2441 - GOP Sets Sights On Medicaid Cuts & the Fraudulence of "Waste, Fraud, & Abuse"

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Majority Report with Sam Seder – Episode 2441 Title: GOP Sets Sights On Medicaid Cuts & the Fraudulence of "Waste, Fraud, & Abuse"
Host: Sam Seder
Release Date: February 25, 2025

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1. Introduction

In Episode 2441 of "The Majority Report with Sam Seder," Sam Seder delves into the Republican Party's latest agenda to cut Medicaid, scrutinizing the claims of waste, fraud, and abuse within the program. The episode also touches upon Elon Musk’s controversial involvement with federal agencies, impending government funding deals, and the prevailing economic sentiments among Americans.

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2. Elon Musk and the OPM Email Incident

Discussion Highlights:

• Federal Workers' Email Campaign: Sam Seder mentions a trend where federal employees are inundating the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with emails detailing their work activities, as a response to Elon Musk's demand for accountability.

• Issues with AI Implementation: Emma Vigeland highlights concerns about OPM's plan to use AI to evaluate employee performance, questioning the effectiveness and age-appropriateness of the technology.

• Prank and Inappropriate Emails: A Trump administration official reported to Rolling Stone that many responses to the OPM emails were pranks, containing vulgar and fake accomplishments. Sam emphasizes the lack of respect for the rule of law, stating, "You got to find a needle in a pile of shit if you want" (00:05:01 Sam Seder).

Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (00:05:01): "They're kind of important."
• Sam Seder (00:06:20): "They want to malign government and this is why it's been so bad."

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3. Mike Johnson's Medicaid-Cutting Bill

Town Hall Meeting in Missouri:

• Representative Mark Alford: Hosts a town hall in Belton, Missouri, facing substantial opposition from constituents vehemently against Medicaid cuts. Alford defends the GOP stance by stating, "I will vote for a bill tomorrow that has savings for Medicaid" (00:10:01 Mike Johnson).

• Constituent Reactions: Attendees expressed frustration, with chants like "Tax Elon" and demands to "cut Elon Musk’s influence." The town hall exceeded its capacity, indicating widespread local discontent.

Discussion Points:

• Impact of Medicaid Cuts: Sam Seder argues that cutting Medicaid does not address the actual sources of fraud, which predominantly involve providers, not beneficiaries. He uses an analogy, "if a retail store has 10% theft, should you reduce inventory by 10%?" (00:42:58 Sam Seder).

• Economic Realities: Emma Vigeland underscores the precariousness of workers reliant on Medicaid, highlighting that many are employed yet cannot afford living without government assistance. She cites statistics from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), noting that "92% of Medicaid adults were working full or part-time" (00:50:06 Emma Vigeland).

Quotes:

• Mark Alford (00:34:47): "I will vote for a bill tomorrow that has savings for Medicaid."
• Sam Seder (00:42:58): "You can put more cops on the beat, but if you cut Medicaid payments, the only thing that's going to happen is you're not going to reduce the amount of fraud."

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4. Analysis of GOP's Strategy on Medicaid

Fraud, Waste, and Abuse:

• Republican Claims: The GOP asserts that Medicaid is plagued by significant fraud, waste, and abuse, estimating potential savings of up to $800 billion over a decade.

• Hosts' Counterarguments: Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland challenge these claims, pointing out that most fraud is perpetrated by providers, not Medicaid recipients. They argue that cutting Medicaid does not eliminate fraud but rather reduces coverage for millions who genuinely need assistance.

Examples and Data:

• December 2024 Report: Highlights that fraud predominantly involves providers like ambulance services, durable medical equipment suppliers, and nursing homes, with no beneficiary fraud reported (00:36:20 Sam Seder).

• State-Level Failures: Sam cites Georgia’s Medicaid experiment, "Pathways," which resulted in an $86 million cost with only 6,500 participants enrolling, far below projections, leading to administrative chaos (00:47:00 Sam Seder).

Quotes:

• Sam Seder (00:36:20): "It is all providers... nursing homes, ambulance companies, the medical suppliers are still there."
• Emma Vigeland (00:50:22): "There are people who are working full time and are still on Medicaid and food stamps."

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5. Government Funding and Potential Shutdown

Budget Negotiations:

• IMF and Continuing Resolution: The podcast discusses ongoing negotiations to avoid a government shutdown looming 17 days from the episode's release date. Democrats demand that no votes be given to any Republicans unless Elon Musk is removed from federal roles.

• Reconciliation and Separate Deals: Sam explains the complexities of passing the budget, noting that Democrats hold a slim margin on reconciliation votes and face challenges in aligning House and Senate bills.

Quotes:

• Sam Seder (00:21:56): "If you cut Medicaid, you’re not stopping fraud... it just lowers the number of people who can access Medicaid."
• Emma Vigeland (00:30:26): "21% of Americans nationally. So that's one in five Americans gets Medicaid coverage."

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6. Economic Sentiment and Consumer Trust

Polls and Economic Outlook:

• Consumer Exhaustion: Sam mentions that polls indicate a significant drop in consumer sentiment, with Americans feeling drained by the current economic hardships, likening the situation to that experienced during Trump's presidency.

• Future Projections: The hosts express concerns about the economy potentially collapsing, referencing historical precedents like the late Jimmy Carter’s tenure.

Quotes:

• Sam Seder (00:22:28): "There's a separate deal that is being negotiated right now... some form of a continuing resolution because the government is scheduled to shut down in 17 days."
• Matt Binder (00:58:56): "The economy is going to collapse, most likely."

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7. The Role of Government and Social Safety Nets

Importance of Medicaid and Government Services:

• Sam's Personal Experience: Sam shares a personal story about reliance on Medicaid for chronic illness, emphasizing its critical role in preventing poverty and ensuring access to healthcare (00:51:42 Sam Seder).

• Hosts' Advocacy: Emma and Sam advocate for stronger social safety nets, criticizing Republican efforts to dismantle these programs under the guise of reducing fraud.

Quotes:

• Sam Seder (00:51:42): "I'm stuck in low paying jobs. No way I could cover that without Medicaid."
• Emma Vigeland (00:32:22): "What’s holding us all together here."

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8. The "Fun Half" of the Show

Lighthearted Banter and Community Interaction:

• Sponsors Skipped: As per the user's request, sponsor segments (HelloFresh and Magic Spoon promotions) were omitted from the summary.

