Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / The ACA $350 Billion in Subsidies & a Side of Fraud plus Liberals Lose it over Kennedy Center

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The ACA $350 Billion in Subsidies & a Side of Fraud plus Liberals Lose it over Kennedy Center · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: The Senate is staring down healthcare in a major battle,
0:06
Speaker 1: with Obamacare subsidies set to expire on purpose. Why are
0:12
Speaker 1: they set to expire because Democrats designed it that way. Now,
0:17
Speaker 1: you may ask yourself a question, why would they design
0:20
Speaker 1: a program to expire on purpose? It's pretty simple. Democrats
0:25
Speaker 1: were playing politics. They wanted this to be a political
0:31
Speaker 1: issue that if you don't vote for them, the Democratic Party,
0:35
Speaker 1: that then you can't afford your Obamacare, also known as
0:39
Speaker 1: the Affordable Care Act, which is anything but affordable. They
0:45
Speaker 1: created a crisis out of thin air, a crisis so
0:49
Speaker 1: that then when the midterms came around, they could say,
0:53
Speaker 1: you better stick with us, because otherwise you will lose
0:56
Speaker 1: the healthcare that we told you we were going to
0:59
Speaker 1: give you forever. It was a designed crisis. That's how
1:02
Speaker 1: evil the Democratic Party was with health care, and specifically
1:06
Speaker 1: with the subsidies around Obamacare. They also knew that Obamacare,
1:12
Speaker 1: the quote Affordable Care Act, was never going to be affordable.
1:14
Speaker 1: They knew from the very beginning. But what's happened since
1:17
Speaker 1: then is even worse. Democrats had figured out that their
1:22
Speaker 1: best donors could be the health care industry, insurance companies, hospitals,
1:27
Speaker 1: those that get paid with these guaranteed subsidies of Obamacare,
1:32
Speaker 1: and they would fill their campaign coffers with cash. Why
1:36
Speaker 1: because the Democratic Party was filling their bank accounts with
1:40
Speaker 1: guaranteed government payments at levels that even the insurance companies
1:45
Speaker 1: could have never imagined. So here we are with a
1:50
Speaker 1: crisis that was created by the Democrats on purpose, a
1:54
Speaker 1: crisis that was made for political reasons only and for
1:58
Speaker 1: reelection camp. And now we're dealing with the fallout. Senate
2:04
Speaker 1: negotiators are set for a high wire act this week
2:08
Speaker 1: on healthcare, and this is all happening. Wow. Many of
2:12
Speaker 1: them are leaving Washington for the holidays without a resolution
2:16
Speaker 1: on the expiring and hand subsidies, With lawmakers increasingly shifting
2:21
Speaker 1: into campaign mode as the calendar flips to the new year,
2:25
Speaker 1: it's an election year. The Chamber has been consumed for
2:28
Speaker 1: months by a fight over the future of expiring Affordable
2:31
Speaker 1: Care Act subsidies, which were at the center of that
2:35
Speaker 1: record breaking government shutdown. It was the Schumer shutdown. We
2:39
Speaker 1: all know that, with the subject of multiple votes and
2:43
Speaker 1: extensive negotiations in the week since, so that we don't
2:47
Speaker 1: have another government shutdown in the new year. Now the
2:51
Speaker 1: December thirty first deadline is set to come and go.
2:54
Speaker 1: A bipartison group of lawmakers is trying to keep those
2:57
Speaker 1: hopes alive that a deal could come together, but they're
3:01
Speaker 1: now facing numerous problems, chief among them bringing the fraud
3:07
Speaker 1: that has now been exposed under control, as well as
3:11
Speaker 1: the rhetoric from the left and those on the right
3:14
Speaker 1: that say we should never have done this in the
3:16
Speaker 1: first place. Quote, since the Obamacare passage, any conversation about
3:23
Speaker 1: anything on healthcare has been a big lift. That is
3:27
Speaker 1: what Senator James Langfort, a Republican from Oklahoma, said, saying, quote,
3:31
Speaker 1: everybody sees the problems, and at times my Democratic colleagues
3:35
Speaker 1: will admit, okay, yeah, that's a problem, but trying to
3:39
Speaker 1: vote on it has been tougher. So no matter what
3:42
Speaker 1: we do tweaking this thing, it's going to be hard. Now.
