheme of things. But the problem is, again, that's just a math equation. We don't have enough young people to deal with what people in their 60s and 70s are going to be costing for health care. Here's another part of this, Buck, that very few people talk about. Probably 50% of the medical coverage that our average people get in the United States is completely unnecessary because doctors are afraid of being sued. And so they don't think that you need that mri, they don't think that you need that CAT scan, but they, they go ahead and check the box because if they get sued and something really wrong, something is really wrong with you, and then they want to be able to say, oh, we gave as much standard of care as we could, not to mention the hospital makes money on it. So I'm not even kidding. I think we could eliminate 50% of all health care. One positive. Buck. I do think some of these GLP, which could drive down obesity, if they are widely distributed, could. Could start to decline because obesity is probably the leading cause of necessary.
Buck Sexton
I'll tell you something right now, and I'm not a doctor, but I am allowed to have opinions on national policy when it comes to health. If we took some of the tens of billions of dollars wasted on nonsense in the health care apparatus and directly subsidized GLP medication, because right now, I look, these companies, they're going to make their money. They have a right to make their money because they did the research, all that stuff, right? We're capitalists, okay? But if you want to talk about government subsidies subsidizing, and this is, by the way, straight from Elon Musk, he said the same thing, widely subsidizing GLP.1 access to medication for people not making it free, but make, you know, subsidized because it's crazy expensive now. I don't know.
Clay Travis
Yeah, that's right.
Buck Sexton
It's thousands of dollars a month or something. If you can't get your insurance to cover it. And insurance doesn't want to cover it because it's so expensive. The health care costs that this would actually bring down clay for individuals and the whole nation. It would, it would pay for itself many, many times over. That's just, that's just the reality of the way that obesity is $200 billion a year of health care spending.
Clay Travis
I'm cautiously optimistic that that is if you want to have a positive on health care. I am cautiously optimistic. These are for, by the way, the. We. What are the companies on Manjaro?
Buck Sexton
Wegovy. Ozempic is the super famous one. This is Eli Lilly, this is Pfizer. This is the big drug giants. These drugs are changing people's lives all over the place.
Clay Travis
And so if we can drive down obesity, we drive down the need for as much medical coverage. To your point, Buck, we could potentially save hundreds of billions of dollars in health care. It's a positive out there. If you need.
Buck Sexton
We have AI. So I know we got, we got to jump into a break here.
Clay Travis
Clip.
Buck Sexton
We have AI doing all these things for us now. It's amazing. I get there are cheeseburgers, maybe this ozempic and cheeseburgers, go ahead. But there are cheeseburgers being delivered to me by robot. Can I handle this so that I don't have to spend 30 minutes filling out paperwork every time I go to every doctor? Even when I fill out stuff online before I go? Like, can't we get to the point where the bureaucracy of medicine at least is less of a total disaster?
Clay Travis
Doctors want that too, because the amount of time that they have to spend on paperwork to be infuriating.
Buck Sexton
By the way, it's all the insurance companies do this to make it as a whole other conversation. They actually do this on purpose.
Clay Travis
Yesterday, Veterans Day we dedicated a large portion of the show to acknowledge all the incredible service members out there. Comes as no surprise that many in this audience have family that served. We heard incredible stories you can hear on the podcast on the iHeartRadio app for our sponsor, Tunnel the Towers Every day is Veterans Day. The Tunnel of the Towers foundation honors America's heroes and their families, especially when tragedy strikes. Heroes like Scott Abrams. For more than three decades, Scott served his community and country as a United States Marine, a New York City police detective and a volunteer firefighter. While he was a police escort on his NYPD motorcycle, his life changed in an instant. He was hit by a bus, crushing four vertebrae in his neck, leaving him partially paralyzed. Scott's recovery was grueling, but through unwavering love, strength and perseverance, Scott, his wife taught Tara and their son Joshua made it through unimaginable challenges. Tunnel the Towers honored Scott and his family with a mortgage free Smart Home. Thanks to supporters like you, Scott now has a home he can move freely in as he heals and raises his family with dignity. More heroes waiting and in need of assistance. Honor their sacrifices now. Join us in donating $11 a month to tunnel the towers@t2t.org that's T the number two T.
Buck Sexton
Clay Travis and Buck.
