We're going to have to have some hard decisions. We've got to bring the Democrats in and talk about Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare. There's hundreds of billions of dollars to be saved, and we know how to do it. We just have to have the stomach to actually take those challenges on. [00:00:16] That was Georgia Representative Richard McCormick on Fox business yesterday. As you saw, he was calling for cuts to entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. But it gets worse because as you're about to see in the full clip, McCormick is arguing that those should be cut instead of cutting the Pentagon's budget. [00:00:35] Take a look. Well, I mean, what is the budget for the Pentagon? I mean, you know, Doge co-leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are set to meet with GOP lawmakers this week. Elon is proposing to cut the Pentagon's $824 billion budget after it failed [00:00:53] its seventh audit in a row. We can't just talk about the military, though. The military can do some things better. We can save some money just in the way that we're going to be careful that we don't decrease our abilities because China is right on our heels. However, if you talk about 75% of the budget, 75% is non-discretionary. [00:01:10] We're going to have to have some hard decisions. We've got to bring the Democrats in and talk about Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare. There's hundreds of billions of dollars to be saved, and we know how to do it. We just have to have the stomach to actually take those challenges on. Do you believe that the defense budget should be cut? [00:01:27] I'm not a big fan of that. I think we could do things a lot better. But when you talk about what's happening in Taiwan, what's happening in the Middle East, what's happening with Israel, what's happening in Ukraine, this is an unstable place, an unstable time. We have to be very careful. [00:01:44] And it's an unstable place and an unstable time. We'll get to the Pentagon later. But let's quickly remind ourselves that the Pentagon, which has a budget of around $900 billion, recently announced it has failed its seventh straight audit. [00:02:01] As for entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, social safety net programs that people who are the most vulnerable among us rely on. Only time will tell what will happen there, but there are some pretty ominous warning signs on the horizon. [00:02:16] One such sign is the nomination of Doctor Oz to lead the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Odd. Oz has previously chimed in on Medicare policy. Oz coauthored a 2020 opinion column in Forbes arguing for a universal health [00:02:34] coverage system in which every American not covered by Medicaid would be enrolled in a private Medicare Advantage plan. The coverage expansion, the column said, would be financed by an affordable 20% payroll tax. [00:02:51] An archived version of a 2022 oz Senate campaign website suggested that Oz still strongly supported Medicare Advantage, promising he would expand access to private sector plans expanded by President Trump and beloved by [00:03:08] seniors for their low costs and high quality that could be available to all Americans who want them. It's also worth noting that mere days before the election, Mike Johnson was caught on camera stating this. [00:03:23] We want to take a blowtorch to the regulatory state, okay. I mean, these agencies have been weaponized against the people, and it's crushing the free market. It's like a boot on the neck of job creators and entrepreneurs and risk takers. And so health care is one of the sectors. But we need this across the board. [00:03:38] And Trump's going to go big. I mean, he's only going to have one more term, right. Can't run for reelection. And so he's going to be thinking about legacy. And we're going to fix these things. - No Obamacare. - No. No. Yeah. The ACA is so deeply ingrained. We need massive reform to make this work. [00:03:55] And we got a lot of ideas on how to do that. And then in March of this year, Trump floated cuts to entitlements on CNBC. Take a look. So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, [00:04:12] in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. There's tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. [00:04:29] John, it's not looking good. I think some of these programs that people desperately rely on, people look forward to, and in some cases, like Social Security, have paid into their entire lives. These could be on the chopping block. But the Pentagon, we're not touching the Pentagon. - What do you make of this? - No. Definitely not. [00:04:45] Look, you know, I don't want to start, like, you know, a big repetitive conversation about the framing of the word entitlements or whatever. I always hate when that's applied to the social safety net, but, you know, you know, who really does seem to feel entitled to hundreds of billions of dollars. Defense contractors? They sure think that's an entitlement. [00:05:02] And we don't need to be in a big war or anything. Like there's always potentially a war with China or whatever, particularly when you put people like Donald Trump in office. There's always potentially a war with Iran coming. If you put someone like Pete Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense. [00:05:17] Like that's all it takes is hypothetically, we could get into some sort of war, so we will never cut that