The Problem with Jon Stewart (2021) s02e02 Episode Script
Where Is Our Tax Money Going?
[audience cheering, applauding]
Hey!
Whoa. Thank you.
No! Good evening.
My name is Jon Stewart. Please, sit.
Oh, I'm excited. Tonight's show,
we're talking death and taxes, bitches.
Whoo.
In these uncertain times, they're really
the only two things we can count on.
Taxes,
you can always count on to infuriate you.
And death, you can always count on
to prove that
the Jews were right all along.
[audience chuckling]
No, I actually don't even know
what Jews believe-- [stammers]
It's probably in the Torah,
but, uh, don't spoil it for me.
Don't tell me how it ends, please, guys.
Do we make it?
Probably.
-[audience laughing]
Hating taxes
is America's founding principle,
and we're still as mad about it today
as we were in 1776.
I go to the grocery store, guess what?
I pay taxes.
I go buy tires for my Ranger, I pay taxes.
Everything we do, we pay taxes.
I freaking hate the government
and all these stupid taxes.
[chanting] No more taxes.
No more taxes.
[parent]
[audience laughing]
[cries]
[audience laughing]
-[imitates crying]
Ah, the plaintive wail of
the young libertarian.
[imitating crying] "Why should I pay
for infrastructure I don't even use?"
[cries]
Americans can't make a buck
without Uncle Sam reaching
his dirty little paw down our pants.
We pay federal taxes
-[cash register rings]
state taxes
-[cash register rings]
property taxes
-[cash register rings]
tax on gas
-[rings]
alcohol, cigarettes
-[ringing continues]
diapers, tampons, clams.
There's even a tax on sound effects.
[foghorn blows]
-[slide whistle]
[siren wails]
-[person moans]
[person, on speaker] Oh, yeah.
-[audience laughing]
[laughs]
It sounded like an ocean liner just came.
I don't know
[audience laughing]
[Jon] We gotta be the most taxed people
in the world.
What do we got there?
Really? Eight percent is the average tax
burden in the United States of America?
That can't be right.
The point is this, it's low.
Lower than you'd think.
So, I mean, if we're mad,
those 38 percent-paying,
meatball-eating Scandis
[audience laughing]
must be absolutely outraged.
I love to pay my taxes.
[in Swedish]
[in English] I pay because, uh,
I think it-- the system works.
Yeah, I like pay taxes.
[audience laughing, applauding]
From your lighthouse
in an Ingmar Bergman movie?
[audience laughing]
By the way,
that gentleman is now available at IKEA.
He's called [speaks gibberish]
But these folks bring up
an interesting point.
They seem pleased to pay taxes
because their system is working. Why?
[Swedish person]
We don't have to worry about getting sick,
we don't have to worry about insurances.
Day care for our kids, free school.
When you go give birth, it's almost free.
[voice-over] Things in Finland's
government-issued baby box
that just make sense.
All the pads for your new leaking body.
Condoms so don't you pop out another one
right away.
They get a fuck box?
-[audience laughing]
You go to Finland,
you get a taxpayer-funded fuck box?
Although I guess, you know, to be fair,
any box could be a fuck box if you're
[audience laughing]
Pandemic, two and a half years in,
you know.
"You gonna finish that Happy Meal?
No, no. I don't want the food."
"Just really like the box."
Anyway.
But those are socialist countries.
Ice hippies.
Surely countries
that don't use reindeer bones for money
are singing a different tune.
If you're diabetic, your prescriptions
are free, so I don't have to pay.
[in French]
and an excellent health care system.
[translator, in English]
The children get free medical care.
There is no extra charge, whether for
regular checkups, for treatments,
or for prescription medicine.
Wow. It's amazing what you can pay for
when you haven't been allowed
to have an army.
Now
-[audience exclaiming]
Oh, right, I invaded Poland. Yeah!
It was me!
In 2022, Americans paid almost
five trillion dollars to the government
in federal taxes alone.
So what do we get?
I've spent many days on the phone
crying with the insurance
because I can't not let my daughter
have her medicine.
There was no way we-- I was gonna
be able to ever afford day care.
No vacation, no benefits.
$65,000 in student loan debt.
I can't afford to retire.
I feel like I'll be in debt
the rest of my life.
So what accounts for the vast chasm
between their satisfaction
in other countries
and our, let me check my notes,
debt for the rest of our lives?
Two reasons.
One: what the government
spends its money on.
In America, almost one-fifth of
all the money collected in federal taxes
goes to defense.
Eight hundred billion dollars.
We spent more than the next nine largest
industrial countries combined
on defense spending.
If nearly 20% of all your money
is going to defending a thing,
chances are
that thing is going to deteriorate
into something not worth defending.
Which brings us to point number two:
how the money is spent.
Not where, but how.
We do put 1.4 trillion into health care
and we put $200 billion into education,
but Americans are still
paying out of pocket
for insurance deductibles,
prescription medicines,
still taking out loans for college,
and wondering where our fuck boxes are.
[audience laughing]
Having a baby in America
can run you almost $20,000.
And for what?
They depreciate as soon as you take them
out of the hospital.
[audience laughing]
Not to rain on-- There's a couple here
having their first baby.
I-- They-- It gets better.
[audience laughing]
I wish I had never met them in warm-up.
We're not going bankrupt in this country
because of our taxes,
we're going bankrupt because of all
the things we're paying for out of pocket
that other countries pay for with taxes.
Because here's how the system works.
The basic tax proposition is simple.
You pay taxes to the government
in the form of the money.
The government pools that money
and uses it to provide the people
with essential goods and services
that they need.
That would be efficient,
but there's one catch.
We can't do it that way,
because getting anything
directly from the government
or through cost-controlled industries
would be considered
[thunder rumbling]
[snickers]
socialism.
-[audience laughing]
[chuckles]
-[audience laughing]
There was big discussion
on whether the thunderclap
should come after "socialism"
or before "socialism",
and I thought, "Let's try before,
because I'm an old man
and I don't know where I am."
[audience chuckling]
In this country, we've got a different
system for getting the things we need.
Take health care.
We pay taxes to the government,
there's the money,
and the government gives our money
to a middleman:
for-profit insurance companies
or for-profit health providers.
And the insurance companies
provide the health coverage
in exchange for maybe
some more money from us.
And a deductible
that covers not everything,
certainly not your teeth or your skin
or your eyes.
It's a pretty good system
if you own an insurance company.
Anybody here?
Anybody?
Make some noise if you own an insurance
Aetna in the hizzy? No? Nothing?
Companies like UnitedHealth and Aetna
collect 70% of their health plan revenue
from government programs.
Humana, 90%.
These health plan businesses
would not exist without our tax money.
We keep them afloat.
And yet, which customer seems happier
with their investment?
[audience chuckling]
Medical costs are the largest driver
of bankruptcy in this country.
Meanwhile, those companies made
over $40 billion in profits in 2021 alone.
And it's not just health care.
It's pharma.
It's oil and gas.
It's higher education.
Taxpayers subsidize these industries,
who then take their profits,
and we still pay so-called
free market rates for their product.
It's a classic double-dip.
And thus,
the problem with taxes.
The American system of taxation
and government services
is the worst episode of Shark Tank ever.
Shell, Aetna, Pfizer,
they all come into the tank
looking for a billion dollar investment
in exchange for 0% of their company.
We don't own any of it.
We don't even get to leverage
our buying power to control costs.
We don't even get
a fucking employee discount.
[audience chuckling]
Our taxes guarantee customers and funding
to for-profit companies
but do almost nothing to lower the price
of the shit we desperately need
from those for-profit companies.
So we get the worst possible service
for the highest possible price.
Our tax is a wealth redistribution scheme.
It redirects our money
from the middle class to the middleman.
You need medicine?
For over a decade,
our tax money has funded every
new pharmaceutical to hit the market.
Every single one.
Xtandi, Neupro, Mirapex,
Jizzadrene, Ana-Lex.
[audience laughing]
Ball o' jizz.
-[audience laughing]
In exchange, we pay more
for prescription drugs
than any other developed country.
-[audience member] Wow.
College education?
Our federal tax dollars
go directly to for-profit colleges.
Seventy percent of their revenue
comes from the taxpayer.
Return on investment?
You'll pay more for college here
than almost anywhere else in the world.
And "wow" is right.
The audience is-- Their minds are blown!
[audience chuckling]
But hope is on the horizon.
As we speak, there is a hero
working on the taxpayers' behalf.
A middleman for the little man,
if you will.
[audience member laughing]
[audience laughing]
[audience member laughing]
-[audience laughing]
I don't know why we worked so hard
on everything else.