3:46
Speaker 1: The Senate voted on two competing healthcare proposals on December
3:51
Speaker 1: the eleventh. Both failed. Four Republicans even crossed the aisle
3:56
Speaker 1: to vote in favor of a Democratic bill to extend
3:58
Speaker 1: the subseas for three years, and centers on both sides
4:02
Speaker 1: of the aisle have spent the days since trying to
4:04
Speaker 1: pick up the pieces and find a new deal. Now
4:09
Speaker 1: there is a group now of nearly two dozen members
4:13
Speaker 1: occupying various political aims across each party, that is convened
4:19
Speaker 1: with an eye towards, as they describe it, unveiling a
4:22
Speaker 1: possible deal, with some even indicating that hopes of a
4:25
Speaker 1: framework agreement could come by the end of the holiday
4:27
Speaker 1: work period and could be in theory past next month.
4:32
Speaker 1: Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and then he would
4:36
Speaker 1: say a Republican in name only, and Bernie Marino, a
4:40
Speaker 1: Republican from Ohio. We're among the organizers of the big meeting. Now.
4:44
Speaker 1: Their bill is calling for just a two year extension
4:48
Speaker 1: of the Obamacare subsidies paired with conservative leaning reforms served
4:53
Speaker 1: as the basis of the discussion to get rid of
4:56
Speaker 1: some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that Democrats do
4:58
Speaker 1: not want to touch. Why because when there is fraud
5:02
Speaker 1: in the health care industry, it goes directly to the
5:03
Speaker 1: bottom line of the healthcare providers who are their biggest
5:07
Speaker 1: donors of the candidates and the Democratic Party running in
5:11
Speaker 1: these midterms. Now on Wednesday, and this went very much unreported.
5:17
Speaker 1: There was actually a group of House GOP centrists, so
5:21
Speaker 1: they're not really hardcore conservative, they're not Maga Conservatives who
5:25
Speaker 1: bucked their leadership of the Speaker Mike Johnson by signing
5:29
Speaker 1: into a Democratic effort to force a vote on extending
5:33
Speaker 1: the subsidies, also met with a group of centers to
5:36
Speaker 1: try to chart a path to a deal that could
5:38
Speaker 1: pass in both chambers, because that's part of the problem.
5:42
Speaker 1: If you get it down the Senate, you still have
5:43
Speaker 1: to get it done in the House. Now. Democrats in
5:46
Speaker 1: the Senate have also shied away from trying from tying,
5:50
Speaker 1: I should say the healthcare battle to the looming government
5:54
Speaker 1: funding deadline at the end of January, giving talks a
5:57
Speaker 1: major boost now and it adjourned without reaching a healthcare
6:02
Speaker 1: framework for Christmas. That is problematic. Democrats present the first
6:08
Speaker 1: they described it bipartisan meeting last week. They knew that
6:12
Speaker 1: people were leaving town, so it was pretty much meaningless
6:16
Speaker 1: and it was a political stunt. And they said they
6:18
Speaker 1: were initially encouraged, as they described it, by the discussions,
6:22
Speaker 1: but they indicated that complications made striking a deal increasingly
6:27
Speaker 1: quote problematic. Quote. There was a simple concept on the table.
6:32
Speaker 1: When we walked in, it was within the range of reason,
6:36
Speaker 1: but then it got more complicated. There was conceptionally might
6:40
Speaker 1: be well okay, but maybe or might not. That's how
6:43
Speaker 1: Senator Tim Caine, the Democrat from Virginia, said, labeling the
6:46
Speaker 1: meeting a quote productive discussion. He also said there was
6:50
Speaker 1: quote complicators in the room now. Attendees said that they
6:55
Speaker 1: expected future meetings, but whether they continued to push the
6:59
Speaker 1: ball up the field and keep talking during the two
7:02
Speaker 1: week holiday break remains an open question. Both sides also
7:08
Speaker 1: have political considerations that could scuttle discussions at any time.
7:12
Speaker 1: And then you've got numerous Republicans that have signaled that
7:15
Speaker 1: they have little to no appetite to vote for any
7:18
Speaker 1: type of extension of the enhanced subsidies, no matter the
7:22
Speaker 1: reforms that could make the package more palatable. Why it's
7:25
Speaker 1: a campaign issue, There's a lot to think Obamacare is
7:29
Speaker 1: well a total lie, and it's filled with fraud, and
7:33
Speaker 1: they're not going to keep paying for that level of fraud.
7:37
Speaker 1: They have also indicated that language concerning the High Amendment,
7:41
Speaker 1: which bars federal funds from going towards abortion and any
7:44
Speaker 1: healthcare package, also remains a major sticking point. Democrats are
7:51
Speaker 1: also quick to note that Republicans have, as they described it,
7:55
Speaker 1: continuously opposed the Affordable Care Act. Well, it's not affordable.
