Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 01, 2026


BONUS POD： Trump’s Healthcare Framework Unveiled w Big, YUGE & Bold Savings


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

161.37263

Word Count

2,066

Sentence Count

140


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:02.660 Guaranteed human.
00:00:04.800 Can you imagine?
00:00:05.840 They stole $18 billion.
00:00:08.660 That's just what we're learning about.
00:00:11.540 That's peanuts.
00:00:12.160 And California's worse.
00:00:13.780 Illinois's worse.
00:00:15.360 And sadly, New York is worse.
00:00:17.360 A lot of other places.
00:00:18.500 So we're going to get to the bottom of all of it.
00:00:20.560 It was a giant scam.
00:00:22.320 Other than that, we're going to have a great million.
00:00:24.620 Yeah, there's a reason for a good year.
00:00:26.080 Because we're going to get to the bottom.
00:00:27.320 But we're going to get that money back.
00:00:28.580 It's all coming back.
00:00:30.000 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:00:34.260 Good Thursday morning.
00:00:35.440 Nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update.
00:00:37.800 And we've got one major story for you.
00:00:40.820 Donald Trump says it's time to trust you with your health care decisions.
00:00:45.040 Pushing for health care reform that will lower costs
00:00:48.500 and give you more power over exactly what you're paying for.
00:00:52.880 So why are Democrats losing their minds over this?
00:00:56.120 Follow the money and we'll explain it.
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00:03:07.600 It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now.
00:03:10.960 Story number one.
00:03:12.020 It is big news.
00:03:13.660 The White House is unveiling a new health care framework they say will lower costs for all Americans.
00:03:20.940 This after the debacle that was exposed during the government shutdown
00:03:24.600 of just how much money we are spending to subsidize the Affordable Care Act,
00:03:30.920 which is anything but affordable.
00:03:33.660 The Trump White House, we're now being told, is expected to unveil a health care policy framework
00:03:39.240 that not only with lower costs, but also extend expiring Obamacare subsidies
00:03:44.720 while they figure out how to move forward.
00:03:48.100 MSNOW and Politico reported both that the health care policy framework
00:03:52.520 would include a two-year extension of the expiring enhanced premium tax credits.
00:03:59.440 Those are the subsidies that you're paying for.
00:04:01.900 Yes, Obamacare is not cheap at all.
00:04:04.660 It did not make things more affordable at all.
00:04:07.120 In fact, it made the health care insurance providers rich at the expense of you, the taxpayer.
00:04:14.480 We also know that there will be enhanced Obamacare subsidies,
00:04:18.200 which would otherwise expire at the end of the year.
00:04:21.440 The proposal could be unveiled as early as this coming Monday.
00:04:25.620 A White House spokesman declined to confirm the details of the plan, stating,
00:04:30.400 Quote, until President Trump makes an announcement himself,
00:04:33.400 any reporting about the administration's health care positions is mere speculation.
00:04:37.940 But here's what we are learning through background.
00:04:40.740 The plan apparently with lower limits on income eligibility for credits,
00:04:45.720 and that would save American taxpayers a significant amount of money.
00:04:49.900 It would also, I'm being told, set minimum premium payments as well,
00:04:54.700 According to multiple reports, the proposed eligibility cap would set the subsidies to 700%
00:05:01.940 of the federal poverty line.
00:05:04.540 Republicans have complained that with the current Obama hair-enhanced subsidies scheme,
00:05:09.300 wealthy Americans would benefit from the subsidies in what was meant to be only temporary.
00:05:14.800 Why were they temporary?
00:05:15.620 It was during the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak when they had these extra benefits
00:05:22.160 that now Democrats want to make, well, last forever, which is insane.
00:05:26.860 The White House plan also would urge Congress to fund cost-sharing reductions and plans,
00:05:34.620 which Republicans pushed for in the big, beautiful bill,
00:05:37.800 but were nixed after Senate Democrats objected to its inclusion in Trump's landmark legislation,
00:05:43.720 believing it violated rules on budgetary reconciliation they claimed.
00:05:48.440 Now here's the other part that's very interesting about this.
00:05:51.860 The Congressional Budget Office found that these health care reforms
00:05:55.820 would have lowered health care premiums by 12.7%
00:06:00.500 and reduced costs by decreasing the need for Obamacare
00:06:05.120 and the welfare of the government for the EPCTs, known as the subsidies for Obamacare.
00:06:12.040 The plans would have also lowered the costs if this CRS plan would have been put into effect
00:06:17.820 by $30.8 billion.
00:06:20.920 Now that's literally $30.8 billion it would have saved you, the taxpayer.
00:06:25.960 And that is exactly why Democrats were against it.
00:06:29.240 Now the Trump proposal would also have part of their tax credits go straight to Americans
00:06:34.740 via tax-advantaged savings accounts,
00:06:37.540 instead of the checks going directly to health care insurance companies
00:06:41.220 that are getting rich to lower America's premium indirectly.
00:06:46.020 The president probably would like to go bigger than the Hill has the appetite for.
00:06:50.780 So we'll have to see how that, you know, how it works out,
00:06:54.700 is what the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, James Blair, said last week,
00:06:59.320 talking about the reforms that need to be made.
00:07:01.860 What we also know is the White House Deputy Chief of Staff says
00:07:05.300 that President Trump would love to push for health care reform
00:07:08.700 in a way that would be meaningful, saying, quote,
00:07:11.180 we're going to have to have the health care conversation.
00:07:14.300 We're going to put some legislation forward.
00:07:17.220 The Deputy Chief said there could be interest in bipartisan reform.
00:07:21.460 However, he said if that path is foreclosed,
00:07:24.500 there is the partisan path of reconciliation as well.
00:07:27.860 The president probably would like to go big because there needs to be big reforms.
