Join Jim and Greg as they discuss what appear to be lengthy, intrusive hacking operations into some of our nation’s most sensitive national security data. They also roll their eyes at Joe Biden’s defense of his son. And they unload on a University of Pennsylvania “ethicist” who want all frontline personnel to be vaccinated before the elderly because the elderly are whiter.
government
Reasons for Optimism, Newsom’s Ugly Politics, Frustrated by Freedom
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It’s the first-ever al fresco edition of the Three Martini Lunch! Join Jim and Greg as they welcome encouraging news on the search for the coronavirus and that experts believe the economy might start improving in June. They also roll their eyes as California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the federal government must bail out his state or else first responders will be the first ones laid off. And they fire back at a Washington Post opinion writer who claims Americans would do much better against the coronavirus if we weren’t so skeptical of government and protective of our liberties.
Assessing the Coronavrus Response
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The debate over the federal response to the coronavirus threat has been raging for weeks but what goes into a response of this scope? How do the different agencies coordinate, how do the feds collaborate with the states, and how does the private sector partner with the government so seamlessly?
Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner addresses these questions and more in this interview with Radio America’s Greg Corombos.
Vaccine Progress, The Shutdown Debate, Ohio Election Drama
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The home version of the Three Martini Lunch is now up and running but there is always a stool for you! After Jim revels in the news that Tom Brady’s 20-year run with the New England Patriots is over, he and Greg tackle the good, bad, and crazy martinis of the day. First, they welcome the news from Dr. Anthony Fauci that a possible coronavirus vaccine is already in the first stages of testing. They also wonder just how restrictive government officials are going to get as they down society in an effort to confront coronavirus now that San Francisco is ordering residents to shelter in place, groups larger than 10 people are discouraged, and New Jersey is dabbling with curfews. Finally, they weight both sides of the furious political and legal fight in Ohio after Gov. Mike DeWine ordered Tuesday’s primary to be postponed.
Coronavirus: ‘We Seem To Be In A Panic Phase’
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Coronavirus is making its way around the world. It has government officials in the U.S. warning there might be disruptions in school calendars and work schedules due to its highly contagious nature. Markets around the world spent most of the week in panic mode, as investors lost trillions in value in the U.S. alone.
But is coronavirus, or COVID-19, really a menace that could kill thousands of Americans? Is the media egregiously overhyping the threat? Or is the truth somewhere in the middle?
Dr. Roger Klein has advised a wide variety of government agencies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Department of Health and Human Services. Also a former medical director of molecular oncology at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Klein is now with the Regulatory Transparency Project’s FDA and Health Working Group.
In this interview with Radio America’s Greg Corombos, Dr. Klein walks us through how well the government has prepared for this threat, whether the media reports are responsible or hyperbolic, and he explains why China’s response to COVID-19 seems so inadequate.
What Should We Expect from Our Government on Coronavirus?
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Coronavirus fears have the markets badly spooked and some Americans wondering how it may impact their daily lives in the weeks to come.
But as the Trump administration prepares to deal with the issue, what can we reasonably expect our government to do in a situation like this and what is beyond its control? How aggressive should it be in pressing China for accurate data? How tough is it for the feds to keep tabs on what 50 state government are doing? And how much responsibility lies with us as citizens?
Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner addresses all of these questions with Greg Corombos and she also flatly rejects media suggestions that coronavirus is proof that we need government-run health care. In fact, she says it proves just the opposite.
DeMint Offers Conservative Ideas to Improve America
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In the second half of our interview with Conservative Partnership Institute Chairman Jim DeMint, the former U.S. senator and co-author of “Conservative: What to Keep,” DeMint explains how conservatives want to help people who are struggling without making them dependent upon government.
He also walks us through a number of conservative policy ideas and innovations to improve our nation, including Education Savings Accounts and converting vehicles to run on natural gas.
Listen to the full podcast as DeMint also tells Greg Corombos why there isn’t much appetite for policy innovation in Congress these days and how people can come together around possible policy solutions in an era when the partisan divide seems wider than ever.
Tracking Your Tax Dollars
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Over the first ten months of Fiscal Year 2019, the United States is running it’s largest deficit in history. Fiscal restraint was laughed out of Washington by both parties a long time ago, but what exactly is happening with your tax dollars?
OpentheBooks.com recently studied where nearly $170 billion from the Small Business Administration went over a five-year span.
In this podcast, OpentheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski details the questionable recipients of much of this money and how little of it went to mom and pop business owners struggling to survive. But he also discusses one way in which the federal government is starting to crack down on spending.
Public Option = Government-Run Health Care
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Former Vice President Joe Biden is once again staying very close to President Obama, this time billing his health care plan as Obamacare 2.0 and even promising once again that Americans who like their private health coverage can keep it.
The Obama-Biden administration repeated that promise over and over as part of the debate over the Affordable Care Act. Due to the regulatory changes of the law, plans could not stay the same. Americans were forced into more comprehensive plans and some carriers dropped their customers altogether.
As a result, Politifact named “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” the Lie of the Year in 2013.
Biden is now positioning himself as a moderate in the Democratic field for 2020. He says a Medicare for All approach that would abolish private insurance and leave the government in complete control is a bridge too far. Instead he is pushing a public option – a government-run plan that would compete with private coverage.
“If you like your plan, your employer-based plan, you can keep it. If in fact, you have private insurance, you can keep it,” said Biden on Monday.
But what Biden labels a moderate approach Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner sees as a mere stepping stone to government-run health care that kills private sector health coverage.
“The federal government has unlimited calls on taxpayer dollars. It can write the rules that everybody has to comply with. Private plans will not be able to compete, so people will inevitably lose their private plans simply because they will go under,” said Turner.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Turner explain in greater detail how a public option would ultimately force private insurers out of business, what approach she believes is far better than a public option or Medicare for All, and how Americans are approaching this critical debate.
One Way the Government Wastes $100 Billion
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The national debt just eclipsed $22 trillion, so wasting $100 billion per year seems small in comparison, but a government watchdog says federal agencies are wasting huge sums of money to ensure they keep getting even more.
It’s called “use it or lose it” spending. Agencies get a certain amount of money allotted each year in federal spending, and as the fiscal year draws to a close, the spending tends to ramp up dramatically.
“The federal agency heads spend down their budgets this year so they get the same or more money appropriated by Congress for the next year,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO at openthebooks.com.
In September 2018 alone, Andrzejewski reports that federal agencies shelled out nearly $100 billion. Twenty percent of of the annual budget went towards this spending.
“In the last week, federal agencies spent $53 billion on contracts. This was roughly one out of every ten dollars spent on the year was spent on this last week,” said Andrzejewski.
Listen to the full podcast as Andrzejewski offers examples of how that taxpayer money was spent at the end of the year and what he thinks of President Trump’s budget blueprint that calls for a five percent spending cut in Fiscal Year 2020.