7:59
Speaker 1: That's one reason to appt owes it. And the Minority
8:02
Speaker 1: Party has indicated they plan to pen the blame because
8:05
Speaker 1: this is really all about politics, not about helping you
8:08
Speaker 1: on the GOP. For the premium hikes that millions of
8:11
Speaker 1: Americans are set to experience in the lead up to
8:14
Speaker 1: the midterms. Now, let me be clear, if you have
8:17
Speaker 1: a massive hike in the premiums going into the midterms,
8:21
Speaker 1: it will be blamed on the Republicans because people don't
8:26
Speaker 1: pay attention. We have a lot of idiots in this
8:30
Speaker 1: country that just love free stuff. They don't realize how
8:34
Speaker 1: much that free stuff costs, because nothing is free in healthcare.
8:39
Speaker 1: So here we are at a crossroads what Republicans do,
8:44
Speaker 1: and the President of United States of America has got
8:46
Speaker 1: to figure out a way to bring them all together. Now,
8:50
Speaker 1: before we get to the end of the story here
8:55
Speaker 1: with Donald Trump and what he has to figure out
8:57
Speaker 1: and really overcome, I so think there's another aspect of
9:01
Speaker 1: this that you need to understand, and that is this
9:04
Speaker 1: part how broken it actually is. And this is why
9:09
Speaker 1: there are Republicans that do not want to just in
9:11
Speaker 1: essence auto renew this thing, because the argument is, why
9:17
Speaker 1: would we reward waste, massive fraud and your tax dollar
9:25
Speaker 1: is going to insurance companies that are literally, as I
9:29
Speaker 1: would describe it, stealing from you. Let me give you
9:32
Speaker 1: some data that you're not going to hear anywhere else,
9:34
Speaker 1: and you should know this data. But you should also
9:36
Speaker 1: take this data and take the podcast and share it
9:39
Speaker 1: so other people hear this. Not only is Obamacare or
9:43
Speaker 1: the I'm going to probably call it more the Affordable
9:45
Speaker 1: Care Act, because it's so insane that that's what they
9:48
Speaker 1: actually called it, the Affordable Care It's just lunacy. It
9:52
Speaker 1: is heavily subsidized. This thing is being propped up by
9:56
Speaker 1: your tax dollars at numbers you can't even get your
9:58
Speaker 1: head around. Now, Donald Trump wants the money to go
10:00
Speaker 1: directly to you so that then you can spend the
10:03
Speaker 1: money on healthcare the way that you believe it should
10:06
Speaker 1: be done, so that these insurance companies don't keep screwing
10:10
Speaker 1: us through all the fraud and the fake accounts and
10:13
Speaker 1: the payments that are going right like that's that's the
10:16
Speaker 1: number one thing, all right. So let me give you
10:19
Speaker 1: some data here. Twenty four point three million people selected
10:24
Speaker 1: right or were auto re enrolled in the marketplace coverage
10:28
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five. Now a big driver in the
10:33
Speaker 1: Advanced Premium Tax Credit known as the APTC. The report
10:38
Speaker 1: notes that twelve point eight million or more receive that
10:42
Speaker 1: subsidy in twenty twenty five compared to twenty twenty. People
10:49
Speaker 1: are asking the question where do these twelve point eight
10:51
Speaker 1: million people come from? Now? These enhanced subsidies are a
10:55
Speaker 1: massive budget item, all right, and their expiration is a clip.
11:00
Speaker 1: The Enhanced Premium Tax Credit. It was expanded under COVID, Right,
11:06
Speaker 1: it's no longer around. COVID's not around like it was.
11:09
Speaker 1: It was all done during the COVID era legislation and
11:12
Speaker 1: it was extended and they're scheduled to run out. They
11:15
Speaker 1: will expire at the end of this year. That's why
11:17
Speaker 1: there is this like the house is on fire moment.
11:20
Speaker 1: One major budget estimate, by the way, says that permanently
11:24
Speaker 1: extending the enhanced substis for COVID, which we don't have anymore.
11:28
Speaker 1: That's how broken the Affordable carec They need subties for
11:30
Speaker 1: COVID even though we're not dealing with COVID all right,
11:33
Speaker 1: could cost up to three hundred and fifty billion dollars
11:37
Speaker 1: through twenty thirty five. That is insanity. And the analysts
11:42
Speaker 1: also note that well over fifty billion of that cost
11:45
Speaker 1: flow two households above five x the poverty level. Let
11:51
Speaker 1: me give you an example. Some of these substees are
11:53
Speaker 1: going to families that make one hundred and sixty thousand
11:55
Speaker 1: dollars a year for a family of four this year.
