Is this going to help make America healthy again? No. This isn't. We're spending $1,600 a month on this drug. There's a bill right now before Congress that will make it available to everybody who's overweight, which is 74% of the American population. [00:00:15] That alone will cost $3 trillion a year. If we spent about one fifth of that giving good food, three meals a day to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight. [00:00:34] RFK Jr, Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, is very motivated to get Americans healthy to help them lose weight and beat the obesity epidemic. Now, despite various opinions from various people on how to do that. [00:00:54] RFK Jr is not buying what Ozempic is selling. So Ozempic and other GPL one drugs like Wegovy trulicity mounjaro like there's like a bunch of these drugs have been a topic of discussion lately, [00:01:10] especially over the past year, because it has been utilized as a way of suppressing appetite and helping people lose weight. Now, the drug's original purpose, of course, is to treat type two diabetes and prediabetes, but it could also be used to help individuals lose weight. [00:01:27] And in fact, many people now use it for weight loss due to its appetite suppressing effects, including, by the way, Elon Musk, who's been pretty open about this. I'll give you an example. So he tweeted or posted this on X around the holidays. [00:01:44] It's a picture of him looking kind of svelte, wearing a Santa, outfit. And he's been, again, fairly open regarding his support of the drug and in previous images that people were mocking him for. [00:01:59] He obviously had more weight on him. And so he says nothing would do more to improve the health, lifespan and quality of life for Americans than making GLP inhibitors super low cost to the public. And Musk shares this opinion with another potential Trump cabinet member, Doctor Oz, [00:02:19] who stated in a video last year on Instagram, quote, I think the amount of good done by these medications, by helping people lose weight and improve their cardiovascular system, and it might have long term benefits in a lot of other areas as well, where [00:02:35] obesity causes inflammation is massive. Now compare Elon's opinion or Doctor Oz's opinion to that of RFK Jr. He says there's a huge push to sell Ozempic to the American people. They make this drug in Denmark and in Denmark. [00:02:53] They do not recommend it for diabetes or for obesity, they recommend dietary and behavioral changes. And earlier this month, Kennedy told CNBC's Jim Cramer the first line of response should be lifestyle. It should be eating well, making sure that you don't get obese. [00:03:11] Now, he did say that drugs like Ozempic do have a place in the American medical establishment and community, but didn't go into much detail about what he exactly meant by that. He didn't elaborate. And according to the New York Times, these contrasting views between Musk, Oz and [00:03:28] Kennedy are two sides of an issue plaguing health and nutrition researchers as well. There seems to be some concern about what these drugs could do to the human body long term. And look, I don't have a strong opinion on this because I'm not a medical expert, [00:03:45] and I know just about as much as anyone else knows about these drugs and what kind of harm or lack of harm they will cause to the human body long term. But I am really curious what you think about this ongoing debate, Jake. And I want to be clear. It's not like they're fighting about this right now. It's just that, you know, it's interesting that there are varying opinions [00:04:05] within Trump's circle on varying issues, including this one. Yeah, I do have strong opinions about this because I, too am an overweight American. Okay. Anyway, so we've got a fight here, between Elon Musk and Doctor Oz [00:04:22] on one side and RFK Jr on the other side feels a little uneven. One side has a Turk, the other one doesn't. Maybe I should call up RFK Jr and join the fight against Ozempic. So even these odds a little bit. Okay. It's not as Anna said, it's not actually a fight they're not going to do. [00:04:40] They're not going to get in the ring. They're not taking shots at each other online. They just disagree. And there's nothing wrong with disagreeing. In fact, I like that they disagree. Yeah. Me too. Because in the establishment days, whether it's Bush or Clinton or Obama or Biden. They said all these guys in both parties, they'd have like these fake team [00:04:59] of rivals, and then they would literally never disagree the whole four years. Right. And certainly they would never disagree in public. That was unheard of. Right. And it was always fake, fake, fake. They just always borrow some Republican who is a corporate Republican and put him in a Democratic cabinet in an irrelevant position or vice versa. [00:05:18] Right. So this is an actual team of rivals. And, you know, the bigger fights are Elon Musk and Steve Bannon and the tech bros versus the populist MAGA guys, etc.. This is a xiaochao fight, a smaller fight, right? But it's not even a fight because it's just a disagreement. [00:05:34] But again, they're mixing it up and they have different points of view. And and I hope that when they get to actually decision making that they hear out everybody's point of view, not just these insiders, because we're going to need some scientists in that room and some doctors in that room to help RFK Jr and Doctor Oz make their decisions. [00:05:53] Now RFK Jr, just to be clear, is above Doctor Oz. So Doctor Oz would be, working for RFK Jr if he gets the Health and Human Services job. If RFK does, in terms of ozempic and what I actually think of it. [00:06:09] Look, guys, I'm super conservative on that stuff. I usually like to let people try things first, see how it goes, give it some time. Did they all die? Did they all die? Were there terrible complications? No. Okay, then maybe I'm still iffy on Lasik surgery. I'm still trying to decide that one. [00:06:26] - You're nuts. - You're crazy. Okay, everyone, stop listening to Jake on this. He's. His opinion is insane. Okay, okay. Hold on, hold on. Team of rivals. Team of rivals. Two Tigers can't