Episode 4609: Tony Katz Today Hour 3 - 05/28/26
Hour 3 Segment 1
Tony starts the final hour of the show joined with Dr. Matt Will, economist from the University of Indianapolis, to talk about the latest inflation and fraud numbers.
Hour 3 Segment 2
Tony talks more about the latest Ebola outbreak.
Hour 3 Segment 3
Tony talks about Vice President J.D. Vance’s fraud taskforce.
Hour 3 Segment 4
Tony wraps up another edition of the show talking more about the U.S. launching defensive strikes against Iran and intercepting multiple threatening drones.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Speaker 1: Live from ball Hartliner and the Crossroads of America.
Speaker 2: It's Tony Katz today. So if you take a look
Speaker 2: at the top line, inflation is here to stay. And
Speaker 2: I do take a look at the top line, and
Speaker 2: I say, my gosh, inflation is here to stay. As
Speaker 2: if somehow I didn't know inflation was here. But not
Speaker 2: everything is everything, Tony Katz, Tony Kats today, Good to
Speaker 2: be with you. Cor inflation an annual rate of three
Speaker 2: point three, that's actually not what's happening because it came
Speaker 2: in at point four. Wasn't that four point eight? Yet
Speaker 2: the market thought it was going to come into point five?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, point five. Shouldn't we be saying the sky
Speaker 2: is falling? Except the report doesn't say the sky is falling.
Speaker 2: And this is where it gets kind of interesting. Doctor
Speaker 2: Matt Will joined us right now. Economist at the University
Speaker 2: of Indianapolis were adjusted for the month. They want to
Speaker 2: say three point eight percent for the year, but point
Speaker 2: four is four point eight because I do your math,
Speaker 2: not their math, and that was under the estimate of
Speaker 2: point five. We've got tariffs, we've got oil prices, we've
Speaker 2: got an economy in general. I don't know which one
Speaker 2: is driving this inflation? But you see this report, what
Speaker 2: is the top line telling us and where should we
Speaker 2: be looking.
Speaker 1: Well, let me start off by saying that this report
Speaker 1: is part of a bigger picture. Everything that you and
Speaker 1: I have been saying is correct. The private economy is
Speaker 1: very strong. It's stronger than the headline GDP. Let's not
Speaker 1: forget we're going to talk about the revised GDP number
Speaker 1: that also came out today. Inflation is still a problem,
Speaker 1: and the real drags on the economy are the war.
Speaker 1: Tariffs are still there to a degree but not as much,
Speaker 1: and government driven inflationary pressures. The pressures, these are the
Speaker 1: things that are causing the problem. But it's a big picture,
Speaker 1: So let's first dive into the inflation issue. You're right
Speaker 1: the headline, you know, point four below expectations, But if
Speaker 1: you dig in, there's two core numbers. The core for
Speaker 1: the month was point two. Now you're thinking, oh, point
Speaker 1: two that's not bad. That's two point four percent. But
Speaker 1: there's another thing called market based core. And I know
Speaker 1: this is getting nerdy, but there's core and there's market
Speaker 1: based core. The market based core is what you pay,
Speaker 1: it's households and this is the number that the Fed
Speaker 1: actually looks at. What are you paying when you drive
Speaker 1: out of your card to the store to pick something up.
Speaker 1: That number was point three. That is still a hot number.
Speaker 1: And we are now seeing the flow through from the
Speaker 1: tariffs and from the war on oil prices, so it
Speaker 1: is now a pass through. We talked about that last
Speaker 1: time we spoke. So inflation is still there. If you
Speaker 1: look at the market based core, it is the highest
Speaker 1: it's been in the last twelve months. And this is
Speaker 1: what matters because this is what households are paining. So
Speaker 1: the headline it's too hot. Okay, point four is too hot,
Speaker 1: let's all admit that. But you got to look under
Speaker 1: the hood and it's the household based core that makes
Speaker 1: me the most nervous about the inflation report.
Speaker 2: So we have the highest in twelve months the base
Speaker 2: of what we're paying because the tariffs are making their
Speaker 2: way to the consumer, which is different than oil prices
Speaker 2: making their way to the consumer. But one would assume
Speaker 2: if we're paying more per gallon, and certainly now you're
Speaker 2: at seven dollars a gallon for diesel, that's what these
Speaker 2: trucks are utilizing to bring your goods to market that
Speaker 2: cost is getting baked in as well.
Speaker 1: Yes, but I'm going to go back and be the
Speaker 1: broken record that I've been for many many months now,
Speaker 1: and that is it's government spending. The inflation is caused
Speaker 1: mostly by government spending. The tariffs are baked in, they've
Speaker 1: been in the system. They're not now causing new inflation.
Speaker 1: Oil is causing new inflation. But we remove that and
Speaker 1: we look at the core only so and what's causing
Speaker 1: the core inflation right now is government spending. And I
Speaker 1: just wish I could get to the president and say,
Speaker 1: Miss Present, stop spending all this money.