• Casual Conversations: The hosts engage in playful interactions, discuss local events like basketball games, and mention upcoming Left Reckoning events featuring activists and discussions on Pentagon cuts and Ukraine.

Quotes:

• Emma Vigeland (00:65:35): "Love you."
• Sam Seder (00:67:40): "Let's go, Brandon."

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9. Guest Insights: David Dayen

David Dayen's Commentary:

• Failed Coup Attempts: David Dayen highlights that attempts to consolidate power and punish opponents within the Trump administration have largely failed, providing a glimmer of hope despite ongoing hardships.

• Constituent Backlash: He notes that town halls in deeply red districts revealed significant frustration among constituents, suggesting a potential grassroots movement against the GOP's agenda.

Quotes:

• David Dayen (00:54:42): "There’s no way to be surgically precision. You have to cut more because you just don't know."

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10. Conclusion

The episode underscores the Republican Party's aggressive push to cut Medicaid, fueled by claims of systemic fraud within the program. Sam Seder and his co-hosts critically analyze these claims, arguing that such cuts disproportionately harm millions who depend on Medicaid for essential healthcare. The discussion extends to broader political maneuvers to secure government funding, the precarious state of the economy, and the resilience of social safety nets. Amid serious policy debates, the hosts maintain a balance with lighthearted segments, fostering a comprehensive and engaging discourse for listeners.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Sam Seder (00:05:01): "I really is probably my fault because I wasn't explicit about this, that you should not send any type of pornographic material or rude stuff..."
• Mark Alford (00:34:47): "I will vote for a bill tomorrow that has savings for Medicaid."
• Sam Seder (00:42:58): "You can put more cops on the beat, but if you cut Medicaid payments, the only thing that's going to happen is you're not going to reduce the amount of fraud."
• David Dayen (00:54:42): "There’s no way to be surgically precision. You have to cut more because you just don't know."

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Final Notes: This episode provides a critical examination of the GOP's strategies to reduce Medicaid funding, juxtaposing political rhetoric with real-world implications for millions of Americans. Through detailed discussions and personal anecdotes, "The Majority Report" advocates for preserving vital government programs while challenging the narratives used to justify budget cuts.

Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

The Majority Report with Sam Cedar. It is Tuesday, February 25, 2025. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five time award winning Majority Report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, usa. On the program today, Elon Musk gives federal workers an extension. But some agencies say just blow it off. Meanwhile, Mike Johnson determined to bring his big beautiful bill to the floor to cut Medicaid. Waiting on a potential vote today remains to be seen if he's even going to bring it to the floor. Meanwhile, a government funding deal, this is separate to avoid a shutdown 17 days from now is in the offing. Your Democratic lawmakers are waiting to hear from you to demand. They don't give a single vote to this unless Elon Musk is shut down. Meanwhile, consumer sentiment drops like a rock. Polls show Americans already exhausted by Trump's economy. Had to do it. Had to do it. FDA looks to rehire medical device and food safety experts that Elon Musk fired.

[Emma Vigeland]

They're kind of important.

[Sam Cedar]

Eric Prince, remember him? The former Blackwater guys? Well, they are pitching the government on a private ice posse.

[Emma Vigeland]

That's not good.

[Sam Cedar]

Head of U. S Whistleblowing protection agency, the special counsel, not to be confused with the Department of Justice special counsels is looking to sue to protect all of the probationary workers who are summarily fired. Meanwhile, at New York City DoorDash to return $17 million they stole from their New York City workers. I guess, you know, no harm, no foul after you give it back. Meanwhile, the acting IRS had to quit. Sort of poorly timed. The VA cuts 1400 more staffers and Europe breaks with the United States on support for Ukraine as the US Votes with Russia at the UN all this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

[Emma Vigeland]

It is news Day Tuesday.

[Sam Cedar]

This is the first time that we've been in the. On the show together for like quite some time, like a week and a half.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yes, yes. How was your vacation?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, moving on. It was a, it was a staycation. And that was. It wasn't. It was. It was, it was more. Exactly. It was more like. How was the cruise? Well, it was more like bailing water. Gotcha. Yeah. Regardless, it's fine. You know, it's modern life. Vagaries of modern life.

[Emma Vigeland]

Understood.

[Sam Cedar]

Anyways, let's get right into this. First off. All right, let me just say this, folks. Yesterday we gave a suggestion that you email hr opm.gov to recount what you've been doing over the past five days. I gave a. An example of what I did. I fortunately gave everybody here, and it's another extension because I didn't get your emails. But regardless, and I just want to say that, like, I really is probably my fault because I wasn't explicit about this, that you should not send any type of pornographic material or rude stuff, because according to a Rolling Stone magazine, the Elon's email demand is being met with very rude flood of spam online. People participating in the trend that being sending emails to opm.

[Emma Vigeland]

We're so trendy.

[Sam Cedar]

Here's the thing. So I saw NBC report that OPM was going to use AI to, you know, assess whether what people had been doing at their job was worthy of, I guess, not losing their job. But I guess they have to be filtered by people first to find out whether, you know, because I guess the AI, they don't want the AI to. Maybe the AI is too young.

[Matt Binder]

It's like when AI was supposed to look after the Amazon checklist checkout list shopping experience, but it turned out to be Indian guys looking at cameras, like half the world.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly. So online, people participating in the trend. We were part of that trend. Very trendy. Have both sent their own versions of emails or drafted different examples they would send if they were federal employees. But they're not the only ones. Two sources familiar with the matter, including a Trump administration official, tell Rolling Stone that replies to the recent musk OPM email have been flooded with pranks and in the words of the Trump official, quote, very rude emails listing fake, vulgar quote, accomplishments.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, wow, are they trying to police free speech?

[Sam Cedar]

I know it.

[Matt Binder]

Yeah. Is comedy not legal anymore?

[Emma Vigeland]

Right, Exactly. Exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

Or just, you know, truthfulness. A lot of people do some weird stuff at work. And even sending links to graphic images of sex and scatological content.

[Matt Binder]

Here's one of the Trumpet officials on background.

[Sam Cedar]

You're. You're not. You don't respect the rule of law. Yeah, there you go. All over it. Oh, boy. That's what you did. And we know it now. Just want to make it clear, okay. To the folks at opm. I wouldn't write off the scatological content so quickly. Dali was very famous for keeping a diary of every movement he made.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

There are a daily basis.

[Emma Vigeland]

There are a lot of past geniuses that have been obsessed with their bowel movements. So there you go. You got to. You got to find a needle in a pile of shit if you want. If you need to look there, just.

