Speaker 1: Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio the George
Speaker 1: Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong is Joe Getty arm Strong
Speaker 1: and Jetty Enough he Armstrong and Getty.
Speaker 2: The Democrats, remember the Democrats, they shut down the government
Speaker 2: last month.
Speaker 1: They stink caved on the shutdown.
Speaker 2: One of the Democrats who crumbled like a granola bar
Speaker 2: in your backpack is New Hampshire Senator and the joker's
Speaker 2: proud aunt, Jeans Shahan.
Speaker 3: Democrats drew a line in the sand. They said we
Speaker 3: are not going over this. And today, after forty one days,
Speaker 3: they pulled out a shovel and a bucket and they
Speaker 3: ate all that sand and got.
Speaker 1: Nothing for it. Isn't that great? That is really interesting.
Speaker 2: I didn't watch a daily show I need to today, I
Speaker 2: guess John Stewart just went on epic f bomb rant
Speaker 2: and anger over the Democrats caving on the shutdown, which
Speaker 2: it's interesting.
Speaker 1: On one hand, law that they wrote and passed.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they think the Democrats were gonna
Speaker 2: hold out and get something. Yeah, I just don't understand
Speaker 2: how they think they were going to win that.
Speaker 4: By starving the poor people and not paying the truth.
Speaker 1: Well, but that wasn't working, don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think for whatever reason, good or bad, you know,
Speaker 2: normal people. I don't think we're reacting that much to
Speaker 2: the whole snap benefits thing. The media was talking about it.
Speaker 2: But the flights, Yes, that got people's attention. That's when
Speaker 2: the shutdown became a topic for conversation, when all of
Speaker 2: a sudden the airports were going to be crazy. Maybe
Speaker 2: until Thanksgiving that became so as that grew, you think
Speaker 2: that the pressure was going to be on the Republicans
Speaker 2: the cave on Obamacare. Maybe, I don't think.
Speaker 4: I'd really like to talk to John Stewart about how
Speaker 4: he became so ill informed or misguided on that. Gus,
Speaker 4: he's a very bright guy. Meanwhile, I'll tell you who's
Speaker 4: getting the blame on the left is so old Chuck Schumer.
Speaker 4: Here's a montage.
Speaker 2: How much of this do you put at the feet
Speaker 2: of Charles Schumer?
Speaker 1: Most of it?
Speaker 3: I mean, he's the leader of the Senate, but it's
Speaker 3: time for him to be replaced.
Speaker 1: He is not meeting the moment.
Speaker 2: He's out of touch with where the party's base is.
Speaker 1: You know, respect his service, but time to move on.
Speaker 2: I think Chuck Schumer his days are over. Yes, Chuck
Speaker 2: Schumer should go.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to say Chuck Schumer should go. I voted
Speaker 1: for many times.
Speaker 5: The loudest criticism here that the party couldn't keep it
Speaker 5: together because the leader, Senator Chuck Schumer, is weak.
Speaker 2: If I was a Democrat, I would want Chuck Schumer
Speaker 2: to go to just because he's old and you know,
Speaker 2: just ain't got no vim or vigor. But what was
Speaker 2: he supposed to do? Getting back to the same conversation
Speaker 2: we just had. I also heard one pundit, and I
Speaker 2: think this is probably too saying you don't tell senators
Speaker 2: what to do. It's not like being the leader of
Speaker 2: the House where you have some power to really force
Speaker 2: House members to do this or that. And they're up
Speaker 2: for election every two years. Every senator thinks they're going
Speaker 2: to be president someday they got a six year term.
Speaker 1: You don't tell them what to do.
Speaker 2: You can be the messenger for them, you can get
Speaker 2: them together and give speeches, but you don't control them.
Speaker 4: Right, They're designed by the Constitution to be slow, careful,
Speaker 4: and deliberate and not be bullied anyway. So I thought,
Speaker 4: you know, to dovetail off of that a couple of
Speaker 4: really interesting stories I've come across about Obamacare in general,
Speaker 4: because this fake fight was about continuing COVID air subsidies
Speaker 4: that the Democrats themselves had sunseted, which is something nobody's
Speaker 4: talking about. But quoting now from the fabulous California Globe.
Speaker 4: And last week they've reported on the hackers, crooks and
Speaker 4: bots who'd use stolen identities to fleece California's colleges and universities,
Speaker 4: ripping off taxpayers for billions of dollars.
Speaker 1: And that report was really really interesting.
Speaker 4: It is literally billions and billions of dollars going to
Speaker 4: like hackers in the Russian mob and the rest of it,
Speaker 4: who would use bots to.
Speaker 1: Create nonexistent college students.