Speaker 2: Why spend? Maybe politically, where are they spending? Because all
Speaker 2: I see is when we take a look at BLS
Speaker 2: Buewer of Labor statistics and jobs numbers, we've been shedding
Speaker 2: government jobs. We've been applauding the thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know where we're spending the money. Well, I
Speaker 1: do know. I didn't have that report with me right now.
Speaker 1: But if you look at the deficit this year, the
Speaker 1: deficit is going to be one of the highest we've
Speaker 1: had in history other than COVID, and next year is
Speaker 1: projected to go up another fifty percent. Now, some of
Speaker 1: it's military spending. I'm a fan of that. But there's
Speaker 1: still a lot of this fraud going on. And you know,
Speaker 1: you've seen estimates from JD Vance yesterday about how much
Speaker 1: fraud is out there. And now there's a law that's
Speaker 1: been passed in California to ban you, you Tony, you
Speaker 1: a person in the news media, from going out and
Speaker 1: identifying fraud. There's now a law in California banning you
Speaker 1: from disclosing government fraud.
Speaker 2: Pay no attention to that law, and pay no attention
Speaker 2: to the man behind the curtain. Gavin Newso, I'm talking
Speaker 2: to doctor Matt Well, economists at the University of Indianapolis.
Speaker 2: Do economists take a look at fraud spend as we've
Speaker 2: seen in Minneapolis, and we've seen in California and a
Speaker 2: greade all fifty states, Republican states, Democrats states. It's happening everywhere.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of grift going on in the system.
Speaker 2: Do economists have a way of labeling that and attributing
Speaker 2: that to government spend and therefore attributing that to higher
Speaker 2: inflation rates.
Speaker 1: No, it has nothing to do with inflation. It does
Speaker 1: have to do with government spending, which indirectly impacts inflation
Speaker 1: because too much government spending. But this is now where
Speaker 1: you're going to get into the politics of economics, because
Speaker 1: the people on the left, you know, the pro canes
Speaker 1: and the pro big government people, those folks who think
Speaker 1: it's good for government to spend money because it increases GDP.
Speaker 1: They don't care about this fraud. They think it's insignificant,
Speaker 1: and in fact, they think it's good. Not the fraud. Okay,
Speaker 1: they don't think fraud's good, but they think the government
Speaker 1: spending is good. They don't care where it happens. I
Speaker 1: care where it happens. I don't want fraud because I
Speaker 1: don't want wasted money. I would rather spend that money
Speaker 1: on military defense or give it back to you, give
Speaker 1: it back to the person who you know paid the
Speaker 1: taxes to begin with. They think it impacts GDP, and
Speaker 1: we should get into the GDP because there was a
Speaker 1: revision today and this whole fraud and spending of government
Speaker 1: money is actually reducing the GDP. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of things that impact GDP. I
Speaker 1: don't do you want to get into the GDP. I
Speaker 1: think is a very interesting story.
Speaker 2: Today we're here if we're not going to get into it.
Speaker 2: I don't even understand what we're doing. Talk to doctor
Speaker 2: Matt Will economists at the University of Indianapolis. You know,
Speaker 2: we first we take a look at these inflation numbers
Speaker 2: and we realize that inflation is still here. There's a
Speaker 2: big question about what the new Fed chair Kevin Walsh,
Speaker 2: is going to do. Are we going to see a
Speaker 2: rate cut that President Trump desperately wants. That would certainly
Speaker 2: be a help to the housing market as mortgage rates
Speaker 2: got back because the tenure Treasury was at four point
Speaker 2: six plus getting back to seven percent on the thirty
Speaker 2: year fix. He wants to see the rate cut. He
Speaker 2: wants to see more money changing hands, more investment taking place.
Speaker 2: The inflation doesn't say that that should happen. But you're
Speaker 2: discussing a GDP number, And this is where it does
Speaker 2: get interesting, because your argument is the GDP number proves
Speaker 2: that if President Trump will get out of his own way,
Speaker 2: it's the greatest economy of the world has ever seen
Speaker 2: in the history.
Speaker 1: Of the world, by the way, the history of the
Speaker 1: world modern history. And I do I will stand by
Speaker 1: that statement because if you look at the headline GDP
Speaker 1: it actually was revised down today from two percent to
Speaker 1: one point six So everybody's going to think, oh, downward revision,
Speaker 1: that's bad. Well, okay, let's look under the hood. If
Speaker 1: you look at what caused the GDP to go down,
Speaker 1: one of it was government spending is lower than it
Speaker 1: has been in the past. Remember the bad model of
Speaker 1: canes is that more government spending as to GDP. So
Speaker 1: the government portion of GDP is down, that's good. And
Speaker 1: the President and I don't agree on the next one.
Speaker 1: But imports are up, just like we said would happen,
Speaker 1: and the tariffs didn't make imports go down. Imports are
Speaker 1: actually up, and imports are a drag on GDP. In fact,
Speaker 1: how much today the drag it two point six percent.