[audience laughing]
-[chuckling]
A middleman for the little man.
Hell of a bumper sticker.
This middleman is a consulting company
called McKinsey
[audience member exclaims]
-and it's been hired-- Wait.
[audience chuckling]
McKinsey's been hired by our government
to rethink, quote,
"public-sector contract negotiations
to secure value for taxpayers."
I believe the government pays McKinsey
tens of millions of dollars
for the work they do for us.
So let's meet them.
We don't do small stuff,
we do the big stuff. The big insights.
To help governments
-Reshape some of the biggest problems.
At our heart, we're a firm of people
who like helping other people.
Wow.
-[audience chuckling]
The new season of Severance looks amazing.
[audience laughing]
Most recently,
we learned McKinsey did a good thing.
They helped find a way
to lower prescription drug prices
by making generic drugs
more available to the public.
It was a win, but not really a clean one.
Because unfortunately,
the pharmaceutical companies
hired their own powerful consulting firm
to help them raise prescription drug
prices in the United States.
That firm, say it with me, McKinsey!
-[audience] McKinsey.
[audience laughing]
-[chuckles]
Motherfucker!
While we were paying McKinsey
millions of dollars to bring prices down,
pharma was paying them to bring prices up.
How much did pharma pay McKinsey?
Information not available.
Error message: 404 file not found.
Now, last year
we tried a different method.
Simple tax proposition
that delivered value
straight to the taxpayer.
We expanded the Child Tax Credit
and gave money directly to parents
every month.
How did that go?
Child Tax Credit money has
really helped us with medical expenses.
I was able to purchase my daughter
school supplies.
Back to school clothes, haircuts,
um, shoes.
It's gonna put us just into that bracket
where we can afford to live somewhere
outside of government housing.
It means we're gonna have a home.
It's gonna change everything.
It's gonna change our whole lives.
The expansion of the Child Tax Credit
alleviated child poverty by close to 30%.
Thirty percent.
-[audience cheers]
Once again,
here's the system we had in place.
Here's the system we put in place.
Guess which one we ended first.
Yeah.
They ended the Child Tax Credit program,
that solved child poverty by 30%.
What the ever-loving fuck.
[audience member laughs]
-So ask yourself this simple question.
What would you say
if you were a shark sitting in the tank
sharking it up
-[audience laughs]
and you were asked for a billion dollar
investment in a company
in return for zero percent equity,
no discounts,
higher prices and shittier service?
You're an [bleep].
Get the [bleep] out of here.
It's a joke. It's a scam.
I don't get this.
-You're just unrealistic.
Take this behind the barn and shoot it.
So for those reasons
I'm out.
-I'm out.
[audience laughs]
And we should be, too.
Take a look at this.
Give me your money.
-I need more money.
I like that
-Money.
Money, money, money.
Give us your money
because we will put it to good use.
That's what we say
but apparently that's not what we do.
Because in reality
We won't
-Give any
Money back
-To Americans and America's children.
And don't expect
-Cheaper oil and gas
For your education or roads.
No child care.
No health care.
-No medicine. No food.
Because
-That's socialism.
[laughing]
-I almost said yeah. Yeah.
It's easier
-Simply to give other people's money
To ExxonMobil.
Pfizer.
-Graft.
Raytheon.
-McKinsey.
Deloitte.
-The Koch brothers.
Tom Steyer and I believe he has a brother.
Big Bird.
-And anybody else who asks.
All of your money
Is better spent
-On things like war
Corporate bailouts
-And my
Cocaine-fueled sex orgies.
USA, USA, USA.
You're getting
-Screwed.
I like that.
Welcome back.
-[audience applauds, cheers]
So, uh, I hope you enjoyed that.
Uh, we think of taxpayer money
when it's wasted as "graft."
But the biggest waste seems to be
that we don't get the buying power
that this amount of money would command.
So, here to discuss how we can get
a better return on our tax investment,
Linda Miller, a ten-year veteran
of the Government Accountability Office,
which is the auditing arm
of the government.
Ameshia Cross, who is an education
advocate working for non-profits,
and has lobbied Congress
on behalf of taxpayers.
And Wendell Potter,
former VP of comms for Cigna,
now a whistleblower
advocating for health care reform.
Hello, welcome.
-[audience cheers, applauds]
I'm gonna throw this out there--
We're gonna start with you, Wendell.
How is this system of, uh,
taxation and redistribution
to corporate entities and middlemen
not legalized corruption?
Well, because it's been legal
for quite some time.
The big companies spend a lot of money,
protection money,
uh, they spend a lot of money
in campaign contributions.
My staff used to dole out campaign cash.
Uh, it's, uh, through--
-[Stewart] When you were at Cigna,
you doled out the campaign cash
and what was the expectation from that?
That they would be there
when you needed them.
That if you needed, uh, them
to vote a certain way on a bill
[Stewart] Mm-hmm.
-uh, you could call on them
and they'd be more likely
to vote the way you want them to.
That's what I-- When I say protection--
-How explicit is that arrangement?
It doesn't need to be explicit.
Uh, when you give a campaign contribution
there is that expectation that, uh--
And these companies have many,
many lobbyists as well too.
Mm-hmm.
-They spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill,
if you're talking about Congress,
and they have easy access
to these lawmakers.
Most folks don't have that kind of access.
I can't tell you how many times
we'll be sitting in the little--
You know, these congressional offices
all have a little sitting area.
And you're waiting
and no one is talking to you,
and then all of a sudden
five, like, pretty heavyset dudes walk out
and you're like, "Who are they?"
And they're like, "Oil lobby."
And they just stroll right past you,
and nobody talks to you.
That I think is the biggest problem,
because at the end of the day,
uh, for massive non-profits,
non-profits that either exist
at the federal level,
like several that I've worked for,
or those that exist in cities
and states across the country,
you do not have a blank check
to write to specific campaigns.
That is not something that we do.
Um, in my role it has largely been
working with specific elected officials,
trying to devise plans
that will help people who need it,
specifically, most recently,
on the student loan debt crisis.
We wanted to have a 50,000,
um, forgiveness as the bare minimum.
And there was so much pushback from banks.
So much pushback
from the lobbyists for banks.
So much pushback from those
who have essentially given money
to various members of Congress,
that that was basically going
to die on the vine.
I've walked into Congress members' offices
with people who have mountains
of student loan debt.
People who are teachers,
whose been fighting the good fight
in districts across this country
where they're bringing toilet paper
for their students,
washing the kids' clothes at school.
-[Stewart] Right.
They're bringing lunches for the students
because they do not have,
uh, food stamp benefits.
It is very difficult to be that person
who is the stand-in essentially
for these families that are suffering.
When you get to
those congressional offices,
who are supposed to be working
on behalf of these people,
in all honesty, it is--
it becomes annoying
because the people
who line those offices outside
when I'm going to meet with them
are all lobbyists.
Those are the people
who are the gatekeepers.
Right. They're the real owners
of the government.
Linda, you're in GAO.
Have we devised an upside down system,
that no matter how you, uh, audit it
won't reveal the true dysfunction
that exists in it?
Uh, well, yeah. I'll start by saying yes.
I wanted to thank you--
-[laughs] We're done here. Thank you.
[audience laughs]
-Yes.
Um, I also wanted to thank you
for giving a shout-out
to the Government Accountability Office.
That's right. I saw a lot of this.
-[audience laughs]
A lot of this. GAO.
-[audience cheers, applauds]
GAO is the most unsung agency
in government.
They return $160 for every one dollar
that we invest in GAO.
[Stewart] Right.
-I think that's a really important point,
is that, you know, oversight is not
something we're seeing a lot of.
There's an enormous amount
of corruption going on.
Not just the lobbying,
which is a significant issue,
you know, buying congressmen,
but there's also buying agency leaders.
There's also buying, you know, big--
-Explain that.
What do you mean by buying agency leaders?
You mean like FDA, that kind of--
Yeah, yeah. Well, like, for instance,
the really big scandal
that the Navy has recently gone under
with, um, he's called "Fat Leonard."
I'm not shaming him. That's just how--
-[Stewart] Understood.
It's what he calls himself.
-Understood.
Um, and he-- and he's now on the lam.
He's cut off his, um, little tag
and he's-- he's--
Shouldn't be too hard to find Fat Leonard,
I wouldn't think.
Yeah. He's-- He's robust.
But he, um--
-[audience laughs, murmurs]
Did I say that?
Again, he asked to be called this.
-I understand.
Uh, so this-- this guy, Francis Leonard,
bought off many senior naval officials
in order to know
where these ships were gonna go
so that he could service those ships
and take all the money.