Speaker 4: Anyway, they Right now we learn of another Obama era
Speaker 4: bot scam, this one in Obamacare. And this is actually
Speaker 4: quoting the Blaze. Joe Biden's pandemic era subsidies turned Obamacare
Speaker 4: into corporate welfare, sending billions to insurers for patients who
Speaker 4: never file a single claim. At issue are the generous
Speaker 4: subsidies the Biden administration created for the Affordable Care Act
Speaker 4: policies sweeteners that are slated to expire this December. That's
Speaker 4: what this fight was about, making healthcare essentially free for
Speaker 4: millions of Americans. These policies have sent enrollment in Obamacare
Speaker 4: plans skyrocketing, but a recent study found that they have
Speaker 4: also sparked a curious phenomenon an estimated twelve million enrollees
Speaker 4: twelve million without a single claim. No doctor visit, no
Speaker 4: lab test, no prescription, no sprained ankle, nothing in the
Speaker 4: entire year of twenty twenty four Obamacare expansion, creating an
Speaker 4: explosion of phantom patients, including at least six point four
Speaker 4: million of them found so far in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4: Among those new now eligible for zero premium plans with
Speaker 4: lower no deductible to study found quote that number increased
Speaker 4: nearly sevenfold. A whopping forty percent of rollees in fully
Speaker 4: subsidized plans fully subsidized had no claims in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty four, a loon taxpayer send at least
Speaker 4: thirty five billion dollars to insurers.
Speaker 1: They got the money for.
Speaker 4: People who paid no premiums and never used their plan.
Speaker 4: And you heard that before? How have we not heard
Speaker 4: that before?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 4: No kidding, And they point out Katie Grimes, the fabulous
Speaker 4: writer at the California Globe editor points out the entire
Speaker 4: goal of Obamacare was to create a system the crashes
Speaker 4: and burns, forcing the US into government controlled socialized medicine
Speaker 4: correct and they're getting close to succeeding. Obama himself admitted
Speaker 4: that beyond the scenes, we've all heard those tapes.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 4: Anyway, one more semi related story that I found super interesting,
Speaker 4: and again, you know, I'm sorry, I've got to get
Speaker 4: to the punchline prematurely. It's impossible for a citizen to
Speaker 4: keep track of everything this massive Labrinthian government does. How
Speaker 4: can you be a responsible citizen and hold your government
Speaker 4: to account when.
Speaker 1: You can't comprehend one one hundredth of what it does.
Speaker 4: That's why your system was designed to have limited government.
Speaker 4: And you know that that ship has sailed moons ago. Anyway,
Speaker 4: this is from Alicia Finley in the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 4: who's absolutely brilliant. Speaking of terrific women in journalism.
Speaker 1: Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
Speaker 4: Rama Manual of Chicago, Mayor of Chicago, had a three
Speaker 4: hundred and seventy million dollar deficit in twenty thirteen. One
Speaker 4: of the main chunks of that deficit was one hundred
Speaker 4: and ninety five million dollars subsidizing health insurance for its retirees,
Speaker 4: many of whom were too young to qualify for Medicare
Speaker 4: because if you work in government, you get to retire
Speaker 4: unnaturally young. That one hundred and ninety five million dollars
Speaker 4: was projected to increase to five hundred and forty million
Speaker 4: by two years ago. At this point, as pension payments
Speaker 4: were ballooning. So what did Immanuel do. He dumped all
Speaker 4: the city's retirees onto the Obama Care exchanges, where federal
Speaker 4: subsidies can reduce premium payments.
Speaker 1: Voila. Chicago's two point.
Speaker 4: One billion dollar unfunded retiree health care liability vanished. Now
Speaker 4: US taxpayers pick up the tab for Chicago's retirees.
Speaker 1: In their fifties and early sixties.
Speaker 4: Detroit, Stockton, California, San Bernardino, California, Blue cities learned that
Speaker 4: they could offer their public employee unions unbelievable retiree healthcare plans,
Speaker 4: and then as their deficits exploded, they dumped them onto Obamacare.
Speaker 4: When Democrats say, we need zillions of dollars of covid era, huh,
Speaker 4: subsidies to continue to Obamacare. That's why. That's one of
Speaker 4: the big reasons why.
Speaker 2: But if you just are kind of an average voter
Speaker 2: and you take in the shutdown in Obamacare through the
Speaker 2: mainstream media.
Speaker 6: Was.
Speaker 2: Evil Republicans wanting to kick people off their healthcare just
Speaker 2: out of meanness.
Speaker 4: Right right, because we want people to be sick and
Speaker 4: stock if possible.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: What I like is a kid is sick and hungry. Boy,
Speaker 2: does that help me sleep at night? Now?
Speaker 6: A kid who's just sick, that's good. Or kid is
Speaker 6: just starving, that's pretty good. But by god, if we
Speaker 6: conservatives can get both, then we just chuckle.
Speaker 1: They just love it.
Speaker 2: You show me an eight year old boy at a
Speaker 2: sprained ankle and no food. That makes me happy.