11:58
Speaker 1: Is that where we're and this is how you get
12:01
Speaker 1: closer and closer to just straight up socialized medicine. You
12:05
Speaker 1: subsidize people at one hundred and sixty k with a
12:08
Speaker 1: family of four. They then learn to just rely on it,
12:11
Speaker 1: depend on it, They vote on it because they don't
12:12
Speaker 1: want to pay for their healthcare because it's going through
12:14
Speaker 1: the taxes. And then you have this big grand divide,
12:17
Speaker 1: and you get very close to what I just described,
12:20
Speaker 1: which is socialized medicine. And we're on the verge of
12:23
Speaker 1: that just being the reality, which was the whole design
12:25
Speaker 1: of Obamacare. That's part of what you really need to understand,
12:29
Speaker 1: Like this was all a part of the design. It
12:34
Speaker 1: was designed to fail so that the government would just
12:37
Speaker 1: take over the entire system. Now, without the enhanced subsidies,
12:41
Speaker 1: the affordability math worsens really fast. Okay, twenty twenty six
12:48
Speaker 1: premiums modeling finds that the marketplace premium payments would rise
12:53
Speaker 1: by one hundred and fourteen percent on average, meaning that
12:56
Speaker 1: fifty percent are above that level if the credits expired.
12:59
Speaker 1: That's about one thoy sixteen dollars a year. So the
13:04
Speaker 1: Congressional Budget Office says, look, the expiration not only would
13:08
Speaker 1: reduce substas in the enrollment, but it would raise the
13:12
Speaker 1: uninsured rate, which then would be blamed they believe on
13:15
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. That's why Democrats are willing to play this
13:17
Speaker 1: game of Russian roulette. They also said that not only
13:21
Speaker 1: would that happen, but literally millions could lose coverage because
13:25
Speaker 1: if Congress says nothing, then the money dries up, and
13:28
Speaker 1: then they're like, why can't afford it? And then the
13:30
Speaker 1: rates have gone through the roof because the rates that
13:33
Speaker 1: the insurance companies are charging have skyrocketed since the subseas
13:38
Speaker 1: came in, because they're like, well, we need to get
13:40
Speaker 1: our hands on more of this money. So now you're
13:43
Speaker 1: actually paying a rate that is egregious, that is unrealistic
13:49
Speaker 1: for the marketplace without the government subsidies. You following me here,
13:55
Speaker 1: the insurance company said, hey, we can grab billions of dollars.
13:59
Speaker 1: Let's keep raising the rates every year. The government will
14:02
Speaker 1: pay the rate increase guaranteed. We'll also have a bunch
14:07
Speaker 1: of dead people that are enrolling and people that have
14:09
Speaker 1: died that are still being enrolled in a bunch of
14:11
Speaker 1: fraudulent enrollment. That's all a fact. We know that as well.
14:15
Speaker 1: We are getting paid for people that never use their insurance.
14:18
Speaker 1: We're getting paid for people that don't even know they're
14:20
Speaker 1: actually enrolled in Obamacare, and so they never come into
14:24
Speaker 1: the hospital. And we get all that money without having
14:27
Speaker 1: to offer any coverage or actual service. And now you
14:32
Speaker 1: understand exactly why Democrats want this to keep going, because
14:38
Speaker 1: the insurance companies have basically said, we have a blank
14:41
Speaker 1: check for you. We will write you a check for
14:44
Speaker 1: you to get elected and get re elected, and we
14:47
Speaker 1: will write it for you forever as long as you
14:50
Speaker 1: let us keep getting the billions of dollars in government aid.
14:55
Speaker 1: These insurance companies are not running a business anymore. I
14:58
Speaker 1: want to be clear about that. They're running a full blown,
15:03
Speaker 1: shady as hell, corrupt business with a government check that
15:10
Speaker 1: keeps showing up. It's bribery. That's the best way I
15:14
Speaker 1: can describe it is it is bribery. Let me give
15:18
Speaker 1: you another example. The programs quote integrity and fraud vulnerabilities
15:24
Speaker 1: have been documented now for the first time. How bad
15:28
Speaker 1: is it? I'm going to quote for you the Liberal
15:32
Speaker 1: Washington Post. Okay, are you ready? This is the I'll
15:37
Speaker 1: say it again, the Liberal Washington Post. The Washington Post
15:44
Speaker 1: reported at broker scheme has now been tied at least
15:47
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty million and in proper federal subsidies,
15:51
Speaker 1: alongside findings including a GOA test showing weak verification controls
15:56
Speaker 1: in many cases. Now, this is just full blown fraud.