[Matt Binder]

Use AI to sort through it all.

[Emma Vigeland]

Okay.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly. All right, let's go to this. Yesterday we played you some clips of people reacting to the Doge stuff around the country. And we have some more. Like there's some hopeful perspectives in this because the response that people have had around the country has been enough to certainly intimidate some Republican lawmakers some. And at the very least, you know, David Dayen had a piece yesterday and we'll go through that a little bit later. But there's some reason to believe that this part of Donald Trump's project where the Heritage Foundation Project 2025, Schedule F, get rid of all the civil service and the sort of marriage with the tech bro folks do it through AI at that reboot conference in San Francisco in September of 2024, that this part of the project may be failing. Like, it may have just he had his shot and it didn't work. That doesn't mean that there's not going to be a lot of like, you know, problems associated with a Trump administration and legislation that's going to be bogus and people are going to be hurt and people are going to lose health insurance. But the fundamental structures of our government may remain intact and we may be dealing with a very miserable four years, but not one that's going to take multiple decades to recover from. The jury's still out, but this is encouraging. Here is Representative Mark Alford, Republican from Missouri, Missouri's 4th district, holding a town hall meeting. This is a couple of days ago.

[Emma Vigeland]

No, it was yesterday.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, yesterday.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Give credit to one of the look this guy up. Daniel Sharpenberg, Midas Touch reposted this. A bunch of other people. He did the Facebook live stream and he's from Missouri. 30,000 federal workers in the Kansas City area, a lot of them at the IRS, around 2.5% of the workforce in the Kansas City metro.

[Sam Cedar]

That's nuts.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

And this is At Random's Coffee in Belton, Missouri.

[Mike Johnson]

Elon Musk has contracts with the federal.

[Sam Cedar]

Government.

[Mike Johnson]

But he is also, I think, doing an effective job conflict. Show me, show me to see waste, abuse and fraud weeded out some of them here today.

[Sam Cedar]

I don't want him in charge of it, but he is. You can appoint whoever he, he can appoint you.

[Mike Johnson]

I thought it was your job.

[Sam Cedar]

And.

[Mike Johnson]

The president that if there is any potential conflict, it is your job. And it's your job in the next election to elect someone that you don't believe.

[Sam Cedar]

Remember, your represent us, you represent.

[Emma Vigeland]

You're a violation of your own, sir. And apparently that was, you know, Usually only five or so or ten people show up, but it had filled up. And so the capacity was 40 people, but there were 60 people, according to some local Kansas City reporting that were outside protesting, trying to get in.

[Sam Cedar]

Here is a second clip from a different angle at that same situation. Is this like a montage?

[Emma Vigeland]

This is an excerpt from a local news report where he says this quote where that basically had gone wrong.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's hear the whole. Let's hear the whole news, because I'm curious how the news is reporting at the local news there.

[Mike Johnson]

I think you're living in the greatest time in American history.

[Sam Cedar]

The crowd groaned or spoke over most of Alfred's answers. Elon Musk came up a lot.

[Mike Johnson]

Whether you like it or not, Elon Musk does have a security clearance.

[Sam Cedar]

Alfer told federal employees who've lost their jobs to keep faith.

[Mike Johnson]

There are jobs available. God has a plan.

[Sam Cedar]

We don't need thoughts and prayers. That's not what we need right now. We need people to stand up for us and to say that I'm not gonna carry the party line. Ulford definitely carried the Republican Party line in his answers and threw shade on Democrats.

[Mike Johnson]

I know that the Democrats have a plan to try to disrupt things in town hall meetings. I think you're living in the greatest time in American history.

[Emma Vigeland]

So that's the quote where he said to the fired federal workers, God has a plan. Don't worry about it.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, God does. I'm sure God and Elon does, too.

[Emma Vigeland]

Apparently, Hakeem Jeffries would agree.

[Sam Cedar]

Exactly. But God has a plan, and it just may not include any of you getting a job. That's here. So Alfred shows up on cnn, and I want you to accomplish just. He's going to do the classic play, right? The. The outside agitators. If you were a national Democratic group, would you be focusing on a coffee shop in Belton, Missouri? I mean, this is. So these protests, they may be. They may be like local indivisible groups or something like that. Like there might be. There might be local organizing. Yeah, but the idea that nationally speaking, I know where we got to deploy most of our stuff in Missouri at.

[Emma Vigeland]

A, you know, town hall where the maximum capacity is 40 people. I mean, it's projection.

[Matt Binder]

I mean, the Koch brother Tea Party is their model.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. No, these are your constituents, buddy. These are your constituents. There are 30,000 people. And I'm not sure how it overlaps with other districts because Kansas City, you know, covers some ground. But there are 30,000 people. But at least thousands who could Be affected. Who are you're supposed to represent? That's why people are outraged.

[Sam Cedar]

So he goes on cnn, I guess because he doesn't want to address his local news people. But here it is.

[Caitlin]

You normally do these meetings and you say you have like five to ten people show up. This was 150 people, I believe. Were you surprised by the level of frustration that you heard?

[Mike Johnson]

I would like to say that I was. And first thing, you for having me on, Caitlin. Look, we've done 90 of these since I've been in office. I'm a sophomore. I've been in office for two years and a couple of months now. And I love going out and talking to folks in our district. I love having one on one conversations. That's how we get things done. I welcome people who don't agree with me so that I can try to win them over, hear their concerns. I represent 772,047 individuals, Republicans, Democrats, independents, politically agnostic. I want to hear their ideas. And that's what we do. Usually at Mondays with Mark, before I fly back to Washington, we have discussions. This was brought about outside agitators and some people from outside our district, not our constituents, who came there to make their voices heard. And I respect that. They have every right to be there. We did not prohibit them even though they did not live in our district. But I really wanted to hear from our constituents. That's who sent me to Congress and that's who I owe really my service to. And they were not really able to be heard. Some of them were there who had worked for the IRS and were getting laid off in Kansas City. And I really wanted to hear their concerns and let's work together about how can we find you the next job. There are Thousands of jobs, 150, 175,000 jobs right now available in Missouri.

[Caitlin]

You say outside agitators. Are you saying that none of them were your constituents?

[Sam Cedar]

Were there?

[Mike Johnson]

No, no, I'm. Some were. Let me make that very clear. Some were our constituents. They're clearly were not on, aligned with my way of thinking. Well, they did not vote for Trump, but that's okay. I don't, I wanted to hear from them.

[David Dayen]

Yeah.