Clay Travis
Sexton Mic drops that never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Washable Sofas Advertiser
Time for a sofa upgrade Introducing Anabase Sofas where designer style meets budget friendly prices. Every Ana Bay sofa is modular allowing you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces. Anabe is the only machine washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy liquids simply slide right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink and feel or a supportive memory foam blend. Plus our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price, visit visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your living space. Today sofas start at just $699 with no risk returns and a 30 day money back guarantee. Get early access to Black Friday now. The biggest sale of the year can save you up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
iHeart Advertising Announcer
Run a business and not thinking about Radio? Think again. Because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today than they were 20 years ago and only iHeart broadcast podcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever and iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business? Think iHeart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844 844, iheart one more time. Just call 844-844, iheart and get radio working for you.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show we got so fired up talking about the healthcare world that we got. We come back, there's some Epstein story emails that have come out. Nothing new but it feels very calculated. We will discuss why we think they're coming out now when we come back. But in the meantime, where does your energy come from? Caffeine in the morning? Energy drink in the afternoon? How about all day energy that can come with making Chalk's Vitality Stack a set of supplements that's part of your routine for guys. Energy normally comes from the testosterone our body produces, but as we age it diminishes. Chalk's male Vitality stack of supplements has been proven to replenish it by 20% in just a matter of months. There's also a chalk female Vitality Stack to focus on the healthy hormone balance that can provide more energy in the process. Chalk spelled with a Q as in C H O Q and the website chalk.com Texas based company family owned. Our guy Seaton is awesome. If you don't want to feel like Joe Biden, if you don't want to be a white dude for Harris, you need chalk in your life right now to boost your testosterone. That's chalk.com. my name Clay for a massive discount for life. Chok Clay get hooked up today.
Buck Sexton
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. I'm not planning to spend much time on this story today at all. I think what's interesting is that there's in my opinion, and I guess I'm putting the, I'm putting the card ahead of the horse here or I'm bearing the lead. Clay, they want us to talk about some new Epstein email with Trump or something, meaning the media. There's clearly this effort. We didn't coordinate this beforehand. We were talking to break. I have a theory on it. Clay has a theory on it. I don't know if we have the same theory on it, but we'll try this. I think that this was planned by Democrats in the media as essentially a smokescreen for their retreat from the disastrous and obviously cynical shutdown. Is that, is that your take too?
Clay Travis
100%. I mean the idea, the idea, the timing on this, the shutdown is going to be voted on in the House, I think tonight to officially end. By all intents and purposes it is over because the Senate, which is where the shutdown had taken root, has voted 60 senators. They've opened back up the government. The House will officially rubber stamp that we expect sometime later today. And then miraculously this morning you wake up and there has been a calculated attempt to suddenly shift the talking points after Democrats were embroiled in a calamity of their own creation to a multi year old Jeffrey Epstein related scandal that they want to try to connect to Donald Trump because they see it as politically weak for him. I mean it's very calculated and it was their lead story this morning.
Buck Sexton
This is so, so I had a feeling we would. We see it exactly the same way, which to me might as well be gospel. This is the anti Trump media, the Democrat media deciding that they're throwing out some smoke bombs to cover the retreat from their disastrous assault, if you will, which is the government shutdown and they want us. So I don't if anyone's gonna say why aren't you guys. No, I don't actually want to play the game that they want us to play, which is sit here and be like what did he, what did he mean in this email? Or whatever. We've been over This I do not believe. You do not believe that Trump had anything to do with anything illicit, that every. That Jeffrey Epstein was involved in whatsoever? There's no data, no information, nothing to suggest otherwise. And I don't want to keep having our, our, our, our leashes pulled like dogs whenever the media wants us to go, oh, let's defend Trump again on this. I, so I'm, I'm ready to just move on from this, but I want to, you know, you can close the loop on it.
Clay Travis
Yeah, look, I think the way to think about it is this. And this is the argument I've been making since this whole thing happened. I don't know what, eight months ago or whatever the heck it was. Democrats and their allies tried to imprison Donald Trump for the rest of his life. They tried to bankrupt Donald Trump and people motivated by their rhetoric tried to kill Donald Trump. You think there was smoking gun evidence of Trump engaging in criminality at all, that they would have been raiding Mar a Lago to find out whether there were potentially classified documents there? Of course not. They would have brought every charge they could have against President Trump during the four years that Joe Biden had access to all of these Epstein files, that no Democrat demanded be released at all until Joe Biden was already out of office. So again, they're trying to tar and feather Trump with the Epstein connection. And it feels desperate to me. But this story in particular, I kind of have to just tip my hat to them because all they have to do is wave their arms and say, hey, look at what we've got here. And suddenly the whole discussion about the shutdown, what was the basis for it? Why did Democrats suddenly decide to open the government? It's vanished. It's vanished. And we haven't even gotten the House vote yet. Very calculated. I kind of just tip my cap to him because it is impressive the degree to which they can take over the narrative based on their still ownership of legacy media institutions seems very obvious to me.