15:59
Speaker 1: How many people gone to jail so far that we
16:01
Speaker 1: know of? I don't think any. Usually when we find
16:04
Speaker 1: this level of fraud, what usually happens we don't get
16:07
Speaker 1: any Okay, body that actually goes to jail. This reminds
16:11
Speaker 1: me a lot of the housing crisis and the fraud
16:13
Speaker 1: that we found out was going on in the housing market,
16:17
Speaker 1: in the loan market, and what happened when there was
16:20
Speaker 1: the big crash in eight One guy went to jail
16:23
Speaker 1: because all of these bankers and all of these mortgage
16:28
Speaker 1: lenders that were in on this scheme. This just massive
16:33
Speaker 1: level of corruption, of waste, fraud, and abuse all got
16:39
Speaker 1: away with it. So is there any incentive to not
16:42
Speaker 1: do it again? No, there is zero incentive to not
16:50
Speaker 1: do it again. This is what President Trump is having
16:54
Speaker 1: to deal with. And the question that he's going to
16:56
Speaker 1: have to ask is how much money should go to
16:59
Speaker 1: subsidize them? Right, Like, there's two big buckets that are
17:03
Speaker 1: at the center of this subsy debate, right the premium
17:06
Speaker 1: tax credits, the monthly subsidies, that's the main affordability engine
17:10
Speaker 1: for the marketplace premiums, which if skyrocketed. And then the
17:13
Speaker 1: enhancement sub subsy expansion, the temporary larger credits that were
17:17
Speaker 1: done in the name of COVID that is three hundred
17:20
Speaker 1: and fifty billion we're talking about right now through twenty
17:23
Speaker 1: thirty five. I'm going to say it again, we can't
17:25
Speaker 1: afford this. We can't afford any of it. So how
17:29
Speaker 1: do you pull back? Okay, how do you pull back
17:35
Speaker 1: on this? That's the question that everybody needs to ask,
17:40
Speaker 1: and how do you do it without losing a midterm
17:43
Speaker 1: election is the bigger question on this. So Rick Gernell
17:50
Speaker 1: is a dear friend of mine. He is an American diplomat.
17:54
Speaker 1: You know him as a service to President Donald Trump
17:57
Speaker 1: and he served as an ambassador. He is now doing
18:00
Speaker 1: something that's truly incredible, and that is be the president
18:04
Speaker 1: of the executive director of the Now Trump and John F.
18:08
Speaker 1: Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Rick, you and I
18:11
Speaker 1: were trading messages and I said, this is the perfect
18:14
Speaker 1: time to have you on because many people are gonna
18:16
Speaker 1: get to see an incredible night this week on CBS
18:20
Speaker 1: from the Kennedy Center. The Awards. It happens once a year.
18:23
Speaker 1: It's a great night. The President's there, we get to
18:26
Speaker 1: honor Americans have done incredible things in the arts. And
18:30
Speaker 1: there's been a controversy beforehand as Democrats are trying to
18:34
Speaker 1: undermine what the President has done with the Kenney Center.
18:38
Speaker 1: And I thought, let's just tell the story of just
18:41
Speaker 1: how bad things were at the Kennedy Center, all how
18:45
Speaker 1: much had been deferred in basic upkeep of that building.
18:49
Speaker 1: Why the President said I'm going to be on the
18:51
Speaker 1: board and have great board members and put you to
18:54
Speaker 1: be in charge because he wanted to bring it back
18:57
Speaker 1: to greatness. And now they're all losing their minds after
19:00
Speaker 1: we brought it back to greatness. But talk about what
19:03
Speaker 1: you inherited before we even get to the added name
19:05
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump on the building.
19:06
Speaker 2: Okay, great, well, Ben, thanks for having me. First of all,
19:09
Speaker 2: Tuesday night eight o'clock, you have to watch the Kennedy
19:13
Speaker 2: Center Honors, which is now the Trump Kennedy Center. So
19:16
Speaker 2: Tuesday at eight o'clock on CBS, it's going to be
19:18
Speaker 2: an amazing show. Look, Ben, when President Trump asked me
19:23
Speaker 2: to come in and help save the Kennedy Center, I
19:28
Speaker 2: arrived at the Kennedy Center at the time and we
19:33
Speaker 2: had no money in the bank. We were paying staff
19:36
Speaker 2: with debt reserves that we were saving up for a
19:39
Speaker 2: bond payment. In twenty thirty we had ninety four people
19:43
Speaker 2: in one department, the fundraising department, and it was truly bloated. Remember,
19:51
Speaker 2: the woman who had the job before me was getting
19:53
Speaker 2: paid one point four million dollars a year, and yet
19:58
Speaker 2: they couldn't keep up up with the maintenance.
20:01
Speaker 1: So million a year. Who, like, how does that even happen.
20:07
Speaker 2: It's crazy. Look, Congress gives a little bit of money
20:11
Speaker 2: around thirty five million, sometimes up to forty million a
20:14
Speaker 2: year to maintain the building because it's a memorial to
20:19
Speaker 2: John F. Kennedy. So there's two things that happened. There's
20:23
Speaker 2: a huge staff that's paid through fundraising, and then there's
20:27
Speaker 2: a very small staff that just care takes the building
20:31
Speaker 2: and the memorial part, and they get somewhere between thirty
20:35
Speaker 2: five and forty million a year from Congress for that.