Speaker 1: So if it weren't for imports, you know, we would
Speaker 1: have a GDP and the four plus percent range.
Speaker 2: Whoao, woe and whoe and whoe and what and what?
Speaker 2: Walk me through that? How do imports equate to a
Speaker 2: drag on GDP?
Speaker 1: Because the way it works is GDP is a formula.
Speaker 1: It's GDP equals government spending plus consumer spending plus investments
Speaker 1: that's being private investments, which is a good part of
Speaker 1: this report, By the way, we got to get into
Speaker 1: it plus or minus net imports. So when you have imports,
Speaker 1: it drags down GDP. So when Trump put all the
Speaker 1: tariffs on at the beginning, it boosted GDP because it
Speaker 1: banned imports. But that's been baked in now, so the
Speaker 1: imports are starting to flow in again. That's pulling down GDP.
Speaker 1: It's just a formula. I'm okay with it, but I
Speaker 1: don't like that it hurts the headline. Everyone looks at
Speaker 1: the headline, and if you look at the headline, it's
Speaker 1: down two point six percent because of imports. So again
Speaker 1: I don't like the Canes model. It's not a good model,
Speaker 1: but it's the only one we have at the moment.
Speaker 1: So that's part of it. But the most important part
Speaker 1: is investments and consumer spending are through the roof, and
Speaker 1: that's what really pushed up this GDP number. Investments in
Speaker 1: the private economy.
Speaker 2: Those investments, where are they going?
Speaker 1: It's obvious. I think everyone knows AI, but this is
Speaker 1: more than an AI story. It is now broad based.
Speaker 1: In the last couple of years, you and I have
Speaker 1: talked about this that two years ago the market was up,
Speaker 1: but it was always the mag seven, the seven biggest companies.
Speaker 1: Last the year before that, it was up, but it
Speaker 1: was up mostly because of about the top one hundred.
Speaker 1: This year, I'm so happy to report this year it
Speaker 1: is broad based across the economy. We see the market
Speaker 1: going up more than just AI. AI is up, productivity
Speaker 1: is up, capital investment and up. Strong earnings. We saw
Speaker 1: incredible earnings coming out every single day from almost every company.
Speaker 1: The S and P hit records. Think about this. We're
Speaker 1: in an economy where we have a war, we have
Speaker 1: oil prices going through the roof, we have inflation, and
Speaker 1: the private economy is setting records. This is I'm going
Speaker 1: to go back to my statement that you quoted me
Speaker 1: on earlier, the bottom ye if the private economy is
Speaker 1: doing so well that if it weren't for the war,
Speaker 1: if it weren't for the inflation, we would be booming
Speaker 1: better than any modern day economy that we've seen. And
Speaker 1: it's broad based. I got to give you one. This
Speaker 1: is so good. So I use a thing called an LMS.
Speaker 1: It's a learning management system. It's what students use when
Speaker 1: they go online and they do their online courses or
Speaker 1: just a regular class. A couple of years ago. We
Speaker 1: had to go to McGraw hill and take them all
Speaker 1: summer to put a course in place coding nerdy people
Speaker 1: writing computer programs. I did it by myself over the weekend.
Speaker 1: I used AI. I was able to deploy a course
Speaker 1: doing HTML coding, whatever the heck of that is over
Speaker 1: a weekend. AI productivity is not just in data centers.
Speaker 1: It's across the board, in everything that you do. And
Speaker 1: it's not done yet, Tony.
Speaker 2: There's more to come, by the way HTML, hypertext markup language.
Speaker 1: Oh you're old, you're old. You're showing your age.
Speaker 2: I know things. I know things. Talking to doctor Matt Well,
Speaker 2: economists at the University of Indianapolis, the AI move and
Speaker 2: movement here we see meta right. The owners of Facebook,
Speaker 2: they're now deploying their their AI model, subscription model. It
Speaker 2: could be ten dollars a month or twenty dollars a month.
Speaker 2: And on the same day they announced the cuts of
Speaker 2: fourteen hundred people because of AI being the focus and
Speaker 2: other jobs now going by the wayside. Some could argue
Speaker 2: this is under the conversation of what they sometimes call
Speaker 2: creative destruction. And I don't know if I'm necessarily a
Speaker 2: particular fan of the term. But the AI investment is great,
Speaker 2: but people are losing their jobs. These things don't equal out.
Speaker 1: Oh come on, come on.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: First of all, are you not a fan of the
Speaker 1: term or.
Speaker 2: You don't come on? Come on me. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that necessarily doesn't have to be this way. These things
Speaker 2: do happen. Growth happens the way it happens, and people
Speaker 2: are often caught in the middle of it and they're
Speaker 2: gonna have to rethink. It's the way it goes in many,
Speaker 2: many cases and places. But there is a question of
Speaker 2: the economics and how it affects an economy in Toto.