Buck Sexton
So let's actually get back to the shutdown on what really happened here. How about that for a second? One thing, Clay, I wanted to make sure that we put out. There was all this stuff about the credits. This was all part of the American rescue plan in March of 2020. Remember that, everybody? So while Biden was acting like a maniacal Covid dictator, telling us about we need to get the shot or else you're going to get fired. Going to use OSHA, his winter of death speech, all this craziness in 2021, they, the Democrats went forward with this, with this plan to, temporarily, because of COVID make it easier for people to get subsidies on Obamacare exchanges and essentially shovel some more money into the health care system. Not really the health care system. The insurance system.
Clay Travis
Yes.
Buck Sexton
To make it easier for people. So this was emergency funding. I want everyone to be very clear on this. The Democrats did emergency funding during COVID This is a vestige of COVID that the Democrats shut the government down over. Now, what's really interesting is you look at this, you say, well, hold on a second. What would have happened without Covid? I mean, or rather. Well, yes, but without these subsidies. Oh, the exchanges that people think that they're operating under and everything else, you'd be paying 50% more. That's what would happen. That's how out of control this Obamacare spending actually is. Now, something else has been pointed out, Clay, by some people, a lot of Americans, according to all the polling, because you keep saying everyone hates their health care company, people hate what's going on with health care. A lot of people actually like their health insurance. It's about 66%. So we, you know, there's a little bit of nuance here.
Clay Travis
Yeah, well, the complicating factor, I've got so many of all the.
Buck Sexton
It's a big. It's a big issue with a lot of things. People are frustrated by the system. That's true.
Clay Travis
But.
Buck Sexton
But keep going. I'll let you know.
Clay Travis
Yeah. I mean, my thing on it is there are so many parts of it that need to be remedied. For instance, a lot of people have no idea how much their healthcare plans cost that they get from their companies. It's not taxed. And if you told the average person, hey, did you know your health care is costing $30,000 a year? Let's just toss that out there, as can be the case for you and your family. Do you think that if you got that money yourself as income and you were then able to go out and shop for the best health care coverage for you and your family, a lot of people would say, I'd rather have the $30,000 in extra income and be able to make a decision for me and my family. My point on it, Buck, is we have basically eliminated the market from health care. And when you eliminate the market from health care, what do you end up with? A broken system. Because nobody can make a rational decision, by and large, for they and their family as to what they actually need that fits their family's needs.
Buck Sexton
So I do think this even ties in for those who like their current insurance. And I will tell you that my, my approach to this in Miami beach, where there's a lot more of this stuff than I've ever seen before, is to pay for things that I can pay for, health care wise and just do now that that doesn't work when you're having a baby. Right. So we've been getting all these crazy bills and all this stuff and I have insurance, but we got a baby. They didn't cover this. They cover that. They didn't cover this. But for day to day stuff, and I'm not saying this is for everybody because obviously expensive and people have, they have their, their concerns about their, their budgets, but a lot of, a lot of medicine is just going to go more just I'll, I'll pay for this. Just get it to me. Don't make me wait in a room for an hour. Don't make me fill out all this paperwork before, after and during. So that's one part of this. But people on their insurance plans that they like, there are all of these subsidies that exist. You mentioned that your employer gets, gets this on a preferential basis. Employers, especially large employers, have more bargaining power, get better plans. Where you see the real pain of the system is people who are earning a living, who are on the individual exchange, who are not in Medicaid and who are trying to make. That's where all of a sudden the premiums go crazy and everything else, because that's the first place that is, if you will, the canary in the coal mine or the camel's nose in the tent. Pick your preferred. That's why everyone is seeing those crazy increases, Clay. So to your point, a lot of people like what they've got because they're actually sheltered from the realities of the health care system.
Clay Travis
Totally. And as you age, your health care expenditure is going to skyrocket on average, and the health care companies know it. And this is again, all we have done is broken the marketplace and subsidized the broken marketplace, which breaks the marketplace that much more. And to me, the only way we can solve health care in this country is to give consumers choices as we do in every other product. Yeah, everybody doesn't drive the same car, everybody doesn't buy the same groceries. It's a product. Health care is a product. And people can make rational choices and we don't allow that.