Speaker 4: Oh man, you're bringing a tear to my eye real quick.
Speaker 4: I've got another couple of statistics for you. But afterward,
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Speaker 1: Easy thing to say.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's what Biden said the other day, it's
Speaker 2: what Schumer's been saying, and Gavin Newsoman himself said that.
Speaker 1: The hunger is the point.
Speaker 2: I mean, you can say all you want about your
Speaker 2: opponents and how they're They might not be as caring
Speaker 2: as you think they ought to be, or they're misguided
Speaker 2: to whatever. But to claim that anybody in particular really
Speaker 2: gets a kick out of making somebody hungry, I mean
Speaker 2: it's just nuts.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, at the risk of overusing this word today, and
Speaker 4: I think, am it's perverse, It's I mean.
Speaker 2: It's so what are you talking. You're trying to portray
Speaker 2: me as someone who I enjoy people being hungry. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean we have t shirts that say starve the lazy,
Speaker 2: which I fully.
Speaker 1: Back as a theory.
Speaker 2: But the idea is get off your ass and work,
Speaker 2: not I want you to starve to death.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: What about sick children, Well, if they're a sick child,
Speaker 4: they're not within the group of the lazy obviously. EMO
Speaker 4: Ron's all right. Quick word from our friends is simply
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Speaker 1: Hurrah. So final note on this topic. Few you know.
Speaker 4: Public employees in a lot of places can retire in
Speaker 4: their fifties or early sixties. They get really nice pensions,
Speaker 4: some of whom they've kicked into those pensions to share
Speaker 4: the cost, but subsidized health insurance until they become eligible
Speaker 4: for Medicare, but governments, few of them have actually set
Speaker 4: aside realistic commounts, some money for their retire's future healthcare costs.
Speaker 4: The Reason Foundation does great work, reports that state and
Speaker 4: local governments face almost a trillion dollars in retiree medical
Speaker 4: obligations in twenty twenty three. That's about three thousand dollars
Speaker 4: per American citizen. They've got that giant liability liabilities are
Speaker 4: the largest in Blue states. New York is fifteen thousand
Speaker 4: dollars per capita in essentially unfunded liabilities. New Jersey it's
Speaker 4: almost eleven thousand, Connecticut it's about seven thousand, which lets
Speaker 4: workers retire early with generous health benefits. And then then,
Speaker 4: and you will see this, when those systems collapse or
Speaker 4: get near bankruptcy or whatever, they are bailed out by
Speaker 4: the state government or the federal government or whatever, meaning taxpayers,
Speaker 4: it's outrageous. Sorry to bring you down or piss you off,
Speaker 4: but I don't know, I personally don't like being defrauded,
Speaker 4: or at least I like to know I'm being defrauded.
Speaker 2: So we're headed into a holiday season and a decent
Speaker 2: chance you're going to be traveling around maybe rent a vehicle.
Speaker 2: I learned something about renting vehicles last night. It's a
Speaker 2: problem I've had in the past, but apparently, at least
Speaker 2: according to the research I've done, there's.
Speaker 1: Not a lot you can do about it.
Speaker 2: I am not a fan of rental car companies, and
Speaker 2: a lot of other stuff to talk about. Stay with us,
Speaker 2: arm Straw, Hey Getty.
Speaker 7: Many worry the AI revolution will put voice actors out
Speaker 7: of work. While some stars are licensing their voices, others
Speaker 7: are being built from scratch. Poet Talisia Nicki Jones has
Speaker 7: created an AI R and B singer named Zanaia Monet,
Speaker 7: a digital alter ego that lets her turn her poetry
Speaker 7: into music. Now, Zanaya has a number one single on
Speaker 7: a Billboard R and B chart and a multimillion dollar.
Speaker 1: Offer for a recording deal, and on the country charts.
Speaker 7: An AI generated country singer named Breaking Rust just hit
Speaker 7: number one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked about that yesterday.
Speaker 2: We can't play the song for copyright reasons, but Joe
Speaker 2: and I both listened to it and then it sits.
Speaker 2: You know, it's plenty good enough to be a hit
Speaker 2: country song, which it is completely AI. I don't know
Speaker 2: where the leaves us the whole voice. Actors might lose
Speaker 2: their gigs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, oh that's over. Please. Yeah. I can't believe
Speaker 1: it's even still presented as a this might happen.
Speaker 2: What'll we do? It's going to happen, not might, and nothing.
Speaker 2: There's nothing you could do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, pursue another line of work. And I don't mean
Speaker 4: to sound cruel or unsympathetic, but when reality backs into
Speaker 4: your driveway, there it is. I mean, you can try
Speaker 4: to ignore it, wish it away.