He was-- There was prostitutes involved.
There was all kinds of, um,
really lascivious and, you know,
kind of sexy, exciting things
-[Stewart] Mm-hmm.
for an oversight community.
Um, and-- and what we saw--
Yeah, we were excited about that.
No, I understand.
-[audience laughs]
You don't get a lot of the sexy audits.
-No, yeah.
No, that's good.
-Yeah. It's a lot of numbers usually.
Um--
-Here's what's shocking.
So, uh, all agencies at government level
have to undergo an audit.
And speaking of the Department of Defense,
they're the one agency
that's never passed an audit.
Correct.
-Not once.
And they have this terrible scandal
with Robust Leonard,
and they have all these other situations.
And the penalty and accountability
for their corruption
and for their malfeasance
was an enormous jump in their budget.
They got almost $100 billion more
into their budget,
after we ended 20 years of war
and they failed their audit.
Yeah.
-What are we supposed to make of that?
There's no incentives.
I'm not even exaggerating.
There are no incentives, for--
almost at any level of government,
to be accountable to the taxpayers.
The-- The concept of program integrity
is really, really, really missing.
The focus a lot in Congress is
let's put a program out
and then look how great that is.
Look, we put this program, everybody.
Isn't this great?
-Right.
They put the press release
and then walk away.
The program then is being fleeced by
a million types of private-- of companies.
And how frustrating is that for you,
Ameshia,
because you see these programs
going out and you see the giant trough
that people are dipping into
from private companies
and contractors and all these things.
And you're with people
that need this help.
And you can't get the access.
The belief is
that it's just not working for them.
And to be honest, it's not.
A lot of places have received funding
for violence prevention,
have received funding
for, um, educational supports
for students who are falling behind
for various reasons.
And at the end of the day,
that money is like Puff the Magic Dragon.
Nobody has any idea where it's going
but it's not touching the communities
that need it the most,
even though those are the people
who have been stomping the ground.
And it makes my position
extremely difficult
because I have to believe
that things can get better.
And because there aren't that many people
who are lobbyists "for the people."
So, when you walk into this
you know what you're up against,
but there's also a recognition
that somebody has to shake the ship.
Somebody has to change.
-[Stewart] Terribly frustrating.
And it seems like
we're moving in the opposite direction.
Because we're increasing privatization.
Like Medicare proved to be
an incredibly popular program.
And so we went the other way
and said, "What if we turn that
into another trough?" and spiraled costs.
How is that privatization
enriching middlemen?
Well, it's-it's enriching the big, uh,
few big companies.
There are seven companies
that are for-profit companies.
Their stock is traded on
the New York Stock Exchange.
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed,
the stock of those companies
has increased from--
Like Cigna, where I used to work,
about 1,000%
Wow.
-since the ACA was passed.
United Health Care, probably 5,000%.
That's where the money is from.
The Medicare program
has become the big cash cow
for insurance companies.
We talk about the Medicare,
you'll hear politicians talk about,
uh, the Medicare trust fund
is gonna go broke.
One reason is because the government
is overpaying these companies.
-[Stewart] Right.
Not only are they, uh--
Not only is it being privatized,
but the government, uh,
several years ago,
decided to pay these companies bonuses
to get them into this program.
And we're just about a year or two away
from the majority of people on Medicare
being enrolled in one of these plans.
For these companies, some of the times,
we're 90% of their business,
70% of their business.
We are an enormous profit center for them.
Why can we not leverage
that purchase power for better deals,
lower prices,
uh, and-- and better function?
Well, I think because,
as we were talking about earlier,
there's a really, really powerful lobby.
I mean, one of the things we saw
right after the CARES Act was passed
and the Paycheck Protection Program
was pass-- was created
and the banks made a lot of money in fees.
A lot of money. What we saw
when we were doing oversight
was banks were creating, you know,
three or four entities
to-- in order to get
three or four times the fees.
They passed another law
to re-up PPP nine months later
and they added six billion dollars in fees
for banks,
and they reduced the accountability--
-And that is the appropriators,
and that's where the heart of it lies.
We're gonna go talk with the chair
of the House Appropriations Committee
to get some sense of what-- why is this.
Ameshia,
I'll give the last word to the taxpayer,
to the advocate for the taxpayer.
What would you like to see in a system
that functions with more fairness
and more responsibility?
One that's responsive to taxpayer needs,
one that meets the goals of the taxpayers.
As someone who has
had several family members,
including my mom and my grandmother,
pass away from cancer
because of some of the things
that we mentioned earlier,
with the fight to actually get
your health insurance to pay out
for things you need to survive,
we need to make sure that we have a system
that fights for the people as much
as expected as us, as Americans,
are fighting for our democracy.
Because our democracy is not currently
functioning in the way that it should.
so that means accountability.
-That's the issue.
Your money goes in, it goes in for taxes
and what comes back to you
is something not worth that value.
No-- No return on investment.
Wendell, Ameshia, Linda,
thank you guys so much for being with us.
[audience applauds, cheers]
Take a look at this.
[narrator] Here's to the middlemen.
The pushers, the takers,
the PowerPoint makers
that America depends on for something.
They don't build our roads
or provide our health care
or teach our children or grow our food.
They're at a desk somewhere,
making a call to another guy
to do some other thing.
Or filling out a form that allows
the thing to go to the place,
directing the money to the other money.
Making sure the what-chama
gets to the who-chama.
Listen, we don't know what they do.
Without them, we'd be fine.
And things would probably be cheaper.
So here's to them.
You middlemen motherfuckers.
You sick,
slicked-backed hair suck-ass twats.
Paid for by the American taxpayers.
Go get fucked.
[audience applauds]
Now
the Appropriations Committee
is one of the most lobbied committees
in Washington,
and they also happen to decide
where our tax money goes.
So, uh, I figured why not go down there,
speak to the chairwoman,
maybe do a little lobbying myself.
Congresswoman
-Yes.
Rosa DeLauro, thank you so much
for joining us. Democrat, Connecticut.
Chair of the House
Appropriations Committee.
You got it.
Appropriations is,
if you're gonna be on a committee
'cause you're the-- This is the bank.
-That's right. Mm-hmm.
So we're talking about how
Americans hate to pay taxes.
If you were to do an overlay
of what people said they needed
versus what they get
-Well--
and some of that has to do with,
we allow corporations to use
the American government
as a trough filled with customers,
and we don't ask anything of them
for the priority of having access
to those customers.
So their profits go up,
their prices go up.
We get caught in a spiral
in the American government
where the amount of dollars that we have
to pay out to get those same services,
it seems--
-Well, that's our problem.
One of my roles in my job is,
I feel, is we have to let people know
Mm-hmm.
-what are the kinds of things
that we're engaged in, uh, that their
taxpayer dollars are being used for.
We have shifted funding,
so that we are now,
where there were cuts before,
we are now shifting,
so we have increase in dollars
for national institutes of health,
for mental health, for childcare,
for early childhood education.
Mm-hmm.
-Education in general.
Your mom was a schoolteacher.
Um--
-What?
Yeah, so public education--
-She never told me that.
Public education, transportation.
-Right.
Pandemic preparedness.
-Right.
We were not ready.
So we have moved dollars
in that direction. And I--
Is the government looking at it
from the wrong end?
So we're basically providing customers
to private institutions.
The government is saying--
Obamacare is a great example.
We're not giving people health care.
We're giving people a voucher
that they can give to Aetna
or Blue Cross Blue Shield
or somebody else,
and they will get their health insurance
through this private company,
but we don't control cost.
You know [stammers]
you talked about health care.
Historically,
the federal government has not been able
to negotiate the price
of prescription drugs.
Right.
We now have that ability.
-Right.
And so--
-But, see, that seems insane.
Well, it may seem insane,
but you're working in an institution--
That's insane.
-That-- That-- [stammers]
You know, you have two political parties,
you have different philosophies.
Mm-hmm.
-Look, I was here
on that bill when we dealt with
the negotiation of Part D of Medicare
Right.
-when we're up all night.
Mm-hmm.
-You know, there were
between the House and the Senate,
536, uh, 535 members.
They prohibited us
from being able to negotiate price,
but we vote on these things.
-Right.
And that is critical.
You have to have the votes to pass this.
-Right.
So, when you're negotiating that bill,
how many lobbyists were there?
Oh, 600 or more.
-Mm-hmm.
And how many of those lobbyists
were taxpayers saying,
"Wait, why are--"
-Yeah.
"Why are you privatizing something
and it's going to spiral
the cost of my things?"
