Ben (7:29)
The movie Captain Phillips. I'm the captain now. This is what it looks like when people take back the power from corporate media and we the people get out the truth. You see, the key thing, this is a major distinction. What did corporate media want to talk about? All of Donald Trump's stuff and Trump's distractions. Right. Sombreros blame things on illegal immigrants, blame things on transgender people. You can't buy into that framework because it's like the expression, when you kind of play with pigs in the mud, you're always going to get dirty. You're not going to win by playing in Donald Trump and maga's framing, when what you have to do is you have to assert unapologetically your framing of the issues, which is the truthful one, the Affordable Care act subsidies are about to expire, and your health care, if you're on an Affordable Care act plan, is about to go up three, four, five times, you're going to be paying now close to 25 to $35,000 a year. The Midas Touch Network's been posting in every single district what that's going to look like. So, for example, in Maga, Mike Johnson's district, Louisiana's fourth, if you were paying $541 a month, which is still candidly expensive for a couple earning $82,800 a year in 2026, you're going to be paying $2,180 a month. For real, who in the world can afford that? Even if you're making more than 82 or $85,000 a year, who can afford that? So we've been going district by district and just we've been telling the truth about what it is you go to. Mike Lawler, MAGA Republican from New York, if you're earning $82,800 annually, you were paying $511 a month. You're now paying $1,633 a month. If the Affordable Care act subsidies are not extended, you can go district by district as well. Representative Brian Mast, you will be paying $2,316 a month. And again, just lead with the truth. And also, one of the things that Democrats have been saying loudly, proudly, and truthfully is, we're here, we showed up to work. We want to do this in public. While the MAGA Republicans have taken paid vacations as they've left Washington, D.C. as Maga Mike, as Donald Trump, as Senator Thune, the MAGA Republican leaders, they refuse to even talk to Democrats yet alone negotiate. The Democrats have been saying over and over again, let's do this in public in front of the cameras. Transparency and messaging. Transparency has been very important and very successful. Also, I think it's important to use Donald Trump's words against him. So when Donald Trump says that he has brought in $17 trillion, but then the White House says they've run out of money, which is one of the causes of the shutdown and is one of the reasons that things are difficult right now, because we don't have money. You take Donald Trump's words, you use it against them, and you say, but you said you brought in $17 trillion. You said you were a great deal maker. Any fifth grader knows that the United States government relies on the political parties talking with each other. So unless you have the votes in the Senate and the House, where you don't have to talk to the other party, which is not what Republicans have, you have to talk. That's literally the system, and that's what adults do. Regardless of if that was the system, you talk, you try to make deals, especially when the deal that Democrats are trying to make is not like what MAGA Republicans were trying to do under Biden to get pork for their individual districts. And former President Biden was like, look, I'm the president of this country. And in many ways, the Inflation Reduction act and Biden's plans helped red states more than blue states. But Democrats aren't asking for, like, handouts for blue states. In many ways, they're advocating more for red states. Right? Give everybody the Affordable Care act, tax subsidies that should exist, extend them, they exist. And then here's the thing. When Donald Trump and MAGA are like, we want our own plan. Okay, well, you're in charge, so release what your plan is. You go back to the first Trump administration. His healthcare plan was coming in two weeks. We've had a lot of ICE agents disappearing human beings and sending them into concentration camps in this regime. We've had Donald Trump waking up and deciding to tariff the world one day, change tariffs another day, tariff this day, we've had a lot of Donald Trump taking credit for wars that he never resolved and whining about escalators or the teleprompters not working. We have a lot of Donald Trump calling up the military to invade blue cities. Okay, but I. That's not what the American people want. American people want things to be more affordable. American people want to keep their health care. So come up with your plan. I believe, and I think that there's something better than the Affordable Care act, and I believe that's called universal health care. I think it should be free. I look at the Affordable Care act payments right now, I think they're too high. But it's the system we have. It was better than when there were 20 million plus Americans who were uninsured, who would go medically bankrupt and just die. They wouldn't have insurance. So the subsidies are the best we've got right now. I support universal health care, Trump and MAGA doesn't. They just lie and say we're going to decrease the prices by 1,600%, by 2,000%. They make up fake percentages where you literally can't reduce something more than 100%. But if you've got a better plan, then come up with it and for now, extend the subsidies and then roll out whatever your plan is. But stop defrauding the American people. Stop saying you've signed executive orders to implement most favored nation clauses where our pharmaceuticals will be as cheap as the cheapest price that that pharmaceutical company charges people in another country. You said that back in May. I remember you and I were in New York. Brett and Jordyn for the Webbies. I remember when Trump specifically posted starting today, most favored nation. That would be great if that was done. Could you imagine if drugs were going to be charged at $1, say in Canada or a place in Europe? It's charged $1 in the United States, but the reason it's charged $1 in those places is that they did what Biden was trying to do, which is to have the government negotiate the prices on behalf of everybody to lower the prices. And in many of these countries, health care is the right. They have universal health care to begin with, but then it's just a fraud on us. And that's the Trump plan or what? Two weeks ago he posted AI videos of himself talking about med bed, super secret ufo, alien from outer space technology that you go on this MRI like machine and it cures your cancer and all of your illnesses. Stop. Just act like a grown up. The American people are on Medicare or Medicaid or an Affordable Care act plan. Like, we're not stupid. We know we need one of these things. So stop with the, oh, we're going to make it better, then make it better, but for now, extend the subsidies. That wasn't my trial lawyer shtick, by the way. That was just me riffing a little bit there, Brett and Jordy. But I do want to show Trump Oval Office pressers, but why don't I toss it over to you, Brett, there? Because I'm speaking a lot and I want to toss it up, but that's my overall view of framing where we are right now.