[Caitlin]

As you said, you represent Democrats as well and you are the elected official and some of the.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, yeah. Just a reminder, you're the congressman there. It's, I mean, what's, what's interesting about this though is that, and what is really relevant about it, regardless of whether he in his mind thinks, well, none of these are my constituents. They didn't vote for Trump. They're completely irrelevant. He felt like he had to run to CNN and maybe he would have tried to do something locally, maybe he did, but he had to get on his plane, right, to come back for this vote today. And so these people are on the run. They, I mean, this is, he doesn't go to CNN to deal with this unless he's worried about its implications back home.

[Emma Vigeland]

I mean, these are good paying jobs in that district. When he talks about all these jobs that are available, where, where, where are you talking, what are you talking about? I mean, we're seeing this massive disconnect with national markers about how the economy is going versus how people genuinely feel because we're in the midst of an extreme housing and cost of living crisis that has exacerbated after the pandemic and exploded after the pandemic. But where are these folks going to go? I mean, civil service is, you can have a career in that. But now this is really an effort to push people back into the private sector where there's a lot and it's not as good paying in many of these instances and there's fewer protections. This is as old as it gets with conservatism. They're trying to funnel more people back into the private sector. It's just that they're doing it under this DOGE branding and it creates more precarity for these workers destroying communities too.

[Matt Binder]

Think of all those jobs and all these different communities getting just the rug pulled out from under them and all of the different economic activity that they participate in every day.

[Sam Cedar]

Also, I mean, again, this is also different from like losing your job because an entity goes under and particularly the irs, because I'll tell you something, every single one of those IRS workers know that every dollar spent on The IRS returns 6 or $7 back to the US government. So the justification for them being fired, they, they understand you don't work at the irs. I don't care if you voted for Trump or not. I don't care if you're in a red state or not. You don't work for the IRS and feel like taxes are wrong, man. Right. And no, you believe like taxes are a, an important part of what we do here and that everybody should pay their taxes. And you know when they come to fire you willy nilly that they're just doing this because they want to avoid paying their taxes, because that's what happens. I mean, we've seen this with, when we decrease funding for the irs. What happens is wealthy people get audited less other people, low income people, middle income people, they get audited at the same rate. But all the cuts on audits come from wealthy people because theirs are tougher jobs, essentially because they have accountants, they have loopholes, et cetera, et cetera. And so the point being here, you know, we played this yesterday, we saw like, you know, people going to these town halls over the weekend and prior to the weekend. And it, and it has an impact. And right now there is supposedly this, according to Politico, a deal. This is different. The, the Republicans are trying to vote in the House today. We'll see if they do. Democrats won't give them a single vote on this reconciliation bill. And they have a margin of, I think, one vote on this reconciliation and then it's got to go to the Senate. And then they're going to have to figure out how to basically reconcile those two different bills because the Senate's not going to pass the same thing the House does. But there's a separate deal that is being negotiated right now and this seems to be coming out of the Senate and that is probably what, some form of a continuing resolution because the government is scheduled to shut down in 17 days. And so what you need to do, can you get a number for me? You need to call your congresspeople and your senator, particularly if they're Democrats. Either way, it doesn't hurt and say no, no continuing resolution, no budget deal, no votes whatsoever to help Republicans until Doge gets shut down. No impoundment. That's the, that's the issue. No impoundment. Because if, if the president has the unilateral power to decide that despite Congress having appropriated money for something, he is going to basically cut that or have a line item budget veto, which is also unconstitutional, then all bets are off. There's no point in doing any of it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Supposed to be illegal under the Impoundment Control act of what, 1974. But Trump's just flouting it. So Democrats, apparently Jeffries says they will hold the line on this and we'll see.

[Sam Cedar]

It's unclear to me if Jeffries is saying they're going to hold the line on the reconciliation or the continuing budget deal.

[Emma Vigeland]

How about both?

[Sam Cedar]

Both is the way to do it. Capital switchboard, 202-224-312-220-22243121.

[Emma Vigeland]

If you call there, they'll redirect you to your congressman or senator. And sometimes you can. Well, it depends on the number, but that's the right one. Oh, that's for the House.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, that's just for the House. All right, we'll get to the Senate one in a second. But first, a couple words from our sponsor.

[Matt Binder]

Actually, they're the same.

[Emma Vigeland]

They're the same. Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

I'd like to be able to cook every night a meal for my child from scratch. Put all the love and care in it that I have in my heart for him. Put it on a plate. But I don't have the time.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And you're not a trad wife.

[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Cedar]

No. Round one. Rigatoni.

[Emma Vigeland]

Rigatoni, yes.

[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

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[Sam Cedar]

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[Emma Vigeland]

There's a whole range like myself, like the birthday cake.

[Sam Cedar]

They also have like specialty flavors that come in and out, but they're high protein. Treats are really awesome. You 12 grams of protein on the go. This is great to give to your kids too because you don't want to put sugar stuff. But I eat them in the afternoon. They come in mouthwatering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate, peanut butter Dark chocolate. Chocolate. They're great. They're super easy. You can have them at night, you can have them during the day. You put them in your kids lunch, put them in your backpack, forget about it for like five days. Still, you got some food in there. It's better than, like, stuff that, you know, turns. Get $5 off your next [e-mail] MajorityReport. Look for Magic spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com majorityreport 5 bucks off. Check it out. All right, getting back to this. Do we have an update as to whether they've actually gone for the vote yet? I don't think they have. So the. I'm just seeing this just popped up, the House budget resolution. This again, is the reconciliation bill. They have a real problem here because the one thing that the Republicans always care about, this is the only policy they have to be fair. There's two. One is tax cuts for wealthy people. They will put some lipstick on that pig and do a little bit of tax cuts for other people maybe. But the bottom line is we need to put as much money as we can in the hands of. Of wealthy people. That's it. And part of the way they redistribute that is pretend like, well, we need to have a balanced budget. We need to cut down on our debt. We need to cut our deficit. So they look for cuts to give themselves more room to provide tax cuts. And the only place for them to look for cuts right now is at Medicaid. But the problem is, is that 75 million Americans get their health insurance through Medicaid.

[Emma Vigeland]

And then when you add children to it, it's around 83 million in total. Because that includes what, chip as well, in Medicaid.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. I don't know if S CHIP would be rolled into. Or CHIP and S CHIP would be rolled into it. But they're looking to get.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Anywhere from like $800 billion over like 10 years out of this and understand something like 45% of children born in.