In other words, is this system
that we've set up, give no access--
We're the ones footing the bill.
-There is access. There is access.
I'm going to point to you on access
-Okay.
because this is--
What your recent advocacy
Right.
-your recent work,
veterans, et cetera, you know,
it took [stammers]
it took a while and [stammers]
there was the setback there,
but you advocated for something to happen
that makes a difference in people's lives
and saving their lives.
And that happened.
So--
-That happened.
If-- If--
-Not because you didn't-- I--
If I may?
-Yeah.
So, for 10 years
-Yeah.
those folks knocked on doors here
-Yeah.
and got nowhere.
-I hear ya.
And the threat of cameras--
It-- It can't be that for the American
taxpayer to get some foothold on policy,
they've gotta find
a celebrity spokesperson
Yeah. [stammers]
-that comes in.
Are we not recognizing how broken
and corrupt a system is,
that when you're negotiating
Medicare Part D,
which for the most part affects people
above the age of, what, 65?
Mm-hmm.
-Who are going for the things,
and none of them are here,
but 600 lobbyists,
the majority of whom are from
insurance companies and Big Pharma--
Yeah, but-- [stammers]
-Is that a system--
I'm not disputing
-Yeah. Yeah.
because, look-- I really am not.
The process is maddening.
Mm-hmm.
-It can be frustrating,
but like you, you don't give up,
like others that don't give up.
Right.
-I don't give up.
You just keep at it
-But the point is--
and we are making strides.
Are we making incremental strides,
and are there foundational changes
that we need to start thinking about--
There is a paradigm shift in moving this.
-Right.
It's like the--
moving the Titanic, if you will. And--
Right. Please don't--
Can't we just move a different boat?
Let's move a boat that actually made it.
-[stammers] Made it. Okay.
We're gonna make it.
-Yeah, that's not--
Okay. Yeah.
-We are going to make it.
You now have a focus on children,
on families
Understood.
-on education, on health care,
on small businesses
-Yes.
on the environment, on veterans,
and that, as I said, is a paradigm shift
-Yes.
in where federal resources
are being used. Now--
But it's not just--
it's not just where they're being used
And for whom.
-it's-- it's how they're being used.
Taxpayers are angry because they feel
like they put all this money out
but they don't get the value back.
It's a middleman system
rather than a system that's more direct.
Well-- But I--
-And is that-- and is that the problem?
Well, yeah, but I-- [stammers]
-Are we getting value with
Yes.
-the amount of money that comes in.
We-- We are.
-Do you think we're getting the value
we should be getting?
Well, that's a different question. Yes--
[stammers]
That's the question.
-Well, no, it's not,
because it is where we are
trying to address that
Yeah.
-to be able to do that.
You know, when-- After we passed
the, um, the Rescue Plan,
I went all over my district.
-Right.
People, for the first time
in a very long time, Jon, said,
"Rosa, if it hadn't been
for the federal government,
my business would not be here today."
Hospitals, "Rosa, we could not
have survived. We were going under."
But PPP and those programs in the pandemic
were the opposite of everything
that the government has done
over the last 50 years.
It was direct payment, it was immediate.
-Well--
How do we change the system
to deliver value that's universal--
I-I don't know how to convince you
-[Stewart laughs]
that we are [stammers]
-Yes.
really working to, uh, to try to do that.
That, for me,
is what needs to be conveyed,
so that the public understands what role
that government has in your lives.
Is that shifted here because the lobbyists
have such access to the halls of Congress
and the people don't to the same extent?
Is that part of it?
Yeah, I think the lobbyists have--
Yeah, I think-- I think it's--
So would that be--
Would a fundamental change occur
by finding a way to limit their access
and their financial ability?
Look, you are a powerful voice
for all of this,
but you have to play the game too.
McDonnell Douglas gave you $70,000. They--
No, and it's not McDonnell,
it's Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin. I'm sorry.
-Lockheed Martin.
McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed Martin.
-United Technologies.
You know what I'm saying?
-Yeah.
So that's a defense contractor.
Defense contractors spend tens of millions
of dollars lobbying this government.
And their return is hundreds of billions
of dollars.
The American taxpayer doesn't get
the return on investment
that its money should warrant.
Yeah--
-For someone like you
to have to play that game as well,
when, I think,
clearly from the way you speak,
you're aghast by it.
Doesn't that show how entrenched
those interests are here?
The issue is,
how we go about creating a balance.
Right.
I view that that is what my role
and responsibility is to do,
is to create that balance.
-Right.
Is to shift these resources.
Is there a more robust auditing process--
We do. We do that all of the time.
I'm gonna give you a very good example.
-Yes.
That's what I'm talking about.
-I think. I hope you do.
Look at what happened
with this infant formula crisis, okay?
You had a corporation
who sold a contaminated product.
Mm-hmm.
-Okay?
IG is looking into that and I'll get--
and FDA, an agency
that dragged their feet looking at this.
The whistleblower's report
comes out in October,
no one interviews him until December,
nothing happens until February
with a recall.
Infants at risk, several die, et cetera.
-Mm-hmm.
No supply on the shelf.
So we have health issue
and a supply issue,
and there's not one or the other.
We have to deal with both.
And a monopoly issue
in that there's only--
Now that I want to go
to what's fundamental,
because you asked about fundamental.
-Yes.
For me, what's fundamental to that
is the consolidation of the industry.
Yes.
-Four corporations have
Right. Right.
-the market on infant formula.
Abbott has 43% of the infant formula,
most of which is served
through the WIC program.
Right.
-I am looking at the consolidate--
First and foremost, IG is doing--
-Haven't you just made my point for me?
No, but listen to me, IG--
-Yeah.
But you're saying
it's not being done. It is. IG--
No, it's not that it's not being done,
it's that the system is designed
for that outcome.
We give-- How much of their-- 43--
-It's not designed.
It's moved in that direction.
Let's unravel that.
But that's--
-Let's unravel it and we can.
That's your point.
-[chuckles] Right.
That's your point. I'm there. But it's--
-Right.
But what I'm saying is
your example is a perfect encapsulation
of the way this system operates
to the detriment of the taxpayer.
So you have a company that owns 40%
of a really important public health issue,
which is baby formula, right?
-Right.
So that should never have been
allowed to happen.
Right.
-So somewhere,
in terms of corporate oversight,
we never should allow that to happen.
Right.
-Second of all,
the government is providing a tremendous
amount of money to Abbott
to make this baby formula
and yet, doesn't leverage the fact
that they're Abbott's biggest customer
to make the changes that would
allow this to be more resilient.
An agency of the government did that.
And that's what we're investigating.
[stammers]
I understand what you're saying.
You see my point?
-I do understand your point,
but I'm not a-- a doomsday--
I'm gonna [stammers]
I understand you're not doomsday.
I'm just telling you
that scenario is how--
It's not an aberration.
It's how the government operates
and it leads to those outcomes
more frequently than not.
And that's the thing that fundamentally
feels like it has to change.
Well, we can change it.
We can change it.
-Oh.
Well, why didn't you tell me that
at first, Rosa?
But it's not easy. It's not easy.
I believe you. I feel your fire.
I feel it.
-We have the wherewithal to do that.
You have to stand up and fight.
You can't get tired.
You can't get [stammers] you know?
My mother, God rest her soul,
died five years ago at age 103.
What?
-And she said to me always,
taught me many things, but, "Never give up
and don't take no for an answer."
Right.
-So those are guiding principles.
Right, and government has a responsibility
then to show its competence
and to show, you know
-That's right.
that it has some oversight
and accountability.
Yeah. No, oversight, I believe in that.
You're with it. All right, beautiful.
-I'm there. I'm there.
You're a patient and tenacious person
and I appreciate you.
Thank you.
-[audience applauding, cheering]
I don't understand, why didn't my hair
turn purple when I got old?
[audience laughing]
That's our show.
I hope you're still mad about taxes,
but perhaps in a different way
than you were before.
If you want to quit your job
and become a tax detective
here's a great starting place,
or you can check out our website.
Be sure to clear your cookies first,
unless you want targeted ads
that come from me.
[audience laughing]
We also have a podcast
that I record naked.
I have a tattoo of a T-shirt on my body.
You think I'm wearing a T-shirt,
but it's not a T-shirt, it's a tattoo.
All right, everybody, that's my time.
Here's your headliner,
the funniest man alive,
and now here it is, your Moment of Cruz.
Hi, I'm Ted Cruz.
Well, it's happened again, it's tax day.
I don't think it's any coincidence
that the month of April
begins with April Fool's Day
and then two weeks later tax day comes.