Speaker 1: That's where my question is. Okay, but let me get
Speaker 1: into what you said. Joseph Schumpeter. He's the guy that
Speaker 1: developed this thing called creative destruction. Maybe you don't like
Speaker 1: the phrase, maybe I don't like the phrase, but it
Speaker 1: is one of the best things in the economy, creative destruction.
Speaker 1: And it happened when the horse and buggy was replaced
Speaker 1: by the car industry. And I've used this before and
Speaker 1: I'll use it again. I didn't invent it. It came.
Speaker 1: It comes from the you know, the movie Other People's
Speaker 1: money if people want to go watch that. And Danny
Speaker 1: DeVito gave this talk and he talked about so, you know,
Speaker 1: we had the horse and buggy industry and it was
Speaker 1: very robusting, was very active. And then this darn you
Speaker 1: know car company came along and it destroyed all these jobs.
Speaker 1: And you know what, Thank goodness, it destroyed these jobs.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you, is AI destroying jobs at metalay?
Speaker 1: People off? Yes, and that's unfortunate for the people. It's okay,
Speaker 1: And in fact, it's good for the economy for that
Speaker 1: to happen because now those people can be employed elsewhere.
Speaker 1: That's a hit separate discussion. Does a government retrain them?
Speaker 1: Do private people retrain them? Is it a faith based environment?
Speaker 1: How do we retrain these people? But we cannot have
Speaker 1: the horse and buggy industry be protected from cars. We
Speaker 1: cannot have the old industries be protected from the AI
Speaker 1: enabled industries. That is an necessary evolution of the economy.
Speaker 1: If we don't do it, we will not grow the economy,
Speaker 1: we will not employ more people, and we will have
Speaker 1: massive unemployment, lower standard of living. We must move forward
Speaker 1: with an economy and creative destruction. Think goodness. Fred Smith
Speaker 1: came along and did overnight delivery. Can you imagine if
Speaker 1: we didn't have overnight delivery, We said, well, waiting on
Speaker 1: the United Postal Service to deliver something in two weeks
Speaker 1: overseas if we're lucky. Thank goodness for creative destruction. I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of it and I will defend it to
Speaker 1: my death.
Speaker 2: And as we see the investment, you see this group
Speaker 2: Snowflake and the deal with Amazon six billion dollars on
Speaker 2: that AI is the push in for consumer facing AI
Speaker 2: where we go and utilize it as you've described it
Speaker 2: like a super Google? Or is the push for AI
Speaker 2: to be a trusted partner in the creation of code management, etc.
Speaker 2: Where is the real desire from the marketplace.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a third option. I like
Speaker 1: your second super Google. I don't care about the second one. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: but really it's more what I just described to you earlier.
Speaker 1: The fact that I can deploy a course over the weekend. Now,
Speaker 1: this is designing courses. This isn't you know, AI nerdy programming.
Speaker 1: It is under the hood. I actually designed a class
Speaker 1: that students can now use over a weekend versus an
Speaker 1: entire summer. That is the productivity I told you, maybe
Speaker 1: many many months ago. I may have mentioned an insurance
Speaker 1: company that I'm aware of. They use AI to now
Speaker 1: adjust claims. It listens into phone calls. It listens to
Speaker 1: if there's coverage. It is able to identify if you
Speaker 1: have coverage or not, make a reservation for you at
Speaker 1: a local hotel. If you last lost your house and
Speaker 1: a fire, put money into your bank account so you
Speaker 1: have living expenses because your policy provides for that. So
Speaker 1: this is adjusting a claim where there is a house fire,
Speaker 1: designing a course that students will use. The AI uses
Speaker 1: are just beginning, and it's amazing the progress that we've
Speaker 1: seen just in the last few months in what it
Speaker 1: can do.
Speaker 2: I don't say no, but man, is it creepy?
Speaker 1: I let me tell you how creepy it is. Okay,
Speaker 1: first of all, the fact that you knew HTML that's
Speaker 1: a little creepy. But the fact that my AII could
Speaker 1: deploy a course that is creepy. But isn't it exciting?
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I remember when you when we
Speaker 1: were younger, you'd wait till you got home to listen
Speaker 1: to the tape and the voice messages. Is it creepy?
Speaker 1: Now that you have a phone, and with the phone
Speaker 1: you get a message instantly. You gotta admit that was
Speaker 1: creepy thirty years ago.
Speaker 2: It's creepy now when it gives me the AI summary
Speaker 2: of the message. I don't want that at all. I
Speaker 2: have to get that. I have to get rid of that.
Speaker 2: I'll wait to listen to it. And by the way,
Speaker 2: rushing home to listen to the voicemail, it was. It
Speaker 2: was enjoyable. Let's be clear about that. Dog out well,
Speaker 2: economists at the University of Indianapolis. I appreciate you taking
Speaker 2: the time to be with us. More is coming up.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Katz, and this is Tony Katz today. Am
Speaker 2: I really supposed to be concerned about Ebola? Because honestly,
Speaker 2: I don't think I have it in me. I'm busy, guys.