[Emma Vigeland]

This country, 41% of births nationwide covered by Medicare. Foreign Medicaid or. Sorry, Medicaid. That's what I meant. Nearly 50% of kids with special needs get coverage from Medicare. Medicaid, 5 and 8 nursing home residents.

[Sam Cedar]

Two thirds. Nearly two thirds of everyone in a nursing home is there on Medicaid.

[Emma Vigeland]

21% of Americans nationally. So that's one in five Americans gets Medicaid coverage.

[Sam Cedar]

I can tell you my experience, my mom. What happens is you spend down all of Your assets you get to keep like a car, I think, and maybe, I think it was like 3,000 bucks in Massachusetts. And then you've got to spend all that and then you go into the nursing home or you're in the nursing home and you spend it there. And then Medicaid starts to pick up the bill. So it's a completely insane system we have in this country. But Medicaid is what made it possible and will make it possible if you are parents and has made it possible for my parents to get good care in a nursing home.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's, it's. We have such a threadbare social safety net in this country, but these are the kinds of things that keep us from plunging our millions of people even more into despair. Into despair. I mean this, this is what's holding us all together here.

[Sam Cedar]

So here is the issue. You've got people who are on like so called frontline seats. Republicans in California, Republicans in New York. I'm looking at a list right here of Republican representatives who won by a tiny margin. Arizona's first, Schweikart won by 16,000 votes. There are 78,000 people who are going to lose their Medicare coverage. Excuse me, Medicaid coverage in our, in that district. In Arizona, six Cisco Monte won by 10,000. 105,000 people stand to lose their coverage. In that district. Colorado's eighth, Evans won by 2500 votes. 73,000 could lose their Medicaid. In Iowa, Miller Meeks wins by 800 votes. 66,000 recipients of Medicaid. Michigan in New Nebraska. In Pennsylvania, there's two people. In California, there's two. Iowa, another one, none. Michigan. New Jersey. In New York, 17th, Mike Lawler, he won by 23,000 votes. There are 98,000 people on Medicaid. In Pennsylvania's 8th, Bresnahan won by 6,200 votes. 92,000 people on Medicaid. You see the problem that Mike Johnson has. That's where the money is. They can't justify giving all these tax cuts to their conservative members who are like, hey, wait a second, I thought we were about cutting the deficit. So they're in between a rock and a hard place. Let's go to Alfred. Alfred says he'll vote to cut Medicaid because he doesn't care. And we're going to talk about this wasted abuse.

[Caitlin]

The other question you got was about Medicaid. Yes, at the, at the town hall this morning, the coffee. When it comes to Medicaid, some of your colleagues are considering cutting Medicaid. In order to pass your budget blueprint, to get the tax cuts done again and to get Trump's other legislative priorities. Would you vote for a bill that includes cuts to Medicaid?

[Mike Johnson]

I will vote for a bill tomorrow that has savings for Medicaid. And I'll tell you the difference. This is just not a nuanced position. There is waste, abuse and fraud in Medicaid. We are finding out through DOGE and through the access to this data that there is waste of use of.

[Sam Cedar]

Okay, first of all, there's a report every year by the DOJ and by HHS on fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. This is not to be confused with improper payments, which sometimes refers to, like, technicalities, like, we didn't get the form, you know, page three on form D5 or whatever it is. Nobody has, like, the obviously exact numbers on fraud because you can't, you can't tell. You don't know. But doj, hhs, and remember, Medicaid is administered by the states. So they go after this. In all the fraud that they found, which is basically in line with private insurance fraud, health insurance fraud, incidentally, they have found that none of it, none of it comes and is perpetrated by beneficiaries. It's all by providers. It's by nursing homes, nursing homes, ambulance driver, you know, companies, health care providers. I mean, I don't know what else to, you know, to call it.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's middlemen, the private equity that owns nursing homes, by the way.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, they increasingly, that's where they're finding it. And so remember, again, don't confuse it with, with improper payments. Some of that may, in fact, be legitimately improper, but some of it is just a question of have, have every form been filled out. But the December 2024 report put out by the DOJ and the HHS Office of the Inspector General, incidentally, Inspector General, those 18 inspector generals who are fired from all those agencies, their job is to find fraud and waste in their agencies, yet they were fired. The December 2024 report lists examples by the different kinds of fraud against Medicaid and Medicare that agencies have identified and prosecuted. Among those convicted, ambulance service providers, durable medical equipment suppliers, diagnostic labs, nursing homes, pain clinics, pharmacies, physical therapists, physicians, substance abuse treatment providers. No beneficiaries. No beneficiaries. So the point is, is like, you can put more cops on the beat, but if you cut, if you cut Medicaid payments, the only thing that's going to happen is you're not going to reduce the amount of fraud. The fraud's still going to be there. The fraudster still exists. The medical suppliers are still there. The ambulance companies are still there. The nursing homes are still there. The only difference is, is that less people are going to get Medicaid. That's it. So they talk about fraud and abuse. Here's Mike Johnson. We're not going to cut Medicaid. We're going to get rid of fraud and abuse and waste. First off, when we talk about waste, we know the administrative costs for Medicare and Medicaid are about a fifth of what they are for private insurance.

[Emma Vigeland]

Mm.

[Sam Cedar]

So when we talk about fraud, there is one way to go after fraud. It's the exact same way you would if you were a private health insurance company. You get more investigators, which would actually, like, maybe you would cut down and maybe it would pay off. So you could add more investigators. But cutting only boots people off guard. You said that this is just the.

[Emma Vigeland]

Start of the process. Can you say unequivocally that further down the line there won't be any cuts to Medicaid programs?

[Mark Alford]

Yeah. So, look, let me clarify what we're talking about with Medicaid. Medicaid is. Is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse. Everybody knows that. We all know it intuitively. No one in here would disagree.

[Sam Cedar]

We know it intuitively. Why do we need to. Why do we know this intuitively? We have reports. We have reports. And there are. There. There is, in fact, fraud in Medicaid and Medicare and also in private health insurance.

[Emma Vigeland]

But, you know, when you say intuitively, it's essentially like saying, article of faith.

[Sam Cedar]

We don't need to. Don't look at the numbers. Don't look at the numbers. And here's the thing. There is no way that Doge sees Medicaid fraud. It is administered by the states. It is done. Like you. You have investigators who go after this stuff, professional investigators who know exactly how this is done, who have years of experience. They may be understaffed, woefully understaffed, but they exist. Congress does not have the ability to say, like, oh, this. We noticed in your line item that there's a line item for fraud. We're going to cut that out. We're going to take that number. They're just picking a random number that they think they can sell to the American public. That is intuitive, that. And there is no way to cut fraud other than hiring investigators.