Buck Sexton
I'm also going to just point this out and I have doctor friends who listen to this show. There are great doctors and they're crappy Doctors, and that's always going to be the case. Having a little card that says you're covered doesn't mean that you're getting that even if the procedure is covered. Right. There's all this. You're talking about a vast system of goods and services within health care and people need to be understanding or need to be advocating for themselves within that system and being proactive. I think that our system of healthcare, Clay, we're sheltered from the. We're not even allowed to know the cost we have. And it prevents people from being more proactive and figuring out, look, I mean, I'll tell you guys this. One of the reasons that I went on my health journey and I've got my supplements and everything else is my blood sugar started to get a little high in a blood test and not like high enough where it was alarm bells. But, you know, it's one of these things where I don't want to be thinking about type 2 diabetes in 10 or 15 years. If I can avoid it, I want to start doing more. So, you know, really had to kick it into high gear and work on some things people are led to believe. You go to the doctor when you're sick, you have a magic little card where everything's going to be paid for. And this is the wrong approach, this is the wrong approach financially, it's the wrong approach as policy, and it's the wrong approach for individuals health.
Clay Travis
Think about this, and I know that a bunch of you have probably done it. If you have to get a knee replacement or a hip replacement, you can travel to Europe. You can travel and pay out of pocket and still it can be infinitely cheaper than what it cost in the United States. You read some of these stories, people can decide, hey, I want to go on a European vacation for three weeks. And some of you have looked into this and I'm going to stay in an incredible for profit hospital that focuses on giving treatments to Americans. And the cost of the procedures that you get there in sparkling, brand new, exquisite facilities when you're paying out of pocket are better than the options you have in the United States. I would submit to you that's a function of a broken marketplace. And again, I come back to it over and over again. But they can't tell you what anything cost. Name something else you buy that you choose that you have no idea what it costs. It doesn't exist in any other part of America.
Buck Sexton
There's a doctor's office that's very near to where I live here in Miami, Clay, where they Actually do a lot of these injections for women for like face, Botox kind of stuff. Whatever.
Clay Travis
Yep.
Buck Sexton
And you walk into the, you walk into that place and, you know, they're given like free massages, champagne. There's gentle music in the background.
Clay Travis
Yes.
Buck Sexton
Because they're competing. They want women to come in there and spend out of pocket. Mind you, I don't even, I don't know. I have not gotten Botox.
Clay Travis
I don't know. But thousands and thousands. But it's actually a sign of a competitive marketplace creating a better option for consumer when it comes to, you know, the cost. They compete. Compete for your business.
Buck Sexton
But I want to go into like a local clinic here because I think I have, you know, an ear infection or something. It's, it's pandemonium. It's weights. It's. Where's your insurance? Oh, we don't take that anymore. We all. Once you've seen this and experience this, it becomes very apparent and very clear. I think this is why this matters, everyone. Not just because the Democrats have lied to you about the shutdown and we don't want to let them get away with that. They're lying. They've made a mess of all this. Obamacare is an absolute. Obamacare is a failure, top to bottom, a failure. That's one big part of this. But also Clay Trump and the Republicans need to get it together for these midterms with, with, with ideas to make the health care system better. It's not going to be like the border where he fixes it in 30 days, but we need to have some plans to make this better. We'll also talk about immigration, by the way, coming up here in the next hour because some very interesting stuff happening there and people are asking questions about what's going on with policy and this White House. So we'll discuss that. The Preborn Network of Clinics is a nonprofit that does a tremendous amount to save the lives of unborn babies. They welcome and work with hundreds of pregnant mothers every day across the country. Mothers like Linda who is contemplating whether to have an abortion or to give life to her unborn child. When Linda learned she was pregnant, she knew abortion was wrong. But fear consume almost consumed her and led her to a very dark place. She didn't know where to turn until she went into a preborn clinic. There she was met with prayer, compassion, and the truth that pierced through her. The truth that pierced through her fear. Linda chose life for her baby. Preborn made this possible. And your donations to preborn are necessary for this. Godly mission to continue day in and day out. $28 provides a free ultrasound to women like Linda. This is your chance to make a difference. Will you please answer the call, pick up your phone, dial £250 and say the word baby. That's £250. Say baby or donate securely@preborn.com Buck preborn.com Buck sponsored by Preborn want to be.