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 2: Being a guy who sells horses for transportation in nineteen
Speaker 2: ten or whatever and sing. Some people say fewer people
Speaker 2: are going to want to buy horses for transportation.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, this is true. What going to be done
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 2: Nothing? Our mode of transportation has changed, the airing to
Speaker 2: fix cars. I don't know if that's hard for people
Speaker 2: to grasp or what. Yeah, making of driving, we're into
Speaker 2: the holiday season. I often a rent a vehicle this
Speaker 2: time of year, usually because I do a one way
Speaker 2: trip back to Kansas and then I drive there. We
Speaker 2: like road trips, me and the boys, and then I
Speaker 2: fly back. I've had quite the struggle in recent years
Speaker 2: of I rent a vehicle ahead of time, make sure
Speaker 2: I've rent good and ahead of time. And then I
Speaker 2: get there to pick it up and they ain't got it.
Speaker 2: And then I'm in the holiday crunch with all kinds
Speaker 2: of plans and no vehicles available because it's like two
Speaker 2: days before Thanksgiving or week before Christmas or whatever.
Speaker 1: The situation.
Speaker 2: Not the wrong vehicle, no vehicle, Well, they don't have
Speaker 2: the vehicle I want.
Speaker 1: They have all kinds of vehicles.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to drive me intwo like practically adults
Speaker 2: halfway across the country and right, and you.
Speaker 1: Just can't do it.
Speaker 2: So I was asked, I did some research yesterday because
Speaker 2: I was trying to avoid that this year. I got
Speaker 2: so mad last year when I was there. You remember
Speaker 2: I told this story on the air. I started very calm,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't get any reaction out of the person
Speaker 2: who worked there. And it kind of hurts that they
Speaker 2: reacted this way. It really hurts my feelings that they
Speaker 2: were was the way that we were thinking. But I
Speaker 2: kept saying, do you understand my problem?
Speaker 7: Though?
Speaker 1: Right? I have a reservation.
Speaker 2: I mean it's the classic Jerry Seinfeld bit. You know
Speaker 2: how to you know, reserve the car and they just
Speaker 2: like looked at me blank face, like they couldn't understand
Speaker 2: why I was unhappy with the fact that I'd had
Speaker 2: a reservation for a month and then I get there
Speaker 2: and you don't have the vehicle.
Speaker 1: You don't see that as a problem anyway.
Speaker 2: So I spend a lot of time researching this on
Speaker 2: groc and chat, bet, chat, GPT, and they want all
Speaker 2: the different websites, and they basically said, this is a
Speaker 2: problem that happens to people all across the country. There's
Speaker 2: not much you can do about it. Here are the things.
Speaker 2: You should rent vehicles from two different companies. Hopefully if
Speaker 2: you have a backup then one of them will come through,
Speaker 2: or you know, a variety of other things.
Speaker 1: But there was no there's no getting around it.
Speaker 2: It's just the thing that happens the way our way
Speaker 2: the businesses are currently set up. They just like airlines,
Speaker 2: they overbook flights. They over sell cars with the idea
Speaker 2: of a we want to have as many of them
Speaker 2: get paid for during the holiday season as possible, So
Speaker 2: we overbook knowing that a lot of people are going
Speaker 2: to cancel and change plans. And then if it turns
Speaker 2: out that a whole bunch of people don't change their plans. Well,
Speaker 2: we've got more people wanting these vehicles than the vehicles
Speaker 2: that exist.
Speaker 1: So sorry, screw you. You're out of luck.
Speaker 4: You're not going home for Christmas or whatever the problem is.
Speaker 4: And I'm sure they all glance around at each other.
Speaker 4: It's not collusion, but they're aware. Okay, they're abusing people
Speaker 4: in the same way over there and over there and
Speaker 4: over there. Okay, so we can keep abusing people. Where
Speaker 4: are you going to go to the other place there
Speaker 4: at the airport that's going to abuse you in the
Speaker 4: same way.
Speaker 2: Right, And that's something that that's the current system where
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter how early you make your reservation, you
Speaker 2: still might show up there when you need it. If
Speaker 2: it's a busy weekend and they just ain't going to
Speaker 2: have a car for.
Speaker 4: You, oh well you put the rental agent in a headlock.
Speaker 4: Not sure it would help, but it would make you
Speaker 4: feel better. I was close, I was really close. My
Speaker 4: son didn't test to that. They were thinking, I don't care,
Speaker 4: pretending I'm an hourly employee.
Speaker 1: I don't care. It's not much effort to pretend to care.
Speaker 2: Okay, we got more on the way if you know
Speaker 2: anything about that text line four one five five KFTC.
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Getty Christ, then when did you get this information?
Speaker 5: We actually just received all of these emails are total
Speaker 5: of about twenty three thousand documents actually a few days ago,
Speaker 5: so last week, and we've been going through our team,
Speaker 5: of course, through all of these very carefully over the
Speaker 5: last few days.
Speaker 1: We obviously released some today.