[audience laughing, applauding]
[audience cheering]
Hey!
Whoa. Thank you.
No! Good evening.
My name is Jon Stewart. Please, sit.
Oh, I'm excited. Tonight's show,
we're talking death and taxes, bitches.
Whoo.
In these uncertain times, they're really
the only two things we can count on.
Taxes,
you can always count on to infuriate you.
And death, you can always count on
to prove that
the Jews were right all along.
[audience chuckling]
No, I actually don't even know
what Jews believe-- [stammers]
It's probably in the Torah,
but, uh, don't spoil it for me.
Don't tell me how it ends, please, guys.
Do we make it?
Probably.
-[audience laughing]
Hating taxes
is America's founding principle,
and we're still as mad about it today
as we were in 1776.
I go to the grocery store, guess what?
I pay taxes.
I go buy tires for my Ranger, I pay taxes.
Everything we do, we pay taxes.
I freaking hate the government
and all these stupid taxes.
[chanting] No more taxes.
No more taxes.
[parent]
[audience laughing]
[cries]
[audience laughing]
-[imitates crying]
Ah, the plaintive wail of
the young libertarian.
[imitating crying] "Why should I pay
for infrastructure I don't even use?"
[cries]
Americans can't make a buck
without Uncle Sam reaching
his dirty little paw down our pants.
We pay federal taxes
-[cash register rings]
state taxes
-[cash register rings]
property taxes
-[cash register rings]
tax on gas
-[rings]
alcohol, cigarettes
-[ringing continues]
diapers, tampons, clams.
There's even a tax on sound effects.
[foghorn blows]
-[slide whistle]
[siren wails]
-[person moans]
[person, on speaker] Oh, yeah.
-[audience laughing]
[laughs]
It sounded like an ocean liner just came.
I don't know
[audience laughing]
[Jon] We gotta be the most taxed people
in the world.
What do we got there?
Really? Eight percent is the average tax
burden in the United States of America?
That can't be right.
The point is this, it's low.
Lower than you'd think.
So, I mean, if we're mad,
those 38 percent-paying,
meatball-eating Scandis
[audience laughing]
must be absolutely outraged.
I love to pay my taxes.
[in Swedish]
[in English] I pay because, uh,
I think it-- the system works.
Yeah, I like pay taxes.
[audience laughing, applauding]
From your lighthouse
in an Ingmar Bergman movie?
[audience laughing]
By the way,
that gentleman is now available at IKEA.
He's called [speaks gibberish]
But these folks bring up
an interesting point.
They seem pleased to pay taxes
because their system is working. Why?
[Swedish person]
We don't have to worry about getting sick,
we don't have to worry about insurances.
Day care for our kids, free school.
When you go give birth, it's almost free.
[voice-over] Things in Finland's
government-issued baby box
that just make sense.
All the pads for your new leaking body.
Condoms so don't you pop out another one
right away.
They get a fuck box?
-[audience laughing]
You go to Finland,
you get a taxpayer-funded fuck box?
Although I guess, you know, to be fair,
any box could be a fuck box if you're
[audience laughing]
Pandemic, two and a half years in,
you know.
"You gonna finish that Happy Meal?
No, no. I don't want the food."
"Just really like the box."
Anyway.
But those are socialist countries.
Ice hippies.
Surely countries
that don't use reindeer bones for money
are singing a different tune.
If you're diabetic, your prescriptions
are free, so I don't have to pay.
[in French]
and an excellent health care system.
[translator, in English]
The children get free medical care.
There is no extra charge, whether for
regular checkups, for treatments,
or for prescription medicine.
Wow. It's amazing what you can pay for
when you haven't been allowed
to have an army.
Now
-[audience exclaiming]
Oh, right, I invaded Poland. Yeah!
It was me!
In 2022, Americans paid almost
five trillion dollars to the government
in federal taxes alone.
So what do we get?
I've spent many days on the phone
crying with the insurance
because I can't not let my daughter
have her medicine.
There was no way we-- I was gonna
be able to ever afford day care.
No vacation, no benefits.
$65,000 in student loan debt.
I can't afford to retire.
I feel like I'll be in debt
the rest of my life.
So what accounts for the vast chasm
between their satisfaction
in other countries
and our, let me check my notes,
debt for the rest of our lives?
Two reasons.
One: what the government
spends its money on.
In America, almost one-fifth of
all the money collected in federal taxes
goes to defense.
Eight hundred billion dollars.
We spent more than the next nine largest
industrial countries combined
on defense spending.
If nearly 20% of all your money
is going to defending a thing,
chances are
that thing is going to deteriorate
into something not worth defending.
Which brings us to point number two:
how the money is spent.
Not where, but how.
We do put 1.4 trillion into health care
and we put $200 billion into education,
but Americans are still
paying out of pocket
for insurance deductibles,
prescription medicines,
still taking out loans for college,
and wondering where our fuck boxes are.
[audience laughing]
Having a baby in America
can run you almost $20,000.
And for what?
They depreciate as soon as you take them
out of the hospital.
[audience laughing]
Not to rain on-- There's a couple here
having their first baby.
I-- They-- It gets better.
[audience laughing]
I wish I had never met them in warm-up.
We're not going bankrupt in this country
because of our taxes,
we're going bankrupt because of all
the things we're paying for out of pocket
that other countries pay for with taxes.
Because here's how the system works.
The basic tax proposition is simple.
You pay taxes to the government
in the form of the money.
The government pools that money
and uses it to provide the people
with essential goods and services
that they need.
That would be efficient,
but there's one catch.
We can't do it that way,
because getting anything
directly from the government
or through cost-controlled industries
would be considered
[thunder rumbling]
[snickers]
socialism.
-[audience laughing]
[chuckles]
-[audience laughing]
There was big discussion
on whether the thunderclap
should come after "socialism"
or before "socialism",
and I thought, "Let's try before,
because I'm an old man
and I don't know where I am."
[audience chuckling]
In this country, we've got a different
system for getting the things we need.
Take health care.
We pay taxes to the government,
there's the money,
and the government gives our money
to a middleman:
for-profit insurance companies
or for-profit health providers.
And the insurance companies
provide the health coverage
in exchange for maybe
some more money from us.
And a deductible
that covers not everything,
certainly not your teeth or your skin
or your eyes.
It's a pretty good system
if you own an insurance company.
Anybody here?
Anybody?
Make some noise if you own an insurance
Aetna in the hizzy? No? Nothing?
Companies like UnitedHealth and Aetna
collect 70% of their health plan revenue
from government programs.
Humana, 90%.
These health plan businesses
would not exist without our tax money.
We keep them afloat.
And yet, which customer seems happier
with their investment?
[audience chuckling]
Medical costs are the largest driver
of bankruptcy in this country.
Meanwhile, those companies made
over $40 billion in profits in 2021 alone.
And it's not just health care.
It's pharma.
It's oil and gas.
It's higher education.
Taxpayers subsidize these industries,
who then take their profits,
and we still pay so-called
free market rates for their product.
It's a classic double-dip.
And thus,
the problem with taxes.
The American system of taxation
and government services
is the worst episode of Shark Tank ever.
Shell, Aetna, Pfizer,
they all come into the tank
looking for a billion dollar investment
in exchange for 0% of their company.
We don't own any of it.
We don't even get to leverage
our buying power to control costs.
We don't even get
a fucking employee discount.
[audience chuckling]
Our taxes guarantee customers and funding
to for-profit companies
but do almost nothing to lower the price
of the shit we desperately need
from those for-profit companies.
So we get the worst possible service
for the highest possible price.
Our tax is a wealth redistribution scheme.
It redirects our money
from the middle class to the middleman.
You need medicine?
For over a decade,
our tax money has funded every
new pharmaceutical to hit the market.
Every single one.
Xtandi, Neupro, Mirapex,
Jizzadrene, Ana-Lex.
[audience laughing]
Ball o' jizz.
-[audience laughing]
In exchange, we pay more
for prescription drugs
than any other developed country.
-[audience member] Wow.
College education?
Our federal tax dollars
go directly to for-profit colleges.
Seventy percent of their revenue
comes from the taxpayer.
Return on investment?
You'll pay more for college here
than almost anywhere else in the world.
And "wow" is right.
The audience is-- Their minds are blown!
[audience chuckling]
But hope is on the horizon.
As we speak, there is a hero
working on the taxpayers' behalf.
A middleman for the little man,
if you will.
[audience member laughing]
[audience laughing]
[audience member laughing]
-[audience laughing]
I don't know why we worked so hard
on everything else.
[audience laughing]
-[chuckling]
A middleman for the little man.