20:40
Speaker 2: They were not using that money to keep the building up.
20:44
Speaker 2: When I arrived, the roof was leaking, the pipes were
20:48
Speaker 2: bursting below. We constantly had floods. Most of the elevators
20:54
Speaker 2: did not work. The water fountains out front did not work.
21:00
Speaker 2: The seats were collapsing. We literally had infrastructure falling on cars.
21:05
Speaker 2: When you drive underneath the Kennedy Center, the safetts and
21:08
Speaker 2: the concrete were falling on cars. The building people actually
21:12
Speaker 2: suggested that we tear the building down and start over,
21:16
Speaker 2: that the deferred maintenance was so bad for so long
21:21
Speaker 2: that we should start over. So I brought President Trump
21:24
Speaker 2: over the Great Builder and took them through the whole building.
21:27
Speaker 2: We went to the bottom of the building. We saw
21:30
Speaker 2: the pipes, we saw the infrastructure, and looked at the roof,
21:36
Speaker 2: and he said, this is bad, but it can be fixed.
21:39
Speaker 2: We don't have to tear the building down. And by
21:41
Speaker 2: the time he left the Kennedy Center and went driving
21:44
Speaker 2: back to the White House, he had called multiple members
21:47
Speaker 2: of Congress to say, I want two hundred and fifty
21:50
Speaker 2: million dollars to save the Kennedy Center. Now, look at
21:53
Speaker 2: that point, I think Democrats should have celebrated a Republican
21:57
Speaker 2: trying to save an arts institution, but they didn't. President
22:02
Speaker 2: Trump then launched the fundraising portion for staff and programming,
22:08
Speaker 2: which you cannot use any of that two hundred and
22:10
Speaker 2: fifty million for anything but the building. It would be
22:12
Speaker 2: a moral to do that. It would be what the
22:14
Speaker 2: Democrats did of trying to take their little bit of
22:18
Speaker 2: money that was supposed to be for the building and
22:20
Speaker 2: not use it for the building. So we wanted to
22:23
Speaker 2: commit to bringing the building back to a beautiful place.
22:27
Speaker 2: We've already been doing that in the ten months that
22:30
Speaker 2: I've been there. We now have more money being raised
22:34
Speaker 2: for programming, a huge amount of money for the building renovation.
22:40
Speaker 2: We've started on the renovations. We've already done a tone
22:43
Speaker 2: of painting. The water fountains are working, the elevators are working.
22:46
Speaker 2: We're redoing the marble, redoing the seats, redoing all of
22:50
Speaker 2: the things that should have been done. One of the
22:53
Speaker 2: things that is crazy to me is that the Kennedy family,
22:57
Speaker 2: who is complaining now about the money being poured in
23:01
Speaker 2: from Donald Trump, they're not thanking him. They're complaining that
23:05
Speaker 2: a Republican has come in and is getting credit, and
23:09
Speaker 2: the board is giving Donald Trump credit for all of this.
23:12
Speaker 2: They were nowhere to be found. I don't want to
23:15
Speaker 2: call anybody out specifically, but I can tell who's given
23:20
Speaker 2: money to the Kennedy Center, and it's not coming from
23:22
Speaker 2: the Kennedy family. And so this outrage is unbelievable in
23:29
Speaker 2: that they should be thanking Donald Trump for saving the
23:34
Speaker 2: former Kennedy Center, and when the board says, let's make
23:37
Speaker 2: it the Trump Kennedy Center because now it's bipartisan. Now
23:40
Speaker 2: it's a recognition that Republicans and Democrats should both be
23:46
Speaker 2: making this a priority. They should celebrate this, they should
23:50
Speaker 2: totally celebrate, but instead they're he you mentioned bipartisan.
23:53
Speaker 1: That's the part when I was on TV the other
23:56
Speaker 1: night on CNN about this, like and they're losing their minds.
23:58
Speaker 1: I just laughed because I'm like, this is used to
24:02
Speaker 1: be The Kenney Center used to be the hottest ticket
24:04
Speaker 1: in town. When I was there at the Bush administration,
24:06
Speaker 1: it was. It was a hot ticket. It slowly started
24:09
Speaker 1: to lose its luster. I mean, I go back to
24:12
Speaker 1: Charlie Wilson's war if you've ever seen the movie True Story,
24:15
Speaker 1: he just wanted to be on the board of the
24:16
Speaker 1: Kindy Center because he wanted the tickets because it was
24:18
Speaker 1: such a hot item. And then it become an afterthought
24:21
Speaker 1: and forgotten. And that's part of what you guys have
24:23
Speaker 1: done at the Kenney Center is turned it into the
24:26
Speaker 1: hottest ticket in town. By bringing in people that people
24:31
Speaker 1: want to a go and see. You're also having people
24:34
Speaker 1: that want to have their events at the venue, which
24:36
Speaker 1: is so important. It's an incredible venue. It's right there
24:40
Speaker 1: on the river. It's unbelievable to walk out on that
24:43
Speaker 1: balcony and just c DC. It's an amazing a truly.