Speaker 5: We'll be releasing additional documents I'm likely later today.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're talking about Epstein here. Oh so forty eight
Speaker 2: hours ago when the whole impasse over the shutdown thing broke,
Speaker 2: I flip on MSNBC at night. They're eleven o'clock show,
Speaker 2: because on the West Coast as to a eight o'clock
Speaker 2: and the first thing they talk about is Epstein. I thought,
Speaker 2: what I mean, that was so off my radar. I
Speaker 2: don't know if I thought I'd ever hear the word
Speaker 2: again in my life. I just thought that was completely
Speaker 2: last year whatever. And they were actually talking about them,
Speaker 2: and the three panelists on there all reporters Epstein, this Epstein,
Speaker 2: that this is why the Republicans shut down the government
Speaker 2: for so long, and now the Epstein vote's gone.
Speaker 1: What Epstein.
Speaker 2: I turned on Morning Joe this morning on MSNBC. I mean,
Speaker 2: because that's a good place to go to for what
Speaker 2: Democrats are thinking, that show talking about Epstein. And now
Speaker 2: you got this Democratic Representative Robert Garcia, who was on
Speaker 2: probably on MSNBC saying they've received twenty three thousand documents
Speaker 2: in the last couple of days and they're going through
Speaker 2: there very carefully.
Speaker 1: He says there is a massive cover up going on.
Speaker 2: So as Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner, Okay,
Speaker 2: you've given us a couple of nuggets, which weren't much
Speaker 2: from these documents. Like Trump was angry that Epstein was
Speaker 2: poaching his people, poaching girls from his spa. That wasn't
Speaker 2: new news. And even if even if it were, what's
Speaker 2: the significance of that?
Speaker 1: There is an email quote from Epstein, go ahead, you've
Speaker 1: got the lift.
Speaker 2: There's well, there's a claim that Epstein knew that there
Speaker 2: were girls there and whatever Trump but butru that Trump knew,
Speaker 2: But it's vague and it doesn't even if it's true,
Speaker 2: what what does that was Trumps supposed to go to
Speaker 2: the cops or I don't know what even the point
Speaker 2: is of that, and as Byron new York writes Washington Examiner, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's three things you've mentioned. What are the other twenty
Speaker 2: three thousand documents? That's a lot of documents, right, That's
Speaker 2: a heck of a thing to.
Speaker 1: Go on TV.
Speaker 2: Say we have twenty three thousand new documents about what?
Speaker 1: From who? What is it? A? Two are completely irrelevant?
Speaker 4: Where to look at them? Twenty three thousands? Look at
Speaker 4: the stack of documents? Where did they come from? If
Speaker 4: you had any dirt on Trump about Epstein, you would
Speaker 4: have used it when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were
Speaker 4: running against him, wouldn't you. Well, where'd they get these
Speaker 4: twenty three thousand new documents?
Speaker 1: Doesn't say? What's that all about? Don't know?
Speaker 2: But so if you thought Epstein was over, it ain't.
Speaker 1: Well. I tell you what.
Speaker 4: If they get to the bottom of this Epstein thing,
Speaker 4: holmes will become affordable, You will be fully employed in
Speaker 4: a career that you find rewarding, Your kids will get
Speaker 4: quality education in schools, and we won't ever go to
Speaker 4: war with China. So I certainly hope we can get
Speaker 4: to the bottom of this stupid, stupid Epstein thing.
Speaker 2: We'll be releasing additional documents later Today, he says, if
Speaker 2: my experience with this sort of thing in life is
Speaker 2: you lead with your.
Speaker 1: Best stuff, right. Yeah. Well, and if say, fifteen eighteen.
Speaker 4: Years ago, rich Donald Trump in West Palm Beach or
Speaker 4: whatever it is, became aware that his rich neighbor was
Speaker 4: a bit of a perv and maybe even had a
Speaker 4: taste for like underage girls, that's what I hear.
Speaker 1: What was twenty twelve Donald Trump's supposed to do about it?
Speaker 1: That's what I said.
Speaker 4: I mean, if there was like child rape going on
Speaker 4: and he had specific information about it, of course you
Speaker 4: got to call.
Speaker 1: The co of course.
Speaker 4: But if he just hears at the country club, oh yeah,
Speaker 4: you know Epstein like I'm young, if you know what
Speaker 4: I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what are you supposed to do in that situation?
Speaker 2: And well, there's always kind of the suggestion that Donald
Speaker 2: Trump was having sex with underage girls through his connection
Speaker 2: with Epstein. There's never been anything without one hundred miles
Speaker 2: of that, yeah, proven even kind of So I don't know,
Speaker 2: I can't believe this is still hanging around as a story,
Speaker 2: different Donald Trump story that I am kind of interested.
Speaker 4: Well, if I had just screwed the country at least
Speaker 4: to some extent on this phony shutdown to protect Chuck
Speaker 4: Schumer's left flank. I'd want to change the headlines too.