00:07:32.580 Republican lawmakers have said they believe the White House will release a framework
00:07:36.720 to lower health insurance costs, expand health savings accounts,
00:07:40.680 and scrap parts of the Affordable Care Act that are just flat-out unsustainable.
00:07:45.560 In fact, much of the Obamacare program is unsustainable
00:07:48.820 without record tax dollars going to prop it up.
00:07:53.300 As I mentioned earlier, there's nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act.
00:07:58.440 Now, the White House also signaled that the president's interest in health care reform
00:08:02.180 is something he believes could be a massive change for the American people.
00:08:07.200 A slide deck shared by the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise this last week
00:08:11.640 made it clear that House GOP leadership also falls in the overhaul camp.
00:08:17.000 One slide that was viewed by Politico was titled the Unaffordable Care Act
00:08:21.780 and highlighted statistics that show the premiums have increased by 80%
00:08:26.660 since the ACA passage, a.k.a. since Obamacare became law.
00:08:31.660 It also claimed that more than 50% of Obamacare enrollees
00:08:35.920 did not file a single claim this year.
00:08:40.560 Walking into the meeting, Scalise said in a brief interview
00:08:43.600 that he planned to keep talking with the chairs of three key committees
00:08:47.540 of jurisdiction over health policy.
00:08:49.840 That would be Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce.
00:08:54.980 Now, health care became a focal point in the national politics
00:08:58.160 as Democrats shut the government down, as I mentioned earlier,
00:09:01.100 for weeks over what they described as mandatory Obamacare subsidies.
00:09:05.320 They were not mandatory.
00:09:06.380 They were enhanced during COVID and they will expire on purpose.
00:09:10.840 The Democrats planned this way at the end of the year.
00:09:13.540 Democrats first enhanced these subsidies through $1.9 trillion.
00:09:17.920 Let me say that again, $1.9 trillion in coronavirus-era stimulus plans,
00:09:24.420 including the American Rescue Plan.
00:09:26.640 They continued the subsidies through the end of 2025
00:09:29.720 with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that did anything but that.
00:09:34.140 Trump weighed in on the issue, stating that health care dollars
00:09:37.120 should go directly to the American people instead of through subsidies
00:09:41.020 to health insurance companies, saying it this way on social media.
00:09:44.980 The only health care I will support or approve is sending the money directly back to the people
00:09:51.480 with nothing going to the big, fat, rich insurance companies
00:09:55.780 who have made trillions and ripped off America long enough.
00:10:00.100 The people will be allowed to negotiate and buy their own much better insurance.
00:10:06.260 Power to the people.
00:10:08.280 Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else.
00:10:12.680 This is the only way to have great health care in America.
00:10:16.580 The Republican State Community Chairman said that a second reconciliation bill
00:10:21.140 should address affordability, which should include health care reform,
00:10:25.380 saying the Democrats are incapable of coming up with a plan
00:10:28.780 that is competitive, transparent, and actually reduces costs.
00:10:33.480 Why?
00:10:34.180 Because they're lining the pockets of their friends in the health care provider industry,
00:10:39.580 and they know that as long as the government's willing to send them the check,
00:10:43.360 they get rich every single time the money comes into their accounts.
00:10:47.860 This also just goes back to consumer choice and freedom.
00:10:52.000 The president believes that you as an American deserve to have your money,
00:10:55.600 and then you can put it to work the way that you decide to do it
00:10:58.780 in a more responsible manner than the corruption of the government.
00:11:02.040 Dr. Mark Siegel on Fox News Channel talking about exactly this,
00:11:06.080 and here is what he had to say on Fox News Sunday.
00:11:09.040 What about this idea that the president has floated about,
00:11:13.860 the money that flows into a lot of these subsidies,
00:11:16.240 instead of paying the insurance companies going direct to the consumer
00:11:19.140 and letting them take the money with them, where they choose?
00:11:21.840 He's gotten a lot of criticism for that, but he's on the right track
00:11:25.220 because it would give the consumer more control of the situation.
00:11:28.700 Health savings accounts are part of this.
00:11:30.440 Being able to buy your own insurance, making it affordable,
00:11:33.040 and you choose a marketplace idea.
00:11:35.840 It's not quite that simple.
00:11:38.000 That's a huge step in the right direction.
00:11:39.860 Well, what are your odds?
00:11:41.620 So at the end of the day, there are two options.
00:11:44.440 Either you as an American say,
00:11:45.800 no, no, no, government, just be in charge of my life.
00:11:48.580 Doesn't matter how much it costs,
00:11:50.040 just you be in charge of my health care.
00:11:51.800 Or there's the Donald Trump plan,
00:11:53.960 which is he believes that you as an American should decide what is best for you.
00:11:57.420 That you should spend your money in a way that is, well,
00:12:00.500 more responsible than what the government does each and every day.
00:12:04.300 And he believes that prices will lower significantly if you do it that way.
00:12:09.660 I think many Americans have made it clear
00:12:11.520 that they like the way the president is describing this
00:12:14.260 and the amount of corruption that we are witnessing
00:12:16.460 from those in the Democratic Party and in government
00:12:19.560 who are overspending your tax dollars.
00:12:22.200 And what are you actually getting in return?
00:12:24.800 Not a lot for your money.
00:12:26.380 And that's where we are today.
00:12:27.980 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:12:32.100 Please make sure you hit subscribe
00:12:33.880 wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:12:37.300 And for more in-depth news,
00:12:39.100 also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast,
00:12:41.800 and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:12:44.520 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:12:46.460 Guaranteed Human.