Speaker 2: I have got a lot I've got to worry about,
Speaker 2: and I just don't have time for this. So you're
Speaker 2: gonna have to You're gonna have to put that one away.
Speaker 2: We're just gonna have to be like that one didn't happen. Sorry,
Speaker 2: I know, Ebola. You want your time in the sun.
Speaker 2: You want to be famous too, But no, no, I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't. I'm busy, Get with my scheduler, see what
Speaker 2: we can do. Tony Katz, Tony Katz today, good to
Speaker 2: be with you. The Bola spread concerns grow, and what's
Speaker 2: the issue? US response and administration preparedness? Were doing this again,
Speaker 2: We're doing this. We're not We're always not prepared. Isn't
Speaker 2: that amazing? But it's all about Trump and not about
Speaker 2: all those people who've been there. Their entire career is
Speaker 2: not ready sure health experts warning that the outbreak could
Speaker 2: be even more difficult to contain than in any in
Speaker 2: the past, and the rarest train has caused one thousand
Speaker 2: suspected cases and more than two or to twente suspected
Speaker 2: deaths in Congo seven cases with one death in neighboring Uganda,
Speaker 2: the third largest in history. World Health Organization has said
Speaker 2: it is a public health emergency of international concern. First
Speaker 2: things first, don't let anybody in from those countries. That's
Speaker 2: not anger, that's not bigotry. That's just the first step.
Speaker 2: That always has to be the first step. And what's
Speaker 2: the argument from the International Rescue Committee. I don't know
Speaker 2: who they are. Increased conflicts and cuts to global aid
Speaker 2: funding have dismantled defenses at exactly the wrong moment, when's
Speaker 2: the right moment our Ending funding to USAID did not
Speaker 2: cause ebolaw, That's not what happened. Ending the slush fund fine,
Speaker 2: But even then it was a conversation moving am far
Speaker 2: and aide dollars, et cetera to other organizations that we have,
Speaker 2: other systems that we have so funding can get there.
Speaker 2: It was about ending USAID, which was smart. I just
Speaker 2: can't get myself worked up. It's not that we shouldn't
Speaker 2: be paying attention. It's not we shouldn't have people paying attention.
Speaker 2: Is that I can't tell you if they're just trying
Speaker 2: to scare people so they get more dollars, or if
Speaker 2: there's something to concern myself with. And when we asked
Speaker 2: chrus fault is that well, we know, we all know
Speaker 2: not in and of itself is a horror show. This
Speaker 2: is Tony Gotx.
Speaker 3: Today we have a progress report from the White House
Speaker 3: Anti Fraud Task Force. The team has identified nearly six
Speaker 3: point three billion dollars and suspected fraudulent government contracts. Now,
Speaker 3: nearly four hundred businesses are on the clock today to
Speaker 3: who of those contracts are legitimate. They have thirty days
Speaker 3: to do it or they lose their funding. Now a reminder,
Speaker 3: your taxes are due on Wednesday, and we are learning
Speaker 3: more about the shocking ways alleged fraudsters are spending your money.
Speaker 2: Now, this was a report from over there at Fox
Speaker 2: News a while back.
Speaker 4: It was a.
Speaker 2: Report about how we're taking a look at fraud and
Speaker 2: trying to find the fraud. Tony Katz, Tony Kats today,
Speaker 2: good to be with you. And the fraud conversation has
Speaker 2: taken on a life of its own. And of course
Speaker 2: it was the Minneapolis story, and people talk about the
Speaker 2: videos that Nick Shirley put out. I talked about the
Speaker 2: CBS reporting that came before that, and really the original
Speaker 2: reporting that came from Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe at
Speaker 2: City Journal talking about money going to terrorist groups in Somalia,
Speaker 2: going to Al Jahab and others. And I have stated
Speaker 2: very clearly that just because you're Somali, nash or Somalian
Speaker 2: doesn't mean you're guilty of anything. But man, there are
Speaker 2: a lot of people who are smally nationals who are
Speaker 2: clearly guilty of something and connected to these things, and
Speaker 2: not just in Minneapolis, issues, in Maine, issues in the
Speaker 2: Carolina's issues in California. There is fraud going on all
Speaker 2: across the country, and we heard jd Vance, the Vice President, yesterday,
Speaker 2: discussing at the Cabinet meeting the amount of fraud that
Speaker 2: they're finding as he is leading up this task force.
Speaker 2: Remember there's always a task force going on. This was
Speaker 2: the Vice President.
Speaker 5: I think the theme here of the Anti Fraud Task
Speaker 5: Force up to this point has really been that we're
Speaker 5: protecting two classes of victims.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 5: We're protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn't have their money
Speaker 5: stolen by fraudsters, and of course we're protecting the people
Speaker 5: who need these services. Fraud is not a victimless crime.