Speaker 4: I'd be pretty desperate. That's pretty good theory that that's
Speaker 4: what it is. Why now all of a sudden out
Speaker 4: of nowhere, please, I never heard that said one time
Speaker 4: during the shutdown? Did you that the Republicans are just
Speaker 4: doing this to keep the Ebstein files from coming out?
Speaker 2: I never heard that until the Democrats caved. I'd never
Speaker 2: heard anybody say that. Yeah, yeah, And I'll watch a
Speaker 2: lot of MSNBC to see what they're up to. They
Speaker 2: weren't making that argument.
Speaker 1: We're desperate, we're desperate. What do we do? I don't know,
Speaker 1: can retire Depstein somehow?
Speaker 2: How the hell would we do that?
Speaker 1: Wait? I have an idea differ Trump thing. He did
Speaker 1: an interview with blonde Chick Fox. There are quite a
Speaker 1: few of them.
Speaker 2: Well, that was a vague statement, wasn't a blonde chick
Speaker 2: on Fox? Lor Ingram And we had a bunch of
Speaker 2: clips we didn't play yesterday. But one of the things
Speaker 2: he floated out there was a fifty year mortgage loan
Speaker 2: to try to help get more people into homes. This
Speaker 2: stat has been flying around for a week now because
Speaker 2: it hit forty. People like round numbers, and when it
Speaker 2: hit forty for the median age for someone to be
Speaker 2: a first time home buyer, it got a lot of
Speaker 2: people's attention, given the fact that it was twenty nine.
Speaker 2: If you go back to nineteen eighty, so in your
Speaker 2: twenties barely and now forty is sounds like a bigger
Speaker 2: difference in eleven years, but it's still it is quite
Speaker 2: a change in the structure of home buying. And Trump
Speaker 2: floated the idea of a fifty year mortgage. So my
Speaker 2: first reaction to hearing that was that's a horrible idea,
Speaker 2: and God, I hope it doesn't happen, kind of like
Speaker 2: around the lines of I know people buying cars with seven, eight,
Speaker 2: nine year loans, the biggest difference between the two things
Speaker 2: being that in general, homes go up in value over
Speaker 2: that amount of time and cars nine years from now
Speaker 2: you're curring word.
Speaker 1: Nothing and you just paid it off.
Speaker 2: But I don't know anything about the history of where
Speaker 2: did we come up with the twenty and thirty year mortgage?
Speaker 2: What was that built around? Why is there any reason
Speaker 2: why thirty's okay, but fifty isn't.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, the twenty eight housing melt down spurred the
Speaker 4: government to limit mortgage terms to thirty years, because you
Speaker 4: just you get equity so slowly, you pay so much
Speaker 4: in interest more than a thirty year loan, and it
Speaker 4: lowers your payment by a couple of hundred bucks typically,
Speaker 4: but it's not a ton. And so many folks walked
Speaker 4: away from their mortgages when home prices collapsed, and they've
Speaker 4: just found through the years the reason they reined it
Speaker 4: in is longer the loan, the more likely people are default.
Speaker 4: It's just a much risky loan, which means it's a
Speaker 4: higher rate, so you're paying even a higher percentage of
Speaker 4: your house payment to interest than you would be. When
Speaker 4: the solution is that's not the solution. That is a
Speaker 4: makes the problem worse, band A. The solution is a deregulation,
Speaker 4: wholesale deregulation of this silly stuff that keeps housing from
Speaker 4: being built. Who was it estimated We've got a deficit
Speaker 4: of like five million housing units in the country at
Speaker 4: this point, and part of it was the artificially low
Speaker 4: mortgage rates. People are stuck in their homes.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. We've talked about it many times, but no,
Speaker 1: this is a bad idea. Don't do it. Well.
Speaker 2: The idea, well, the smart idea would be, you can
Speaker 2: get into a home when you're quite young because the
Speaker 2: payment's lower with a fifty year mortgage, and then when
Speaker 2: you get into your years where you're really earning money, well,
Speaker 2: then you refy it shorter, pay it down or whatever.
Speaker 2: You don't actually pay the full fifty years van of
Speaker 2: interest over the damn fom.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but if it's much more likely people are going
Speaker 2: to default who take those long loans.
Speaker 1: Though, any good listen to this, would you? As long
Speaker 1: as we're talking about it.
Speaker 4: Nearly seventy percent of New FAHA borrowers last year had
Speaker 4: debt to income ratios exceeding forty three percent, which is
Speaker 4: considered risky. That's nearly seventy percent. You twenty with that number. Well,
Speaker 4: that's up from twenty eight percent thirteen years ago. It's
Speaker 4: now seventy percent. About forty percent a new Fanny May
Speaker 4: and Freddie macburrows last year had risky debt to income ratios.
Speaker 4: That's forty percent compared to sixteen percent back in twenty twelve.