[Emma Vigeland]

Well, they're hiring the ultimate investigator, Elon Musk. That's basically what their argument hinges on.

[Matt Binder]

Now it's got on the case, too.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Trust Elon Musk. And I got news for Mike Johnson. The trust for Elon Musk is plummeting. When it comes to the public, people are not thrilled about the unelected billionaire who's ransacking the federal government. Do we have more of his response here?

[Sam Cedar]

Good.

[Mark Alford]

Yeah. So look, let me clarify what we're talking about with Medicaid. Medicaid is. Is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse. Everybody knows that. We all know it intuitively. No one in here would disagree. We had a hearing in budget just last week and. Or week for last. And they asked the experts, and the estimate is, I think it's $50 billion a year in fraud alone in Medicaid. Those are precious taxpayer dollars. Everybody is committed to preserving Medicare benefits for those who desperately need it and deserve it and qualify for it. What we're talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste and abuse. Every taxpayer, it doesn't matter what party you're in, you should be for that because it saves your money and it preserves the programs so that it is available for the people who desperately need it.

[Sam Cedar]

But here's the thing that doesn't make any sense, right? Like, if you had a, I don't know, retail store and there was 10% theft going on, would your response be like, okay, well, if we are having 10% of our inventory stolen, what we'll do is order and maintain 10% less of an inventory, and then they won't be able to steal it. I mean, that's the logic of what? Of cutting Medicaid because you say there's fraud in it. No, you actually should add money to Medicaid to hire more investigators.

[Emma Vigeland]

And it also is so frustrating to hear this come from him when this is supposed to be Congress's purview, Right. I mean, if there was that amount of waste, fraud and abuse, did that just crop up over the last year after you agreed to the last budget? Or are you just essentially saying, I mean, well, there always has been this billions and billions of waste, fraud and abuse. But we agreed to it previously and didn't call it out.

[Sam Cedar]

What they're trying to imply is. And this is what the implication is, right? That it's the beneficiaries who are committing the fraud? Yeah, because when you go down the street and you see somebody with. With. With Medicaid and they can go see a doctor, they want to put in your head that they have that illicitly. But there is no Medicaid fraud from beneficiaries.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yep.

[Matt Binder]

It's the same thing.

[Sam Cedar]

It is all providers.

[Matt Binder]

Yeah. With immigration, where they focus on illegal or violent criminals when actually they're trying to go after even people here documented.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's the same dynamic that Sam's describing. Where they want people to, in their grocery store, look around their look over their shoulder, like, am I being looked at differently because I may be Hispanic or Latino? Are people wondering if my papers are here? Can we just pull up this KFF map? Because I think it's important to see how. Where Medicaid is across the country. Apparently, in terms of percentage, the highest percentage is in New Mexico at 34%. That's the. If you scroll, put your cursor over it, you can see 34% there. But right next to it right afterwards is Louisiana, which is the home state of Mike Johnson. 32% of nearly a third of folks in his home state receive Medicaid coverage. This is 41 out of the 50 states now expanded Medicaid under the ACA. They're targeting these, I think, 20 million people who were added to the Medicaid rolls under the Affordable Care act, which is the easiest way for them to cut. But like, these are states that agreed to it and the federal government essentially subsidized it and then shared the administrative costs with these states because they basically, the calculation under the ACA was like, we're gonna offer this to them for free. And eventually even these Republican states are gonna say, well, we wanna give health care coverage to our constituents. And they added 20 million people. There are still nine states that held out. But Louisiana used to have a Democratic governor until recently, and they expanded and now it's one of the highest percentage states of Medicaid recipients, much higher than the national average of 1 in 5. So there you go. Mike Johnson, that's the representation that he is giving to his constituents.

[Sam Cedar]

Again, this is all about reducing the number of people on Medicaid. This is not about stopping fraud. There is no. If you want to stop fraud, you hire more investigators. You do not cut aid to beneficiaries. And then the other way that they're going to do this is, is in. This dovetails in. When they say fraud, they're not talking about who actually commits the fraud. The hospitals, the doctors, the ambulance companies, the medical device providers, etc. Etc. They're trying to imply that the people who have a Medicaid card, they're the ones who are committing the fraud. And then the next step is we're going to put a work requirement on them because they're just. All these lazy people are sitting around just so they can get their Medicaid. And we know, we've seen these experiments in Georgia. They ran a. They got a waiver to do a Medicaid experiment. And ProPublica, along with the current, did a deep dive into this. They had a program called Pathways, and it was an experimental alternative to Medicaid expansion. It has cost taxpayers more than $86 million. And there was a huge enrollment shortfall. Only 6,500 participants enrolled in the first 18 months of the program, which was about 75% less than the state had estimated for year one. I don't even know what that means. When you go a year and a half into also slowed down work, the state found it difficult to verify that people are working to keep their benefits. So Georgia has gone from monthly checks to annual ones. It's been a complete disaster.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. And also there are millions more expensive. More expensive. They don't care about that. I mean, we know that the like, COBRA is more expensive than if we were to have, like, temporarily expanded Medicare under during COVID but we didn't do that because of the pitfalls of allowing people to imagine a reality where the government provides them with health care. There are millions and millions of people on Medicaid who are working already. So these work requirements are basically meant to target that small percentage of people who need it for disabilities and for other reasons. And maybe they haven't been able to find work because our economy is crap, which the Republicans keep saying, by the way, even though now that Trump's in office, we're supposed to not care about it anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

This is the only state in the country that has work requirements for Medicaid, and it has been an unmitigated disaster. It cost more just to try and verify. And they couldn't get people to. And. And they have less people covered. Yep. Doesn't. It doesn't get people. Well, I was trying to get away without working, and now I'm going to go out and work now so I can get the Medicaid as if this is why people are not working.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. I mean, KFF did this analysis, too. In 2023, among adults under 65 with Medicaid who do not receive benefits from the Social Security Disability Programs, Supplemental Security Income, and Social Security Disability Insurance, and who are not also covered by Medicare, referred to hereafter as Medicaid adults, 92% were working full or part time, and the part time is 64% so, or not working due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability or school attendance. So they're talking about 8% of Medicaid adults.

[Sam Cedar]

And of that number you had retirees, you had people unable to find work or were not working for some other reason. So we're talking about a very small percentage of people who are not working because they just don't feel like it.