down. Instead, we're going to cut the stuff that actually goes to you and your family. And conservatives, I guess, didn't get that. This is what Republicans were going to do, even though I don't think Republicans [00:05:35] really tried very hard to hide that they were going to be cutting these programs. As you showed in that video, Mike Johnson spent literally the run up to the election be like, oh no, we can't wait. We're going to cut the regulations, basically laws that stop corporations from screwing your family over. [00:05:51] And we're going to cut the government funding that goes to you and your family. He was excited for it. Now you have representatives like that, that one douche jumping out and being like, we're going to. I love the way they frame it, Jordan. We're going to have to have hard conversations. We just need the stomach to cut all this stuff that I don't think [00:06:07] ever should have existed at all. That's not going to be a hard conversation. A hard conversation for you would be seriously talking about cutting the government or cutting the the, the military. It's so hard that you won't even begin to have it. So like the the pretend concern for the things that they run on and try [00:06:23] to do every time they get in office, I am so sick of it. And I hope that this time conservatives can can see that this is what's happening. Yeah, let's go through a couple of these areas that they want to reform or cut or privatize. [00:06:41] Pushing for Medicare Advantage plans. If people are unfamiliar, it is Medicare Part C, you have A for general care, B for pharmaceuticals and C for bells and whistles through a privatized plan. [00:06:56] The government already subsidizes those plans to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. That goes right into private insurance companies. You get an addendum to your plan. They purportedly cover more, but there have been case after case after case, [00:07:13] what many outlets have covered all of the different ways private insurers have denied claims for people on Medicare Advantage that should be all encompassing between parts A, B, and C, it should be everything, but it's not. [00:07:29] And this is something that the right wants to push because it's a way to further enrich their donors health insurance companies and just transfer billions of dollars of your tax dollars to the pockets of CEOs and investors. [00:07:44] It is such a scam, and they know it, but they're pushing Medicare Advantage because it's a way for companies to profit off of the government on the Defense Department. Now, we all know any rational person knows that is so bloated compared to the [00:08:01] next ten largest militaries in the world and their defense spending. It's astronomical and they benefit from it, like you say, with defense contractors, seeing that as an entitlement is getting handout after handout in government contracts. But good news, John. These tough conversations are happening because Trump offered Steven Feinberg, [00:08:19] a billionaire with investments in defense companies, the role of deputy defense secretary. No military experience, just an investor with a direct stake in the outcome of many Pentagon contracts. - So. Whoa, wait. - Hold up. - Jordan. - Are you the swamp? You seem to be against populism. Okay, I don't understand. [00:08:37] Like that's what's in. And this is populism. You fill your cabinet half with people who bark at you on TV every day, and then the other half with billionaires. Populism? Yeah. I mean, even the ACA thing. Obamacare. [00:08:54] Mike Johnson just saying no more Obamacare. Think about the realities of what that looks like. How does that help the average working person? Your kid who's 23, suddenly doesn't have health insurance anymore because it removes the provision [00:09:09] within Obamacare that extends coverage under your parents plan to 26. If you have a preexisting condition, you don't have healthcare anymore. I mean, I don't want I don't want this to happen. But if they do do it, if they are successful, the backlash that [00:09:24] that might create after they these people have been conditioned to think that Obamacare is a bad thing. Okay. I mean, that's that's political consequences for you. So we'll see. We'll see. I don't think they'll touch that because it is just generally agreeable. [00:09:40] Those types of things are good. The marketplace is probably where they would go. They would probably just further gut the the marketplace, remove or weaken or lessen subsidies for those marketplace plans. [00:09:56] And in reality, all of those people who rely on marketplace plans are just going to go without health insurance. - Yeah. - Yeah. I think there's also a lot of young people that have never lived consciously in the time, you know, before the ACA. They don't know, like if you were to sit them down and I don't know, [00:10:14] have them watch sicko or whatever, remember that documentary and like explain to them what used to be legal. I think that it would blow their mind. And I think it's worth having that conversation because, as you say, that seems to be the path forward that the Republicans are trying to take us down. [00:10:31] Yeah. It's disastrous. It's it's nightmarish. But maybe we'll all get Medicare Advantage plans. If you enjoyed this video, that's because of our members. They make us independent. They make us strong and they make us honest. Become a member today by hitting the join button below.