Speaker 5: This is not somebody gets to make some money for
Speaker 5: violating the law and otherwise.
Speaker 4: It's not a big deal.
Speaker 5: This is people who rely on critical services, students who
Speaker 5: rely on student loan services, sick people who who rely
Speaker 5: on hospice care, a number of small businesses who rely
Speaker 5: on the availability of these loans so that they can
Speaker 5: grow their business and hire people. All of these people,
Speaker 5: all of our fellow Americans, have been taken advantage by fraudsters,
Speaker 5: and the task forces here to stop.
Speaker 2: It now He also brought up what I thought was
Speaker 2: a really interesting point about the idea of the victims,
Speaker 2: talking about the billions of dollars that they are uncovering
Speaker 2: and no question yet as to whether they've been able
Speaker 2: to get it back. And as you heard from doctor
Speaker 2: Matt Wilb, we're spending on fraud. That's too much spending,
Speaker 2: that's too much dollars into the system, and that can
Speaker 2: keep inflation at a premium at a high. But he
Speaker 2: talked about, you know, the first victim is the taxpayer themselves.
Speaker 2: We're the victims. We are all the victims of frauds,
Speaker 2: all begins or Democrats, independence and moder it's Christian, Jewish, Muslim, gay, straight,
Speaker 2: you name it. We are all the victims. The American citizen,
Speaker 2: the American taxpayer, is a victim of fraud. Then, as
Speaker 2: he described it, the victim of the fraud is the
Speaker 2: person who isn't able to get the care that they
Speaker 2: need because the money didn't come to them and went
Speaker 2: to the fraudster and not to the person who needs it.
Speaker 2: And so all these companies that claim we provide this
Speaker 2: at home health care, this and you know, dignity that
Speaker 2: these people didn't get their dignity in their final days,
Speaker 2: their final hours. And then, of course there is the
Speaker 2: third victim, as we discuss it, the people who are
Speaker 2: told sorry, there's no money for you, because the fraudsters
Speaker 2: are the ones scamming the system and getting all the cash.
Speaker 2: If they're in the country illegally, or they're not a citizen,
Speaker 2: or they were a naturalized citizen, take away the citizenship
Speaker 2: and then immediately deport them. I don't care if the
Speaker 2: country of origin wants them or not. We have planes
Speaker 2: and we have parachutes. And you still think I'm kidding
Speaker 2: when I say that, Wait till I run for president. Man,
Speaker 2: that's going to be a campaign. It goes to the
Speaker 2: argument that the country in question doesn't get to say
Speaker 2: whether or not they take them back. They're going to
Speaker 2: take them back, even if we have to ram the
Speaker 2: person down their throat by hell or high water, or
Speaker 2: is it come hell or high water, Come hell or
Speaker 2: high water. There it is. They're taking those people back.
Speaker 2: We're not putting up with it. That has to be
Speaker 2: a standard position of the United States of America. If
Speaker 2: they're a citizen, they go to jail, trial, jail, and
Speaker 2: the jail time has to be in the decades. Decades now,
Speaker 2: I would say life in prison. That's me. But I
Speaker 2: don't always get what I want. We should all be
Speaker 2: infuriated by the fraud, and it is still of all
Speaker 2: the things that are going on. If you were to
Speaker 2: this at the kitchen table right this weekend or coming
Speaker 2: up on Independence Day, maybe you're gonna hang out for
Speaker 2: flag Day.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: That's the UFC card on the south lawn of the
Speaker 2: White House. It's gonna be good. There's a group of
Speaker 2: us getting together. I think I'm in charge of TVs
Speaker 2: because I have from all the live shows. I have
Speaker 2: a bunch of TVs and stands and I'll just I'm
Speaker 2: gonna stream it through the laptop and then it HDMI.
Speaker 2: I've got the wireless connects and it's all. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be awesome. I've got the PA system right of course,
Speaker 2: I'm in charge of sounds, and then somebody else is
Speaker 2: in charge of brisket and pulled pork and everything else.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be amazing. There's like thirty of us gathering
Speaker 2: at one house to watch this happen, and no, I
Speaker 2: can't get tickets. I think they're like for the UFC fight.
Speaker 2: They're like, like five thousand tickets? Is that it? Maybe
Speaker 2: it's less, and then everybody else is gonna be on
Speaker 2: the mall watching a massive monitors. This thing's gonna be crazy.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be an incredible, insane card. It's gonna be fantastic.