24:49
Speaker 2: An underutilized space. Yes, underutilized, because look, one thing to
24:55
Speaker 2: be clear, when when I arrived, the program was really bad.
25:02
Speaker 2: The ticket sales were in the tank. Every single arts
25:05
Speaker 2: institution across this country is struggling with ticket sales. As
25:08
Speaker 2: a matter of fact, two months ago the New York Times,
25:10
Speaker 2: which I seldom quote, The New York Times had a
25:12
Speaker 2: front page paper that said Broadway is dying. Nobody's buying
25:15
Speaker 2: Broadway tickets. This is a phenomenon that's been happening across
25:19
Speaker 2: arts institutions. But what they don't realize is that the
25:23
Speaker 2: reason why arts institutions are struggling is because the programming
25:28
Speaker 2: is so far left and woke that it doesn't capture
25:33
Speaker 2: the public's mind or corporate America, who should be funding
25:36
Speaker 2: these things.
25:37
Speaker 1: I do love, by the way, before you get back
25:39
Speaker 1: to the ticket sales, Rick that they were like. The
25:42
Speaker 1: question they asked me on CNN was, well, I mean,
25:44
Speaker 1: what's next, You're going to put his name on the
25:46
Speaker 1: Lincoln Memorial or the Jefferson Memorial or the Washington Monument,
25:50
Speaker 1: name of the Trump money. The level of Trump arrangement
25:53
Speaker 1: syndrome over this is truly impressive.
25:56
Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, my reaction when I get that is, oh,
26:00
Speaker 2: I think the Jefferson and the Lincoln and the Washington
26:03
Speaker 2: have been maintained and so nobody needs to save them.
26:07
Speaker 1: That's a that's a great point. So you get there,
26:11
Speaker 1: and I want to go back to ticket sales. That
26:13
Speaker 1: was one of the big problems. The building had gone down,
26:16
Speaker 1: the ticket sales had gone down. You guys inherited a disaster,
26:20
Speaker 1: and deferred maintenance had never been done correct.
26:23
Speaker 2: And look, arts institutions are struggling with ticket sales, every
26:27
Speaker 2: single one across them the country, and it's because most
26:31
Speaker 2: of the arts institutions push programming that corporate America and
26:36
Speaker 2: donors don't want to participate in. And so what we
26:39
Speaker 2: did is we said to corporate America and to our donors,
26:42
Speaker 2: you're never going to be embarrassed by what we're bringing.
26:46
Speaker 2: It's going to be big, common sense programming. We're bringing.
26:50
Speaker 2: We brought in Stuttgart Ballet, We're bringing in the Vienna Philharmonic,
26:54
Speaker 2: We've got Chicago the Musical coming, we had Ley miz
26:58
Speaker 2: We're doing the big cop and sense programming. We do
27:02
Speaker 2: have a problem in that the left and Democrats are
27:05
Speaker 2: boycotting it right now, which is unbelievable when you think
27:09
Speaker 2: about boycotting an arts institution, because Republicans are putting money
27:13
Speaker 2: into it. But we're not going to go backwards. We're
27:15
Speaker 2: not going to go back to the days where we
27:17
Speaker 2: can't pay our bills. And what I've decided to do
27:21
Speaker 2: is not only look at ticket sales, because you can't
27:23
Speaker 2: pay for programming with just ticket sales. We have nineteen
27:26
Speaker 2: unions at the Trump Kennedy Center, and that makes every
27:30
Speaker 2: programming extremely expensive. And so what I say is, between donors,
27:37
Speaker 2: Corporate America and ticket sales, you got to get me
27:40
Speaker 2: to revenue neutral in order to do these programs because
27:44
Speaker 2: we can't go in debt by doing these things.
27:47
Speaker 1: Now.
27:47
Speaker 2: I believe in arts education, and when we get a
27:49
Speaker 2: little bit of money, we can do the niche programming
27:52
Speaker 2: that educates people about the arts, new forms of art
27:56
Speaker 2: that they haven't quite been accustomed to. But when you
28:00
Speaker 2: have niche programming, ben you get big donors who say,
28:04
Speaker 2: I believe in this, and I'm going to write you
28:06
Speaker 2: a check.