[Emma Vigeland]

We have the, it's the working poor. There was an analysis years ago that Walmart and McDonald's are some of the top employers of people who are on Medicaid and food stamps but working at those jobs. They're working. We live in a country where you can work full time and not be able to afford to pay your rent or come close to it, let alone if you have a family. So there are people who are working all the time and are still on Medicaid and food stamps.

[Matt Binder]

And corporations like Walmart know that they can work with the government to keep those people on a treadmill.

[Emma Vigeland]

They outsource it. It's actually a huge benefit to these mega corporations that they don't have to worry about providing a living wage for people because hey, the taxpayer will foot the bill. We should still, we should expand these programs, but we should also force corporations to pay a higher wage. You know what a real really efficient way to run the government would be, be to like raise the minimum wage, which we haven't done in years, even in this massive inflationary period on a federal level, so that perhaps other people would, wouldn't have to rely on some of these government programs when they're already employed and we're in such a low employment period. But the, but the cost of living is so intense that people are, are resentful of the economy. Rightly so.

[Sam Cedar]

Comms Calm makes art. I work while on Medicaid. The yearly coverage for my chronic illness last year was over $80,000. I make $20,000 annually and I'm stuck in low paying jobs. No way I could cover that without it. Nicola I have an awesome plan through Medicaid in Pennsylvania. I bust my ass. I still qualify, though just barely because I get paid crap, no benefits, in spite of working full time. I am not unique. I despise these people. I mean this is the story of Medicaid in this country. And what you're seeing is like a full court press by all the Republicans to come out and basically claim that the government across the board to justify Elon Musk's completely random firing spree fueled by, you know, who knows what Ketamine and blow and Twitter rage going through and firing government officials willy nilly. Firing people who are experts. They fire everybody who's gotten a promotion. So you're looking for government efficiency. You're basically your first fire are people who are probationary. That means people who have had a promotion in the past six months. You're firing the people who have been doing the best. Then you're firing new experts brought in to deal with things like AI and new medical devices. They had to rehire some of those people at the, at the fda. Then you're accidentally firing the people who are in charge of our nuclear weapons. Like, this is not a surgical thing. This is just simply an assault on government, period. And when they talk about fraud in Medicare, they make it sound like there are all these people walking around with Medicaid or Medicare fraud. The people walking around with Medicaid cards who don't deserve them, who have been fraudulent. But none of the fraud are beneficiaries. It's all suppliers. And then you get guys like this guy, a, you know, sort of a central casting evil capitalist from Canada, in this instance, an import who is opining about the wastefulness of government and knowing exactly zero about what he's talking about. Watch him get faced. He is on. He's on Coats live. Yeah, Laura Coates live. He's on with a guy named Tom Malinowski. I don't know who Malinowski is.

[Matt Binder]

He's a former rep from New Jersey.

[Sam Cedar]

Former representative from New Jersey.

[David Dayen]

Yes, we can't be surgically precision. There's no way to be surgically precision.

[Sam Cedar]

Sorry. We watch everything at a million speed.

[David Dayen]

Yes, you can't be surgically precision. There's no way to be surgically precision. You have to cut more because you just don't know there's no way to do it. Remember, we've never audited government for 100 years, never done this before. You may not like it.

[Emma Vigeland]

Tom, don't you think that's right, Tom?

[Sam Cedar]

What's your reaction to that?

[David Dayen]

Government's not like every agency of the federal government. It helps to know some things if we're going to have this debate. Every agency of the federal government is audited by independent inspectors general. USAID was audited over 60 times last year. And one of the first things that Donald Trump and Elon Musk did was to fire all of the inspectors general. They fired the auditors and they put in charge this billionaire with his 50 child interns who know absolutely nothing about the federal government. And Kevin, like what you're talking about it might work for a company that makes widgets because we can do without the company that makes widgets for a few months while you get in there and you restructure it. You can't do that to the FAA unless people aren't going to fly in planes for the next four or five months. You can't do that to the Defense Department unless you don't want to defend this country for the next four or five months. It's ridiculous that we're even having this argument. And I'm someone who believes there is waste in government and there are ways to get at it, but not by firing everybody first, shutting things down while you investigate. Do the investigation, work with Congress, work with these employees. Do it right. It's been done before, I would add.

[Sam Cedar]

You can't shut down food safety for months. You can't shut down environmental protections for months. I would. You could say that. Health insurance, you could go on and on and on. And to the extent that there is waste in government, we know what it is. We know what it is. It is lobbyists coming in, donors feeding at the trough. It is contracts to Tesla for $400 million worth of electric armored Pinto pickup pickup trucks that they have. I mean, that's where the waste is. The waste is a function of people. Just like that dude on that panel who's donating money and wants his tax breaks, wants his subsidies for his company. That's where all the waste is. I mean, it's this notion that. But they need to malign government and this is why it's been so bad. When the Democrats decided to join in, in this chorus in the 90s, it was inevitable that it was going to lead to this place where you start to create this notion of government being bad. And frankly, we were fortunate in some respects to have the American rescue plan in, you know, four years ago where people actually saw like a material benefit from the government so that there's still sort of like some muscle memory as to the government actually can help me.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah, right. I mean, and I think the planes falling out of the sky is a kind of visual metaphor for all of this, which is that we need more government, less austerity, more air traffic controllers, more workers keeping us safe, more people inspecting our food. If there's anything that comes out of this past horrific month, it's hopefully like a broad understanding and a resistance that's based in government being good. That is the one thing about this time around where you have a little bit more hope, where we're not focusing on Russia to begin Donald Trump's first term. We're focusing on the core tenets of government and how it functions and what it should do for people in our society. It's more educational this time around, even though it's more painful, I think, and they're way more extreme.