be on the same mountain. Okay. I learned that on the show today. [00:06:42] - All right. - So. Seriously, guys. So, yeah, that part of it is me really not wanting to take something overly new, etc. But the other part of it is it suppresses your appetite. I don't really want my appetite suppressed, so that's not. No, it sounds awesome. Yeah, it sounds so good. [00:06:59] - I'm not interested in that. - But anyways. Like, look. I'm going to be honest, I, I don't know what the long term health ramifications might be. I'm fortunate that my weight is at a healthy weight, but if it were not at a healthy weight, I would do it immediately. [00:07:14] Like, I wouldn't even question it. I know, but like it is what it is. I'm willing to take the risk and a lot of people are and don't regret taking that risk. - At least not yet. - Yeah. Do we have a poll on this? We do. Yeah. Let's do a snap poll on the live chat and wherever else. [00:07:31] Oh, no, we don't. - Oh, we. - Don't. We have a poll on another story. Not this one. Sorry. Okay, well, maybe we'll do a Snapchat. Snapchat. Snap poll in the chat. Okay. And maybe we won't as the fun part. You'll get to find out. All right. Anyways, so on whether you should take Ozempic or not. [00:07:47] Look, most importantly, there's a from a policy perspective, I think there's a really easy answer here, which is, push a healthier lifestyle first and most. Right. So RFK Jr on that portion, not the vaccines and other things [00:08:03] is right about that. And that's that's an easy win. Totally correct. By the way. Everybody's going to Michelle Obama to apology after they now agree with RFK Jr on a healthier lifestyle, better eating, etc. That's guaranteed. And then if you've got serious medical condition, [00:08:20] like you're worried about diabetes, etc., then and you have to take some, you're closer to the point where you have to take something like Ozempic then take it right. If your doctor is suggesting it and it's going to make you a healthier in the short run, you got to do it. So I'm not pushing it at all. I'm not taking it right. [00:08:38] But it's a balancing act. You don't have to jump to it right away. And it doesn't have to be your only option. And eating healthy is also not your only option. So let's do it one step at a time. In a way that's logical. Yeah. Look, I'm in favor of a multi-pronged approach, and I think everyone's right. [00:08:55] So in this case, look, RFK Jr makes a really good point about the quality of our food, right? So I know a lot of his messaging in this story has been about personal responsibility and making lifestyle changes. I agree with him on that as well. [00:09:11] But listen, in some cases you can make all the lifestyle choices necessary. But if the quality of our food is garbage, right? And if the FDA is as corrupt as it is, I mean, how many, how many different types of foods in recent months have been recalled because of the lack of, you know, [00:09:28] food safety regulations? It's just it's so infuriating. So he's right about the FDA. He's right about improving the quality of food. But I think what also often gets left out of these conversations is that there are people who have medical conditions that force them to take pharmaceutical drugs. [00:09:45] They have no other choice. And some of those drugs unfortunately, make them gain weight, right? Regardless of how hard they tried to avoid gaining weight. A good example is Freddie DeBoer. Excellent writer over at Substack. If you're looking for someone new to subscribe to, but he's been writing openly [00:10:02] about, you know, his, you know, mental health condition and how he needs to take. I think he has bipolar disorder and he has to take medication for it, obviously, but that medication has all sorts of side effects, including, you know, weight gain. And so it's a lot more complicated than I think the media would have you believe. [00:10:22] It's not just about personal responsibility. It's also about the quality of food. And I think there's nothing wrong with having these types of drugs like Ozempic available, as you know, a last resort or something that people can use as an option to slim down. [00:10:39] And by the way, these drugs are not for everyone. Some people have tried these drugs to lose weight and it just didn't work out for them. The side effects were too unbearable. It makes you incredibly nauseous in a lot of cases. And so having options available, I think is a good thing. So in this case, when it comes to Elon Musk or RFK Jr, I will allow it. [00:11:01] Okay. It has been allowed. So I'll add my last $0.02 here even though things have already been allowed. So that's kind of a final word. So number one, I agree with Anna about the FDA. If and remember, RFK Jr is an environmental lawyer [00:11:17] and he believes in regulation. And so they should have more regulations at the FDA to make sure that we're not at toxic food is not getting into our food supply. That's a core job of the government to protect us from things like that. But the one thing that I hope they get to so far, I haven't seen any too much talk [00:11:36] about it, but is critical to our weight and our health in America and is the least discussed thing. And the one thing Bill Maher and I agree most about, which is high fructose corn sirup. That's a giant problem that they started putting that in our food. [00:11:51] It's mainly because of the farm subsidies that we have, and it's much worse than regular sugar. And if we could have a national conversation about high fructose corn sirup and then take it out of our food, we'd be infinitely better off. That's the lowest hanging fruit, if you will. [00:12:07] I think that's the easiest way to go, and probably the one that will have the biggest effect. And I'm really curious if they're going to prevent RFK Jr from having that conversation, or if he's going to be able to actually push that forward. So by the way, it turns out we got our poll. Have you or would you try ozempic. [00:12:26] And 68% say no. 31% say yes. So apparently it will not be allowed. Okay. There you have it. - All right. - Decisions have been made. That's why you got to watch the show live. 6 to 8 p.m. Eastern every day.