Hell of a bumper sticker.
This middleman is a consulting company
called McKinsey
[audience member exclaims]
-and it's been hired-- Wait.
[audience chuckling]
McKinsey's been hired by our government
to rethink, quote,
"public-sector contract negotiations
to secure value for taxpayers."
I believe the government pays McKinsey
tens of millions of dollars
for the work they do for us.
So let's meet them.
We don't do small stuff,
we do the big stuff. The big insights.
To help governments
-Reshape some of the biggest problems.
At our heart, we're a firm of people
who like helping other people.
Wow.
-[audience chuckling]
The new season of Severance looks amazing.
[audience laughing]
Most recently,
we learned McKinsey did a good thing.
They helped find a way
to lower prescription drug prices
by making generic drugs
more available to the public.
It was a win, but not really a clean one.
Because unfortunately,
the pharmaceutical companies
hired their own powerful consulting firm
to help them raise prescription drug
prices in the United States.
That firm, say it with me, McKinsey!
-[audience] McKinsey.
[audience laughing]
-[chuckles]
Motherfucker!
While we were paying McKinsey
millions of dollars to bring prices down,
pharma was paying them to bring prices up.
How much did pharma pay McKinsey?
Information not available.
Error message: 404 file not found.
Now, last year
we tried a different method.
Simple tax proposition
that delivered value
straight to the taxpayer.
We expanded the Child Tax Credit
and gave money directly to parents
every month.
How did that go?
Child Tax Credit money has
really helped us with medical expenses.
I was able to purchase my daughter
school supplies.
Back to school clothes, haircuts,
um, shoes.
It's gonna put us just into that bracket
where we can afford to live somewhere
outside of government housing.
It means we're gonna have a home.
It's gonna change everything.
It's gonna change our whole lives.
The expansion of the Child Tax Credit
alleviated child poverty by close to 30%.
Thirty percent.
-[audience cheers]
Once again,
here's the system we had in place.
Here's the system we put in place.
Guess which one we ended first.
Yeah.
They ended the Child Tax Credit program,
that solved child poverty by 30%.
What the ever-loving fuck.
[audience member laughs]
-So ask yourself this simple question.
What would you say
if you were a shark sitting in the tank
sharking it up
-[audience laughs]
and you were asked for a billion dollar
investment in a company
in return for zero percent equity,
no discounts,
higher prices and shittier service?
You're an [bleep].
Get the [bleep] out of here.
It's a joke. It's a scam.
I don't get this.
-You're just unrealistic.
Take this behind the barn and shoot it.
So for those reasons
I'm out.
-I'm out.
[audience laughs]
And we should be, too.
Take a look at this.
Give me your money.
-I need more money.
I like that
-Money.
Money, money, money.
Give us your money
because we will put it to good use.
That's what we say
but apparently that's not what we do.
Because in reality
We won't
-Give any
Money back
-To Americans and America's children.
And don't expect
-Cheaper oil and gas
For your education or roads.
No child care.
No health care.
-No medicine. No food.
Because
-That's socialism.
[laughing]
-I almost said yeah. Yeah.
It's easier
-Simply to give other people's money
To ExxonMobil.
Pfizer.
-Graft.
Raytheon.
-McKinsey.
Deloitte.
-The Koch brothers.
Tom Steyer and I believe he has a brother.
Big Bird.
-And anybody else who asks.
All of your money
Is better spent
-On things like war
Corporate bailouts
-And my
Cocaine-fueled sex orgies.
USA, USA, USA.
You're getting
-Screwed.
I like that.
Welcome back.
-[audience applauds, cheers]
So, uh, I hope you enjoyed that.
Uh, we think of taxpayer money
when it's wasted as "graft."
But the biggest waste seems to be
that we don't get the buying power
that this amount of money would command.
So, here to discuss how we can get
a better return on our tax investment,
Linda Miller, a ten-year veteran
of the Government Accountability Office,
which is the auditing arm
of the government.
Ameshia Cross, who is an education
advocate working for non-profits,
and has lobbied Congress
on behalf of taxpayers.
And Wendell Potter,
former VP of comms for Cigna,
now a whistleblower
advocating for health care reform.
Hello, welcome.
-[audience cheers, applauds]
I'm gonna throw this out there--
We're gonna start with you, Wendell.
How is this system of, uh,
taxation and redistribution
to corporate entities and middlemen
not legalized corruption?
Well, because it's been legal
for quite some time.
The big companies spend a lot of money,
protection money,
uh, they spend a lot of money
in campaign contributions.
My staff used to dole out campaign cash.
Uh, it's, uh, through--
-[Stewart] When you were at Cigna,
you doled out the campaign cash
and what was the expectation from that?
That they would be there
when you needed them.
That if you needed, uh, them
to vote a certain way on a bill
[Stewart] Mm-hmm.
-uh, you could call on them
and they'd be more likely
to vote the way you want them to.
That's what I-- When I say protection--
-How explicit is that arrangement?
It doesn't need to be explicit.
Uh, when you give a campaign contribution
there is that expectation that, uh--
And these companies have many,
many lobbyists as well too.
Mm-hmm.
-They spend a lot of time on Capitol Hill,
if you're talking about Congress,
and they have easy access
to these lawmakers.
Most folks don't have that kind of access.
I can't tell you how many times
we'll be sitting in the little--
You know, these congressional offices
all have a little sitting area.
And you're waiting
and no one is talking to you,
and then all of a sudden
five, like, pretty heavyset dudes walk out
and you're like, "Who are they?"
And they're like, "Oil lobby."
And they just stroll right past you,
and nobody talks to you.
That I think is the biggest problem,
because at the end of the day,
uh, for massive non-profits,
non-profits that either exist
at the federal level,
like several that I've worked for,
or those that exist in cities
and states across the country,
you do not have a blank check
to write to specific campaigns.
That is not something that we do.
Um, in my role it has largely been
working with specific elected officials,
trying to devise plans
that will help people who need it,
specifically, most recently,
on the student loan debt crisis.
We wanted to have a 50,000,
um, forgiveness as the bare minimum.
And there was so much pushback from banks.
So much pushback
from the lobbyists for banks.
So much pushback from those
who have essentially given money
to various members of Congress,
that that was basically going
to die on the vine.
I've walked into Congress members' offices
with people who have mountains
of student loan debt.
People who are teachers,
whose been fighting the good fight
in districts across this country
where they're bringing toilet paper
for their students,
washing the kids' clothes at school.
-[Stewart] Right.
They're bringing lunches for the students
because they do not have,
uh, food stamp benefits.
It is very difficult to be that person
who is the stand-in essentially
for these families that are suffering.
When you get to
those congressional offices,
who are supposed to be working
on behalf of these people,
in all honesty, it is--
it becomes annoying
because the people
who line those offices outside
when I'm going to meet with them
are all lobbyists.
Those are the people
who are the gatekeepers.
Right. They're the real owners
of the government.
Linda, you're in GAO.
Have we devised an upside down system,
that no matter how you, uh, audit it
won't reveal the true dysfunction
that exists in it?
Uh, well, yeah. I'll start by saying yes.
I wanted to thank you--
-[laughs] We're done here. Thank you.
[audience laughs]
-Yes.
Um, I also wanted to thank you
for giving a shout-out
to the Government Accountability Office.
That's right. I saw a lot of this.
-[audience laughs]
A lot of this. GAO.
-[audience cheers, applauds]
GAO is the most unsung agency
in government.
They return $160 for every one dollar
that we invest in GAO.
[Stewart] Right.
-I think that's a really important point,
is that, you know, oversight is not
something we're seeing a lot of.
There's an enormous amount
of corruption going on.
Not just the lobbying,
which is a significant issue,
you know, buying congressmen,
but there's also buying agency leaders.
There's also buying, you know, big--
-Explain that.
What do you mean by buying agency leaders?
You mean like FDA, that kind of--
Yeah, yeah. Well, like, for instance,
the really big scandal
that the Navy has recently gone under
with, um, he's called "Fat Leonard."
I'm not shaming him. That's just how--
-[Stewart] Understood.
It's what he calls himself.
-Understood.
Um, and he-- and he's now on the lam.
He's cut off his, um, little tag
and he's-- he's--
Shouldn't be too hard to find Fat Leonard,
I wouldn't think.
Yeah. He's-- He's robust.
But he, um--
-[audience laughs, murmurs]
Did I say that?
Again, he asked to be called this.
-I understand.
Uh, so this-- this guy, Francis Leonard,
bought off many senior naval officials
in order to know
where these ships were gonna go
so that he could service those ships
and take all the money.