Speaker 2: But even at that, I'm sure that things like this
Speaker 2: are gonna come up. It is impossible to think that
Speaker 2: there is a segment of the American populace that can
Speaker 2: look at this fraud and say, so, what can look
Speaker 2: at this fraud and say, well, listen, we can't talk
Speaker 2: about it because that might look poorly upon immigrants or
Speaker 2: black people. Do we know how insane that is, how
Speaker 2: awful that is, how bigoted that is? What is it
Speaker 2: that Gad Saturday first would has suicidal empathy? It's there's
Speaker 2: no way the country can survive. But it's best not
Speaker 2: to bring it up because you don't want to be
Speaker 2: seen as a bigot. Who cares if losers call you
Speaker 2: a bigot? Screw them. We all get it. They don't count,
Speaker 2: they don't matter. They're not good enough to be at
Speaker 2: our table, certainly at my UFC event. No, gosh, no,
Speaker 2: they don't get to share brisk with me. You get
Speaker 2: to share brisket with me. But they don't get to
Speaker 2: share brisket with me. They get no brisket. They think
Speaker 2: that it's okay that we have fraud. It's not okay
Speaker 2: that we have fraud. It's not okay that people get abused.
Speaker 2: It's not okay that the citizen gets ripped off. Throw
Speaker 2: these people out of the country or throw them in jail,
Speaker 2: depending depending on their circumstance. We owe them nothing. We
Speaker 2: owe the fraudster nothing. The General Services Administration, which oversees
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty six billion dollars in federal contracts,
Speaker 2: is joining the Anti Fraud Task Force. Now, I do
Speaker 2: say to you that I don't quite understand how that's
Speaker 2: remotely possible, considering how were they not already looking for
Speaker 2: the fraud anyway? Did they have nobody looking to make
Speaker 2: sure that the one hundred and twenty six billion they
Speaker 2: administer a year after year after year after year is
Speaker 2: actually going to where it's supposed to go and being
Speaker 2: utilized for the purpose it's supposed to be utilized for.
Speaker 2: That would seem very weird to me. The GSA is
Speaker 2: the federal government central contracting and real estate agency, building services,
Speaker 2: and goods agencies rely on to operate. The GSA quote
Speaker 2: sits at the center of the federal acquisition and contracting ecosystem,
Speaker 2: making us a critical force in the fight against fraud.
Speaker 2: This according to the GSA administrator, Edward forced Well, I
Speaker 2: even though this should already be happening, it's super weird
Speaker 2: that maybe it isn't happening. And I've got many questions.
Speaker 2: The more the merrier, the more the merrier. Eliminating the
Speaker 2: fraud is everything, absolutely everything, and how in the world
Speaker 2: could we begin to think otherwise.
Speaker 5: In just two months, we've exposed billions of dollars in
Speaker 5: benefits that have been stolen from the American people. We
Speaker 5: referred over twenty two billion dollars in fraudulent small business
Speaker 5: loans back to.
Speaker 4: The Treasury for collection.
Speaker 5: We deferred more than one point three billion dollars in
Speaker 5: fraudulent Medicaid reimbursements that were coming from various states, particularly California.
Speaker 5: We put a six month hold on enrollments for new
Speaker 5: hospice and home health care providers because so many of
Speaker 5: the newer hospice providers we're not actually providing hospice.
Speaker 4: Services, but we're just focused on frauds.
Speaker 5: So we're going to cut that out for a little
Speaker 5: bit and try to get to a place where we
Speaker 5: can actually certify that the people providing hospice services are
Speaker 5: actually providing those very necessary and important services. We recover
Speaker 5: taxpayer funds from the one hundred and thirty five billion
Speaker 5: dollars stolen after the floodgates were open. In the immediate
Speaker 5: aftermath of COVID, we have found six point three billion
Speaker 5: dollars in suspected fraudulent government contracts, which were mostly awarded
Speaker 5: during the last administration, and that has stopped. And finally,
Speaker 5: we've blocked sixteen million dollars in studentiate fraud that should
Speaker 5: have gone to young pe people trying to get an education,
Speaker 5: but instead we're going to fraudsters.
Speaker 4: And I think the theme here.
Speaker 5: Of the Anti Fraud Task Force up to this point
Speaker 5: has really been that we're protecting two classes of victims.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 5: We're protecting the American taxpayers who shouldn't have their money
Speaker 5: stolen by fraudsters, and of course we're protecting the people
Speaker 5: who need these services.
Speaker 4: Fraud is not a victimless crime.
Speaker 5: This is not somebody gets to make some money for
Speaker 5: violating the law and otherwise it's not.
Speaker 4: A big deal.
Speaker 5: This is people who rely on critical services, students who
Speaker 5: rely on student loan services, sick people who who rely
Speaker 5: on hospice care, a number of small businesses who rely
Speaker 5: on the availability of these loans so that they can
Speaker 5: grow their business and hire people. All of these people,
Speaker 5: all of our fellow Americans, have been taken advantage by fraudsters.
Speaker 4: And the task Force is here to stop it.
Speaker 2: Good. Let us indeed stop it, but let us also
Speaker 2: ask who is okay with it? And then ask why
Speaker 2: would we ever allow those people to be in power?