28:07
Speaker 1: Right. That's my passion, right, that's my passion project, and
28:11
Speaker 1: this is something that is so important to me. I
28:13
Speaker 1: want to write a check because I think this should
28:15
Speaker 1: be expanded and introduced to others. And that's exactly again,
28:18
Speaker 1: how you run an essence and nonprofit you find people
28:20
Speaker 1: that are passionate about it, which is something that I
28:23
Speaker 1: had died at the Kenney Center with their funding.
28:25
Speaker 2: You can't pay someone one point four million dollars who
28:29
Speaker 2: then tries to come up with some crazy programming like
28:33
Speaker 2: an all lesbian cast of a Fellow. You can't do
28:36
Speaker 2: programming like that because Corporate America says they're not coming.
28:39
Speaker 2: But since we've been there and we've promised Corporate America
28:43
Speaker 2: that it's big, common sense programming, we have seen fundraising
28:48
Speaker 2: shoot through the roof. Again. We still have Democrats who
28:51
Speaker 2: say we're boycotting with ticket sales, but an arts reporter
28:57
Speaker 2: that covers you know, arts programming in Washington, d C.
29:02
Speaker 2: They've never ever done a story about plummeting ticket sales
29:07
Speaker 2: ever until we came. And then suddenly they are saying, oh, well,
29:12
Speaker 2: ticket sales aren't doing well. Well, correct, but ticket sales
29:15
Speaker 2: have been really dying, as the New York Times pointed out,
29:19
Speaker 2: with Broadway and all arts institutions, they've been struggling. What
29:23
Speaker 2: we have shown is that when you fix the programming,
29:25
Speaker 2: Corporate America comes with really big checks, and then financially
29:30
Speaker 2: you can if you're responsible with staffing you can do
29:34
Speaker 2: the big programming and arts institutions can work. I think
29:38
Speaker 2: this is an example. President Trump has given arts institutions
29:42
Speaker 2: across the country an example be bipartisan fix the programming
29:46
Speaker 2: so that you invite corporate America in and that is
29:49
Speaker 2: how you're going to be able to have good theater
29:52
Speaker 2: and good programming.
29:53
Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that quickly to by person aspect
29:55
Speaker 1: of this, because I do think that's the part that's
29:57
Speaker 1: really incredible. You're bringing in an amazing app that are nonpartisan
30:01
Speaker 1: acts and the Democrats are refusing to show it because
30:04
Speaker 1: they want this to fail. The same people that demand
30:06
Speaker 1: more money for the arts. This is the biggest stage
30:09
Speaker 1: for the arts, and they're saying no all because a
30:12
Speaker 1: Republican is the one doing it. If that isn't the
30:15
Speaker 1: definition of insanity and hypocrisy, I don't know what is.
30:19
Speaker 2: Well I'll tell you one thing. This is a test
30:21
Speaker 2: for Democrats because if they try and kill a bipartisan
30:26
Speaker 2: arts institution like this by refusing to participate and refusing
30:31
Speaker 2: to do ticket sales and refusing to do a long
30:34
Speaker 2: term buying of tickets like through sponsorships, then they are
30:39
Speaker 2: going to send the message to Republicans, you're not welcome
30:43
Speaker 2: at arts institutions. They then will when Democrats take over Washington,
30:47
Speaker 2: whenever that may be, they are going to make it
30:50
Speaker 2: far left end and disinvite the Republicans, and we will
30:55
Speaker 2: be back to arts institutions that pay one point four
30:59
Speaker 2: million dollars in a salary with bloated bureaucracy and then
31:04
Speaker 2: deferred maintenance problems. And look, when I arrived inn we
31:08
Speaker 2: had no money in the bank zero. Today we're financially
31:12
Speaker 2: doing really well, and we're paying back all of that
31:17
Speaker 2: debt reserve and all of the moneies that we digged
31:20
Speaker 2: in that we dug in and spent that we shouldn't
31:22
Speaker 2: have been spending on Rick.
31:23
Speaker 1: It's an incredible success story. Congratulations. I look forward to
31:27
Speaker 1: being at the Kennedy Center soon and what you guys
31:29
Speaker 1: are doing is amazing and I can't wait take my
31:31
Speaker 1: picture in front of a bipartisan sign with the last
31:33
Speaker 1: name Trump and Kennedy on it. It's incredible, it really is.
31:38
Speaker 1: And I hope everybody will grab this interview shared on
31:40
Speaker 1: social media. You know the background now of the Trump
31:44
Speaker 1: Kennedy Center. Don't forget share this podcast wherever you can
31:47
Speaker 1: with your family and your friends, and I'll see you
31:49
Speaker 1: back here tomorrow