He was-- There was prostitutes involved.
There was all kinds of, um,
really lascivious and, you know,
kind of sexy, exciting things
-[Stewart] Mm-hmm.
for an oversight community.
Um, and-- and what we saw--
Yeah, we were excited about that.
No, I understand.
-[audience laughs]
You don't get a lot of the sexy audits.
-No, yeah.
No, that's good.
-Yeah. It's a lot of numbers usually.
Um--
-Here's what's shocking.
So, uh, all agencies at government level
have to undergo an audit.
And speaking of the Department of Defense,
they're the one agency
that's never passed an audit.
Correct.
-Not once.
And they have this terrible scandal
with Robust Leonard,
and they have all these other situations.
And the penalty and accountability
for their corruption
and for their malfeasance
was an enormous jump in their budget.
They got almost $100 billion more
into their budget,
after we ended 20 years of war
and they failed their audit.
Yeah.
-What are we supposed to make of that?
There's no incentives.
I'm not even exaggerating.
There are no incentives, for--
almost at any level of government,
to be accountable to the taxpayers.
The-- The concept of program integrity
is really, really, really missing.
The focus a lot in Congress is
let's put a program out
and then look how great that is.
Look, we put this program, everybody.
Isn't this great?
-Right.
They put the press release
and then walk away.
The program then is being fleeced by
a million types of private-- of companies.
And how frustrating is that for you,
Ameshia,
because you see these programs
going out and you see the giant trough
that people are dipping into
from private companies
and contractors and all these things.
And you're with people
that need this help.
And you can't get the access.
The belief is
that it's just not working for them.
And to be honest, it's not.
A lot of places have received funding
for violence prevention,
have received funding
for, um, educational supports
for students who are falling behind
for various reasons.
And at the end of the day,
that money is like Puff the Magic Dragon.
Nobody has any idea where it's going
but it's not touching the communities
that need it the most,
even though those are the people
who have been stomping the ground.
And it makes my position
extremely difficult
because I have to believe
that things can get better.
And because there aren't that many people
who are lobbyists "for the people."
So, when you walk into this
you know what you're up against,
but there's also a recognition
that somebody has to shake the ship.
Somebody has to change.
-[Stewart] Terribly frustrating.
And it seems like
we're moving in the opposite direction.
Because we're increasing privatization.
Like Medicare proved to be
an incredibly popular program.
And so we went the other way
and said, "What if we turn that
into another trough?" and spiraled costs.
How is that privatization
enriching middlemen?
Well, it's-it's enriching the big, uh,
few big companies.
There are seven companies
that are for-profit companies.
Their stock is traded on
the New York Stock Exchange.
Since the Affordable Care Act was passed,
the stock of those companies
has increased from--
Like Cigna, where I used to work,
about 1,000%
Wow.
-since the ACA was passed.
United Health Care, probably 5,000%.
That's where the money is from.
The Medicare program
has become the big cash cow
for insurance companies.
We talk about the Medicare,
you'll hear politicians talk about,
uh, the Medicare trust fund
is gonna go broke.
One reason is because the government
is overpaying these companies.
-[Stewart] Right.
Not only are they, uh--
Not only is it being privatized,
but the government, uh,
several years ago,
decided to pay these companies bonuses
to get them into this program.
And we're just about a year or two away
from the majority of people on Medicare
being enrolled in one of these plans.
For these companies, some of the times,
we're 90% of their business,
70% of their business.
We are an enormous profit center for them.
Why can we not leverage
that purchase power for better deals,
lower prices,
uh, and-- and better function?
Well, I think because,
as we were talking about earlier,
there's a really, really powerful lobby.
I mean, one of the things we saw
right after the CARES Act was passed
and the Paycheck Protection Program
was pass-- was created
and the banks made a lot of money in fees.
A lot of money. What we saw
when we were doing oversight
was banks were creating, you know,
three or four entities
to-- in order to get
three or four times the fees.
They passed another law
to re-up PPP nine months later
and they added six billion dollars in fees
for banks,
and they reduced the accountability--
-And that is the appropriators,
and that's where the heart of it lies.
We're gonna go talk with the chair
of the House Appropriations Committee
to get some sense of what-- why is this.
Ameshia,
I'll give the last word to the taxpayer,
to the advocate for the taxpayer.
What would you like to see in a system
that functions with more fairness
and more responsibility?
One that's responsive to taxpayer needs,
one that meets the goals of the taxpayers.
As someone who has
had several family members,
including my mom and my grandmother,
pass away from cancer
because of some of the things
that we mentioned earlier,
with the fight to actually get
your health insurance to pay out
for things you need to survive,
we need to make sure that we have a system
that fights for the people as much
as expected as us, as Americans,
are fighting for our democracy.
Because our democracy is not currently
functioning in the way that it should.
so that means accountability.
-That's the issue.
Your money goes in, it goes in for taxes
and what comes back to you
is something not worth that value.
No-- No return on investment.
Wendell, Ameshia, Linda,
thank you guys so much for being with us.
[audience applauds, cheers]
Take a look at this.
[narrator] Here's to the middlemen.
The pushers, the takers,
the PowerPoint makers
that America depends on for something.
They don't build our roads
or provide our health care
or teach our children or grow our food.
They're at a desk somewhere,
making a call to another guy
to do some other thing.
Or filling out a form that allows
the thing to go to the place,
directing the money to the other money.
Making sure the what-chama
gets to the who-chama.
Listen, we don't know what they do.
Without them, we'd be fine.
And things would probably be cheaper.
So here's to them.
You middlemen motherfuckers.
You sick,
slicked-backed hair suck-ass twats.
Paid for by the American taxpayers.
Go get fucked.
[audience applauds]
Now
the Appropriations Committee
is one of the most lobbied committees
in Washington,
and they also happen to decide
where our tax money goes.
So, uh, I figured why not go down there,
speak to the chairwoman,
maybe do a little lobbying myself.
Congresswoman
-Yes.
Rosa DeLauro, thank you so much
for joining us. Democrat, Connecticut.
Chair of the House
Appropriations Committee.
You got it.
Appropriations is,
if you're gonna be on a committee
'cause you're the-- This is the bank.
-That's right. Mm-hmm.
So we're talking about how
Americans hate to pay taxes.
If you were to do an overlay
of what people said they needed
versus what they get
-Well--
and some of that has to do with,
we allow corporations to use
the American government
as a trough filled with customers,
and we don't ask anything of them
for the priority of having access
to those customers.
So their profits go up,
their prices go up.
We get caught in a spiral
in the American government
where the amount of dollars that we have
to pay out to get those same services,
it seems--
-Well, that's our problem.
One of my roles in my job is,
I feel, is we have to let people know
Mm-hmm.
-what are the kinds of things
that we're engaged in, uh, that their
taxpayer dollars are being used for.
We have shifted funding,
so that we are now,
where there were cuts before,
we are now shifting,
so we have increase in dollars
for national institutes of health,
for mental health, for childcare,
for early childhood education.
Mm-hmm.
-Education in general.
Your mom was a schoolteacher.
Um--
-What?
Yeah, so public education--
-She never told me that.
Public education, transportation.
-Right.
Pandemic preparedness.
-Right.
We were not ready.
So we have moved dollars
in that direction. And I--
Is the government looking at it
from the wrong end?
So we're basically providing customers
to private institutions.
The government is saying--
Obamacare is a great example.
We're not giving people health care.
We're giving people a voucher
that they can give to Aetna
or Blue Cross Blue Shield
or somebody else,
and they will get their health insurance
through this private company,
but we don't control cost.
You know [stammers]
you talked about health care.
Historically,
the federal government has not been able
to negotiate the price
of prescription drugs.
Right.
We now have that ability.
-Right.
And so--
-But, see, that seems insane.
Well, it may seem insane,
but you're working in an institution--
That's insane.
-That-- That-- [stammers]
You know, you have two political parties,
you have different philosophies.
Mm-hmm.
-Look, I was here
on that bill when we dealt with
the negotiation of Part D of Medicare
Right.
-when we're up all night.
Mm-hmm.
-You know, there were
between the House and the Senate,
536, uh, 535 members.
They prohibited us
from being able to negotiate price,
but we vote on these things.
-Right.
And that is critical.
You have to have the votes to pass this.
-Right.
So, when you're negotiating that bill,
how many lobbyists were there?
Oh, 600 or more.
-Mm-hmm.
And how many of those lobbyists
were taxpayers saying,
"Wait, why are--"
-Yeah.
"Why are you privatizing something
and it's going to spiral
the cost of my things?"
In other words, is this system
that we've set up, give no access--
We're the ones footing the bill.