Speaker 4: Recent buyers are more leveraged than they were in bubble days.
Speaker 4: Stretched by inflation, rising property taxes, and insurance costs, many
Speaker 4: have been struggling to meet mortgage payments. No Worries, writes
Speaker 4: the Journal. The Biden administration paid mortgage servicers to prevent closures.
Speaker 4: This included letting delinquent borrowers extend their loan terms to
Speaker 4: forty years and reduced monthly payments by twenty five percent.
Speaker 4: Repeatedly miss your mortgage payments, Congratulations, you qualify for mortgage relief.
Speaker 4: Talk about a moral hazard. The FAHA has paid mortgage
Speaker 4: servicers to provide forbearance or modify some six hundred and
Speaker 4: ten thousand FAHA mortgages in the last year.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I like the fact that's more than the number of
Speaker 2: new purchases loans that FAHA ensured last year.
Speaker 1: Yikes.
Speaker 2: I like the fact that if you miss your mortgage
Speaker 2: payment enough times, you qualify for somebody else's money to
Speaker 2: pay for your mortgage, with no question as to why
Speaker 2: are you not making your mortgage, what do you spend?
Speaker 2: You spend your money on anything else? Or maybe you
Speaker 2: shouldn't be in that, Maybe you can't afford to be
Speaker 2: in the house you're in or something like that.
Speaker 1: But no, you automatically.
Speaker 2: It's just the facto true that if you missed a
Speaker 2: couple of payments, you can't afford it and you need help.
Speaker 4: And keep in mind, now the FAHA your tax finances
Speaker 4: all of this. So writing down mortgages for distress borrowers
Speaker 4: is a booming business for mortgage bankers. They're getting the
Speaker 4: tax dollars, but keeping people in homes they can't afford
Speaker 4: means there are fewer available to buy, which makes housing
Speaker 4: less affordable for everyone else. That's what a fifty year
Speaker 4: mortgage will do.
Speaker 2: I was listening to a discussion this morning by people
Speaker 2: who did not know what they were talking about. I
Speaker 2: won't mention much channel, but they were talking about. They
Speaker 2: were presenting it's such a good idea, the fifty year loan,
Speaker 2: so you can get people out of renting, so.
Speaker 1: You don't rent all those years and everything like that when.
Speaker 2: I'm a renter currently, and what started me even thinking
Speaker 2: about it was the Wall Street Journal having an article
Speaker 2: that for the first time ever, there might be a
Speaker 2: better idea to rent than to own, and it laid
Speaker 2: out various situations you might be in where that that's
Speaker 2: the case. It's just not automatically true, at least currently,
Speaker 2: that buying a house is better than renting correct.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and it's far more expensive than people imagine
Speaker 4: it's going to be. I think virtually everybody listening who's
Speaker 4: ever owned a home is saying, yeah, no kidding. You know,
Speaker 4: by the time you know, taxes and insurance and upkeeping
Speaker 4: repairs and you know, just maintenance. I guess upkeeping maintenance
Speaker 4: are the same thing. Anyway, there are way more costs
Speaker 4: than you imagined before you become a homeowner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, where if that'll change? Fifty year loan? Wow, I
Speaker 2: wouldn't you be surprised if that doesn't happen. I mean,
Speaker 2: if we got to nine year car loans out there,
Speaker 2: fifty year my home loan doesn't seem that nuts.
Speaker 4: If it is a bad idea that sounds good when
Speaker 4: you first hear it, yes, it will pass.
Speaker 2: It will become the law, right right right, Anything that
Speaker 2: sounds good at first, blush will happen.
Speaker 1: That's okay, give exactly.
Speaker 2: We'll keep your eye on this stupid, stupid, freaking Epstein
Speaker 2: story and maybe not talk about it at all. Unless
Speaker 2: something happens more on the way stare. I want to
Speaker 2: talk about the decay of American culture, which has been
Speaker 2: going on for half a century. Might put that in
Speaker 2: a one More Thing podcast, also our four. I am
Speaker 2: pro social credit score as long as the government's not involved.
Speaker 1: Interesting, I got a new example of it. We can
Speaker 1: talk about next hour. Interesting.
Speaker 4: I'm surprised to hear that also coming up next hour.
Speaker 4: The whole online influencer pandering thing. It's worse than I thought.
Speaker 4: Understanding how it works helps you understand well why it
Speaker 4: got so bad. So if you can't stay tuned for
Speaker 4: our four, or perhaps you don't get our four, grab
Speaker 4: it via podcast Armstrong and Getty on demand. You really
Speaker 4: ought to follow us and subscribe. And oh you know,
Speaker 4: we never ever asked this. Give us a nice five
Speaker 4: star review, would you please? It helps the algorithms kind
Speaker 4: of push the show. Speaking of algorithms, anyway, I've fallen
Speaker 4: in love with a man, at least intellectually speaking.