Speaker 2: If we can't get people to me, you would think,
Speaker 2: you know, we can utilize abortion as an example. We
Speaker 2: can't get people to recognize that it's a life. Some people, man,
Speaker 2: they just they just refuse to accept that fact. And
Speaker 2: you're not going to win them over. And that fact
Speaker 2: they turned abortion into their religion.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: It's too personal, it's too intense, they're too out of
Speaker 2: their minds. Okay, leave it to the side. I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't stop fighting on your own. I'm just saying
Speaker 2: in a conversation, leave it to the side. You have
Speaker 2: an aunt and uncle, a cousin, a child, a relative,
Speaker 2: a friend, and you disagree on the politics. If there
Speaker 2: is to be no agreement, I'm sorry, I'm laughing. I
Speaker 2: can't believe this has to be said out loud. It's
Speaker 2: so insane. If we can't agree on the ending of fraud,
Speaker 2: what possibly could we agree on? Hey, listen, we don't
Speaker 2: agree on ending fraud, but at least we both like
Speaker 2: chocolate ice cream. Oh no, no, you can't have chocolate
Speaker 2: ice cream because it's it's it's the cow and it's
Speaker 2: the Okay, so we like we like chocolate dairy free desserts.
Speaker 2: If we can't agree on ending fraud, what exactly are
Speaker 2: we doing? Well? At one moment, I could say, as
Speaker 2: I have been saying, the only way out is through.
Speaker 2: But I want to take it in a different direction.
Speaker 2: Find the people in your life who don't believe that
Speaker 2: we should end fraud, just on the general statement we
Speaker 2: should end fraud, and recognize that those are the people
Speaker 2: who buy comission or omission want to burn it all down.
Speaker 2: They are not us, They not like us. They want
Speaker 2: to see it burn. Show me the person who has
Speaker 2: no interest in ending the fraud wants to defend the fraud,
Speaker 2: And I will show you the person who is not
Speaker 2: an American like you and I, is not rational and
Speaker 2: wants to destroy what it is we have. That person
Speaker 2: and that philosophy and that ideology cannot be put in
Speaker 2: a place of a leadership or power. They cannot be
Speaker 2: allowed to make important decisions. We have to be able
Speaker 2: to be people who say this and recognize this and
Speaker 2: are clear about this. If we can't agree on fraud,
Speaker 2: the people who don't want to end the fraud, they're
Speaker 2: the problem. It's the godfather. The person who comes to
Speaker 2: you to make the deal is the one who betrayed you.
Speaker 2: I can't believe Theyvogoda did that. The people who don't
Speaker 2: want to end the fraud, they're the people who want
Speaker 2: to burn it all down, and they're the people who
Speaker 2: are not allowed to be in power. You cannot vote
Speaker 2: for those people. I'm Tony Katz. This is Tony Katz today.
Speaker 6: And all experts estimate that Iran is not Iran is
Speaker 6: not the enemy that you think it is, mister President,
Speaker 6: and that you're stuck, and that most presidencies get stuck,
Speaker 6: get stymied, get caught in long term situations when they're
Speaker 6: dealing with Iran.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness. We have Mika Prasinski of MS NOW to
Speaker 2: advise the presidents. I mean, what were we going to
Speaker 2: do without her expert analysis? Tony Katz, Tony Katz today,
Speaker 2: good to be with you. The president is not stuck.
Speaker 2: He can unstick himself if he was stuck. He has chosen.
Speaker 2: We're going to engage in negotiation no matter what. Not
Speaker 2: what I would do not my interest, considering of course,
Speaker 2: that there's no one to negotiate with. We've already traded
Speaker 2: fire with the Iranians today. They were threatening ships. We
Speaker 2: took out some missile launchers. They sent drones, We took
Speaker 2: those down. You know, just average stuff for the middle
Speaker 2: of the week, just kind of what we do. Now.
Speaker 2: We can end this by ending this well, Tony, you
Speaker 2: mean troops on the ground. You're gonna have troops on
Speaker 2: the ground anyway. You're gonna go get the enriched uranium.
Speaker 2: Of course, you're gonna have troops on the ground. It's
Speaker 2: gonna be someone. It's gonna be us. It's gonna be
Speaker 2: the French, it's gonna be the Israeli. It's givena the UAE,
Speaker 2: it's maybe the Saudis. Someone's going on the ground. We
Speaker 2: already know this is happening, so we don't have to
Speaker 2: pretend like somehow this is a new or shocking thing.
Speaker 2: But we can end this. You just have to be
Speaker 2: willing to do it. The President has said, I want
Speaker 2: to try it another way. You're stuck. You can't beat
Speaker 2: the Iranians. You just gotta deal with it. You just
Speaker 2: gotta deal with terrorism. Can I say, for the record,
Speaker 2: Mika Brazinski has no business running the country, and thank goodness,
Speaker 2: she doesn't. Thank goodness, she's just there in her cable
Speaker 2: news perch spouting nonsense and not actually doing something that
Speaker 2: could hurt us. Find everything at tonycats dot com. I
Speaker 2: will catch you all tomorrow. Everyone, be good, Take care,