Clay Travis
In the know when you're on The Go the Team 47 podcast drop highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Washable Sofas Advertiser
There's nothing like sinking into luxury. Annabe sofas combine ultimate comfort and design at an affordable price. Annabe has designed the only fully machine washable sofa from top to bottom. The stain resistant performance fabric slipcovers and cloud like frame duvet can go straight into your wash. Perfect for anyone with kids, pets or anyone who loves an easy to clean spotless sofa. With a modular design and changeable slipcovers, you can customize your sofa to fit any space and style. Whether you need a single chair, love seat or a luxuriously large sectional, Anna Bay has you covered. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your home. Sofas start at just $699 and right now get early access to Black Friday savings up to 60% off storewide with a 30 day money back guarantee. Shop now at washable sofas.com Add a little to your life. Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.
iHeart Advertising Announcer
Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers are into true crime, sports, comedy, culture, they'll hear your message. Plus, only Iheart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. And all this reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for you. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart streaming radio and podcasting. Let us show you at iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844 iHeart. One more time, call 844-844 iHEART and get podcasting working for you.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We'll take some of your calls, let you Guys react to a variety of different topics out there. I saw this and we could have some fun with it. Buck Charlemagne, the God fellow iHeartradio employee, says that Jasmine Crockett is a phenomenal messenger and should be used more frequently by the Democrat party. To which I would soundly and roundly agree. We'll have some fun with that.
Buck Sexton
I want, I want Jasmine Crockett elevated and I want Sonny Hostin to be the chief strategist for the Democrats 2028.
Clay Travis
I think they're wasting their talents. It would be racist and sexist if you did not take advantage of the talents of these profoundly successful, brilliant women inside of the party. I just put up a poll question, Buck, that we can have some fun with this too. Today the last pennies are being produced. That is the $0.01 coin is basically being phased out. Trump came in and said the penny doesn't make sense. It costs more than to. Than to produce it. Should we eliminate all coins? This may be stepping into. This may be like when I went after flute players.
Buck Sexton
I'm, I'm a hard guess on this one. Producer Greg, I'm gonna get. We're gonna give you a minute. I don't know if he's by the mic in NYC or if he wants to just do a talk back or whatever he seems like he's not down for. And I want to know why would anyone want there to still be pennies? We need to have currency for every person because you eliminate the penny, you eliminate the nickel. It's the first step on the slippery slope to getting rid of all currency. And then everything can be tracked by the government all the time. Okay, well, I'm with you on the digital dollar thing, Producer Greg, so that I'm with you on that. But pennies, when was the last time you used a penny? You'd be surprised.
Clay Travis
How much jangling coins does producer Greg have in his pocket right now? Just jangling around, weighing down his pants, dragging them down. I'm in. I'm with you, Buck. I think we should eliminate all coins. I don't think there should be coin currency anymore. That may be.
Buck Sexton
Is this gonna be a scorching hot take that? We didn't expect to be scorching.
Clay Travis
Maybe we may get fired up, get attacked on this one. But we're right.
Washable Sofas Advertiser
This is the story of the 1. As a custodial supervisor at a high school, he knows that during cold and flu season, germs spread fast. It's why he partners with Grainger to stay fully stocked on the products and supplies he needs, from tissues to disinfectants to floor scrubbers, all so that he can help students, staff and teachers stay healthy and focused. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
iHeart Advertising Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
Episode: Hour 1 - Dishonest Dems
Date: November 12, 2025
Network: iHeartPodcasts
Hosts: Clay Travis & Buck Sexton
In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dissect the recent government shutdown, focusing on the Democratic Party's role and motives. They explore the political strategy behind the shutdown, the healthcare debate, and the post-shutdown media narrative shift, while offering candid, often humorous insights into the headlines of the week. The tone remains conversational and skeptical, especially of Democratic messaging, with a strong emphasis on debunking what the hosts see as misleading or manipulative tactics.
[01:35–04:10]
[05:31–17:30]
[15:16–17:36]
[22:30–26:52]
[26:52–35:43]
[40:02–42:21]
| Time | Segment | |-----------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:35 | Discussion on end of government shutdown and Stephen Miller’s critique | | 04:10 | Clay outlines possible Democratic election strategies tied to the shutdown | | 05:31 | Healthcare debate shifts with Hakeem Jeffries’ messaging | | 07:20 | Deep dive into temporary COVID-era Obamacare subsidies | | 11:24 | Buck on how young, healthy adults subsidize older/sicker population | | 13:00 | Clay on unnecessary medical care and system inefficiencies | | 15:16 | GLP-1 medication as potential healthcare cost-saver | | 22:30 | Hosts discuss the Epstein–Trump media narrative shift | | 26:52 | Return to shutdown: emergency subsidies origins | | 31:44 | Market breakdowns and consumer choice in healthcare | | 33:55 | Comparison of U.S. healthcare with price-aware "medical tourism" abroad | | 40:02 | Penny debate: economic efficiency vs. privacy/currency concerns |
This episode is a deep dive into the intersection of politics and policy surrounding the recent government shutdown, with a distinctive focus on how health care, media narratives, and everyday economics shape public opinion. If you missed the episode, these key moments and exchanges encapsulate Clay and Buck’s blend of news analysis, policy critique, and personality-driven radio.