[Matt Binder]

And the economy is going to collapse, most likely.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, we'll get to that. We're going to get to some polling and consumer sentiment in a bit. I mean, I was saying I went into, what do you call it, key food and there was like no eggs. Oh, yeah, it was nuts. But before we get there, just to, before we move into the fun half, I just want to read this, a little bit of this piece by David Dayen in the Prospect yesterday. The coup has failed so that people have a little bit of hope. I mean, look, this is not, there's, there is no, no reason to stand down now. And this is, there's going to be a lot of people who are going to be hurt by what's going on with the Trump administration going forward over the next four years. A lot of people are going to lose their jobs, A lot of people are going to lose their health care. A lot of people are going to lose their support, food stamps. I mean, we're just across the board, we're going to increase suffering in this country. But in terms of, like our ability to build back, as it were, following a Trump administration day in proclaims that he believes that the, the coup, as it were, has failed. The idea of consolidating power and punishment of enemies, he believes has on some level fundamentally failed. He believes that there was an overreach. He's talking about every headline out of Washington being about Elon Musk. There's a sense among Americans that Trump is not keeping his eye on the ball. They are exhausted by Elon Musk. Sorry again. He writes. As the economy drifts towards a combination of higher unemployment and higher inflation, last seen in the presidency of the late Jimmy Carter, Trump will find it harder to simply sweep in and take power. Town hall head held by Rich McCormick and Republican in Georgia last week in a district that went for Trump 60 to 38 was a disaster, with angry constituents demanding he stand up for them and not let Trump control the federal budget and cut services for the needy. Other deep red districts have seen similar dynamics. In rural eastern Oregon, a town hall held by Representative Cliff Benz, Republican in Oregon, in a county that went 68% for Trump, the crowd shouted, tax Elon. Tax the wealthy. Tax the rich and Tax billionaires. In Oklahoma, constituents demanded that Representative Kevin Hearn, who won in November 60 to 34, put Musk under oath. In Wisconsin, Representative Glenn Grom won by a similar number. At a town hall near Oshkosh, he faced a parade of boos and shouts, as did fellow Wisconsinite Representative Scott Fitzgerald, Republican. I can tell you right now that no national group is saying we need to dedicate our resources in, you know, in Oklahoma or in, you know, a county that went 68% for Trump. Nobody's doing that. Nobody's going to their donors and say, if we just had funding. Right. I mean, this is. People are pissed. And now there's a small percentage of people are paying attention. Maybe these are Democrats and indivisible people going out to these town halls. I have no doubt that's the majority of them. These are not Trump voters who are doing that. But even if he won by a 68% to 38% or 60 to 38% margin, you don't want the news reminding people who are not paying attention to this that, hey, wait a second, not only are the egg prices high, which they know when they go to the store, but what's going on?

[Emma Vigeland]

Also, these are real people in, in these communities. These are real people who are going to be affected and see their economy destabilize. And even if they're the biggest MAGA person ever, they may go to soccer with another family and like, their kid is playing on the soccer team with parents, one of them who just lost their job, laid off in the federal workforce. So the idea that this can happen and not affect communities across the country, maybe we'll get into this in the fun half. There are almost a million federal workers in states that voted for Donald Trump. Over a million or almost a million. And I think a lot of these folks are going to run for office. We'll see if they have good politics. I mean, that's kind of more what I care about. But I do think that there are going to be, there's going to be a grassroots movement to have some of these fired federal workers challenge these Republicans.

[Sam Cedar]

Yep. All right, we're going to take a break, head into the fun half. And we've got some polling on the economy, which is really stunning. Yep. Just a reminder, it's your support that makes this show possible. You can become a member and join the majorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the free show, free of commercials, you get the fun half. You can IM us, we're going to take calls I will even read some of these IMs, like cinematology. Sam, if you couldn't find the eggs because it was nuts, I think you might have been in the wrong aisle.

[Emma Vigeland]

Huh?

[Sam Cedar]

Yep, I had that coming. Also, just coffee. Just coffee. Co op, fair trade coffee. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10 off. You can also buy the Majority report blend. Emma, no espn.

[Emma Vigeland]

We're on a bit of a hiatus for right now. Appreciate everybody understanding, but, you know, lots going on, so.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, yeah, tons going on Sunday.

[Emma Vigeland]

Yeah. Not much, except. Yeah, whatever. We get it. The Knicks can't beat the Cavs or the Celtics. It's sad. So moving on. Matt, what's happening on Left Reckoning?

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, avoiding eye contact tonight.

[Matt Binder]

I left wrecking. Talk to Elise Joshi. People might remember her as a Gen Z for Change activists who interrupted KJP during a climate speech, saying, hey, stop doing all these leases. And then we also have Van Jackson on to talk about the Pentagon cuts. He does the Undiplomatic podcast. And we'll talk about Ukraine and some other stuff, too. So. Patreon.com left reckoning tonight at 7:00 o'cl Eastern Time.

[Emma Vigeland]

Although, speaking of basketball, what a. What a comeback by the Timberwolves. Congrats to you guys.

[Matt Binder]

Anthony Edwards just swatting SJPS.

[Emma Vigeland]

SGA.

[Matt Binder]

SGA out like he's Kevin O'Leary, you know, also Canadians.

[Emma Vigeland]

Incredible.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, we'll see you in the fun half three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow, what? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second.

[David Dayen]

Hold on.

[Sam Cedar]

Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. Matt. What is up, everyone? Everyone. Fun Pat. No, me. You did it. Fun Pat.

[Emma Vigeland]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Mike Johnson]

Fun Pat.

[Sam Cedar]

Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Mike Johnson]

Fundamentally false.

[Emma Vigeland]

No. I'm sorry. Women.

[Sam Cedar]

Stop talking for a second. Let me finish. Where is this coming from?

[Emma Vigeland]

Dude?

[Sam Cedar]

But. Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A. Yes.

[David Dayen]

Hi.

[Sam Cedar]

Me. This me? Yes. Is this me? Is it me? It is you. Is this me?

[Mike Johnson]

Hello, it's me.

[Sam Cedar]

I think it is you. Who is you? No sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Mike Johnson]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm gonna go Skyline Libertarians. They're so stupid. Though common sense says of course.

[Emma Vigeland]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Emma Vigeland]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge. Matt.

[David Dayen]

I'm positively quivering.

[Sam Cedar]

I believe 96. I want to say. 8572-1035-5013-8911. Person.

[Emma Vigeland]

$3,400. $1,900. 5 4.

[Sam Cedar]

$3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game.

[Emma Vigeland]

Actually. You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this. You can call it satire.

[Mike Johnson]

Sam goes satire.

[Sam Cedar]

On top of it all. My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy. We seen you. All right, folks, folks, folks, folks.

[Emma Vigeland]

It's just the week being weeded out. Obviously.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Sundown. Guns out. I. I don't know. But you should know, people just don't.

[Matt Binder]

Like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Matt Binder]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Cedar]

It.

[Emma Vigeland]

I do love that.

[Sam Cedar]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. 2:00, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Emma Vigeland]

Outrageous.

[Sam Cedar]

Like, what is wrong with you?

[Emma Vigeland]

Love you.

[Sam Cedar]

Bye. Love you. Bye.