-There is access. There is access.
I'm going to point to you on access
-Okay.
because this is--
What your recent advocacy
Right.
-your recent work,
veterans, et cetera, you know,
it took [stammers]
it took a while and [stammers]
there was the setback there,
but you advocated for something to happen
that makes a difference in people's lives
and saving their lives.
And that happened.
So--
-That happened.
If-- If--
-Not because you didn't-- I--
If I may?
-Yeah.
So, for 10 years
-Yeah.
those folks knocked on doors here
-Yeah.
and got nowhere.
-I hear ya.
And the threat of cameras--
It-- It can't be that for the American
taxpayer to get some foothold on policy,
they've gotta find
a celebrity spokesperson
Yeah. [stammers]
-that comes in.
Are we not recognizing how broken
and corrupt a system is,
that when you're negotiating
Medicare Part D,
which for the most part affects people
above the age of, what, 65?
Mm-hmm.
-Who are going for the things,
and none of them are here,
but 600 lobbyists,
the majority of whom are from
insurance companies and Big Pharma--
Yeah, but-- [stammers]
-Is that a system--
I'm not disputing
-Yeah. Yeah.
because, look-- I really am not.
The process is maddening.
Mm-hmm.
-It can be frustrating,
but like you, you don't give up,
like others that don't give up.
Right.
-I don't give up.
You just keep at it
-But the point is--
and we are making strides.
Are we making incremental strides,
and are there foundational changes
that we need to start thinking about--
There is a paradigm shift in moving this.
-Right.
It's like the--
moving the Titanic, if you will. And--
Right. Please don't--
Can't we just move a different boat?
Let's move a boat that actually made it.
-[stammers] Made it. Okay.
We're gonna make it.
-Yeah, that's not--
Okay. Yeah.
-We are going to make it.
You now have a focus on children,
on families
Understood.
-on education, on health care,
on small businesses
-Yes.
on the environment, on veterans,
and that, as I said, is a paradigm shift
-Yes.
in where federal resources
are being used. Now--
But it's not just--
it's not just where they're being used
And for whom.
-it's-- it's how they're being used.
Taxpayers are angry because they feel
like they put all this money out
but they don't get the value back.
It's a middleman system
rather than a system that's more direct.
Well-- But I--
-And is that-- and is that the problem?
Well, yeah, but I-- [stammers]
-Are we getting value with
Yes.
-the amount of money that comes in.
We-- We are.
-Do you think we're getting the value
we should be getting?
Well, that's a different question. Yes--
[stammers]
That's the question.
-Well, no, it's not,
because it is where we are
trying to address that
Yeah.
-to be able to do that.
You know, when-- After we passed
the, um, the Rescue Plan,
I went all over my district.
-Right.
People, for the first time
in a very long time, Jon, said,
"Rosa, if it hadn't been
for the federal government,
my business would not be here today."
Hospitals, "Rosa, we could not
have survived. We were going under."
But PPP and those programs in the pandemic
were the opposite of everything
that the government has done
over the last 50 years.
It was direct payment, it was immediate.
-Well--
How do we change the system
to deliver value that's universal--
I-I don't know how to convince you
-[Stewart laughs]
that we are [stammers]
-Yes.
really working to, uh, to try to do that.
That, for me,
is what needs to be conveyed,
so that the public understands what role
that government has in your lives.
Is that shifted here because the lobbyists
have such access to the halls of Congress
and the people don't to the same extent?
Is that part of it?
Yeah, I think the lobbyists have--
Yeah, I think-- I think it's--
So would that be--
Would a fundamental change occur
by finding a way to limit their access
and their financial ability?
Look, you are a powerful voice
for all of this,
but you have to play the game too.
McDonnell Douglas gave you $70,000. They--
No, and it's not McDonnell,
it's Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed Martin. I'm sorry.
-Lockheed Martin.
McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed Martin.
-United Technologies.
You know what I'm saying?
-Yeah.
So that's a defense contractor.
Defense contractors spend tens of millions
of dollars lobbying this government.
And their return is hundreds of billions
of dollars.
The American taxpayer doesn't get
the return on investment
that its money should warrant.
Yeah--
-For someone like you
to have to play that game as well,
when, I think,
clearly from the way you speak,
you're aghast by it.
Doesn't that show how entrenched
those interests are here?
The issue is,
how we go about creating a balance.
Right.
I view that that is what my role
and responsibility is to do,
is to create that balance.
-Right.
Is to shift these resources.
Is there a more robust auditing process--
We do. We do that all of the time.
I'm gonna give you a very good example.
-Yes.
That's what I'm talking about.
-I think. I hope you do.
Look at what happened
with this infant formula crisis, okay?
You had a corporation
who sold a contaminated product.
Mm-hmm.
-Okay?
IG is looking into that and I'll get--
and FDA, an agency
that dragged their feet looking at this.
The whistleblower's report
comes out in October,
no one interviews him until December,
nothing happens until February
with a recall.
Infants at risk, several die, et cetera.
-Mm-hmm.
No supply on the shelf.
So we have health issue
and a supply issue,
and there's not one or the other.
We have to deal with both.
And a monopoly issue
in that there's only--
Now that I want to go
to what's fundamental,
because you asked about fundamental.
-Yes.
For me, what's fundamental to that
is the consolidation of the industry.
Yes.
-Four corporations have
Right. Right.
-the market on infant formula.
Abbott has 43% of the infant formula,
most of which is served
through the WIC program.
Right.
-I am looking at the consolidate--
First and foremost, IG is doing--
-Haven't you just made my point for me?
No, but listen to me, IG--
-Yeah.
But you're saying
it's not being done. It is. IG--
No, it's not that it's not being done,
it's that the system is designed
for that outcome.
We give-- How much of their-- 43--
-It's not designed.
It's moved in that direction.
Let's unravel that.
But that's--
-Let's unravel it and we can.
That's your point.
-[chuckles] Right.
That's your point. I'm there. But it's--
-Right.
But what I'm saying is
your example is a perfect encapsulation
of the way this system operates
to the detriment of the taxpayer.
So you have a company that owns 40%
of a really important public health issue,
which is baby formula, right?
-Right.
So that should never have been
allowed to happen.
Right.
-So somewhere,
in terms of corporate oversight,
we never should allow that to happen.
Right.
-Second of all,
the government is providing a tremendous
amount of money to Abbott
to make this baby formula
and yet, doesn't leverage the fact
that they're Abbott's biggest customer
to make the changes that would
allow this to be more resilient.
An agency of the government did that.
And that's what we're investigating.
[stammers]
I understand what you're saying.
You see my point?
-I do understand your point,
but I'm not a-- a doomsday--
I'm gonna [stammers]
I understand you're not doomsday.
I'm just telling you
that scenario is how--
It's not an aberration.
It's how the government operates
and it leads to those outcomes
more frequently than not.
And that's the thing that fundamentally
feels like it has to change.
Well, we can change it.
We can change it.
-Oh.
Well, why didn't you tell me that
at first, Rosa?
But it's not easy. It's not easy.
I believe you. I feel your fire.
I feel it.
-We have the wherewithal to do that.
You have to stand up and fight.
You can't get tired.
You can't get [stammers] you know?
My mother, God rest her soul,
died five years ago at age 103.
What?
-And she said to me always,
taught me many things, but, "Never give up
and don't take no for an answer."
Right.
-So those are guiding principles.
Right, and government has a responsibility
then to show its competence
and to show, you know
-That's right.
that it has some oversight
and accountability.
Yeah. No, oversight, I believe in that.
You're with it. All right, beautiful.
-I'm there. I'm there.
You're a patient and tenacious person
and I appreciate you.
Thank you.
-[audience applauding, cheering]
I don't understand, why didn't my hair
turn purple when I got old?
[audience laughing]
That's our show.
I hope you're still mad about taxes,
but perhaps in a different way
than you were before.
If you want to quit your job
and become a tax detective
here's a great starting place,
or you can check out our website.
Be sure to clear your cookies first,
unless you want targeted ads
that come from me.
[audience laughing]
We also have a podcast
that I record naked.
I have a tattoo of a T-shirt on my body.
You think I'm wearing a T-shirt,
but it's not a T-shirt, it's a tattoo.
All right, everybody, that's my time.
Here's your headliner,
the funniest man alive,
and now here it is, your Moment of Cruz.
Hi, I'm Ted Cruz.
Well, it's happened again, it's tax day.
I don't think it's any coincidence
that the month of April
begins with April Fool's Day
and then two weeks later tax day comes.
[audience laughing, applauding]
[audience cheering]