Speaker 1: I was attracted to this.
Speaker 4: Story about Abraham Avy is his nickname av Lobe, who
Speaker 4: is was for a decade Harvard's share of the Astronomy Department.
Speaker 4: He was the founding director of the Harvard Black Hole Initiative,
Speaker 4: and he continues to teach it to school and holds
Speaker 4: amazing titles in you know, the theory and computation in
Speaker 4: astrophysics and stuff like that. And he's his attention has
Speaker 4: gotten to a space oddity called three Eye Slash Atlas.
Speaker 4: It is only the third object from outside our Solar
Speaker 4: system that humanity has ever detected, and the vast majority
Speaker 4: of astronomers are convinced that it's simply a large comet
Speaker 4: that poses no threat to Earth.
Speaker 1: Lobe.
Speaker 4: However, is unconvinced by this explanation. He has laid out
Speaker 4: all the ways Atlas is not behaving like a comet.
Speaker 4: It has a very unusual trajectory which happens to be
Speaker 4: a perfect tour of our nearby planets. It has very
Speaker 4: strange coloring, and the way it appears to move, it
Speaker 4: moves like it has an internal engine of some kind.
Speaker 2: You're suggesting spaceship from an alien planet.
Speaker 4: So the clear mister Loebees said is not saying this
Speaker 4: is an extraterrestrial vehicle. He is, however, open to the
Speaker 4: possibility that it could be. So he's tracking Atlas very
Speaker 4: closely on his blog and looking at images every day.
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 4: So that's fun. Is there an alien craft that's moving
Speaker 4: in our direction? Harvard astronomy professor says, perhaps that's fun.
Speaker 4: I got to say, But then I get to the
Speaker 4: part that I really loved. The guy asks him, can
Speaker 4: you explain this? Think of me as a precocious middle schooler,
Speaker 4: because I'm not an expert, And his reply is one
Speaker 4: of the best things I've ever read. He said, actually,
Speaker 4: being young in the way you view things as a
Speaker 4: great advantage, because science is the privilege of maintaining your
Speaker 4: childhood curiosity.
Speaker 1: Ah.
Speaker 4: Now, unfortunately, he says, most practitioners abandon it because they
Speaker 4: have other motivations. They want to show off to gain
Speaker 4: status that helps them get funded or get awards and honors.
Speaker 4: And that's what you know, That's what happens to most
Speaker 4: people in academia, which is very unfortunate because we have this.
Speaker 1: Gift of being paid to stay curious.
Speaker 4: And he goes on about what a wonderful gift that
Speaker 4: was and how it makes him sad when people insist that.
Speaker 6: Science is fixed. This is what science says, and you
Speaker 6: shouldn't question it.
Speaker 4: He's totally against that it was beautifully said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love it when you hear super smart people
Speaker 2: say very basic, childlike things.
Speaker 1: Yeah like that.
Speaker 2: It's like the Fermi paradox or Fermi principle or whatever
Speaker 2: it's called from that famous astrophysicist dude from way back
Speaker 2: in the day who said, well where is everybody?
Speaker 6: Then?
Speaker 2: If there's a and other planets or life in other
Speaker 2: parts of the universe, or where has everybody been?
Speaker 1: So how come nobody's ever contacted?
Speaker 4: Is?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that though. And look, I was not
Speaker 4: going for outrage this segment, But how different is that
Speaker 4: from I represent science and people getting canceled online for
Speaker 4: questioning quote unquote science.
Speaker 1: Love this guy's attitude.
Speaker 2: I do want to talk about the social credit score,
Speaker 2: this idea that some people are bothered by this.
Speaker 1: I think it's awesome.
Speaker 2: Like open table, if you've ever used that for making
Speaker 2: reservations for a restaurant or something like that is keeping
Speaker 2: track of people who like don't show or show up later, whatever,
Speaker 2: and then they're putting a score on that, and then
Speaker 2: restaurants see that, and then they're either more or less
Speaker 2: likely to give you a reservation based on that.
Speaker 1: I have no problem with that. Whatsoever.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like the best buy Costco. Oh, you're
Speaker 2: the kind of person that buys something in the returns
Speaker 2: it like two times a year versus you've never done
Speaker 2: that before, so sure we'll let you return something for
Speaker 2: your money back.
Speaker 4: Airbnb is super big on everybody gets a review and
Speaker 4: providers as long as.
Speaker 2: The government's not involved in any way, like they're doing
Speaker 2: in China. I think the social credit score thing seems
Speaker 2: like a really good idea, interesting and I don't know
Speaker 2: how you'd stop a private company from doing it anyway,
Speaker 2: it's in their best interest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's a good discussion. Anyway. We do a
Speaker 1: lot of hours.
Speaker 2: If you miss one, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty
Speaker 2: on demand.
Speaker 6: You should subscribe Armstrong and Getty