1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,720 Speaker 1: In the summer of nineteen ninety seven, a rare moment 2 00:00:02,759 --> 00:00:06,839 of bipartisanship between Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Speaker 3 00:00:06,879 --> 00:00:09,759 of the House of Representatives Nut Gingrich became the foundation 4 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:13,359 of suspicion that would span for decades. Follow Me down 5 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:36,560 the rabbit Hole about the Balanced Budget Act. Hello, friends, 6 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:38,679 and welcome back to the rabbit Hole. I'm your host Stanny, 7 00:00:38,719 --> 00:00:40,920 and today we are talking about the Balance Budget Act 8 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:44,320 of nineteen ninety seven. 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The Balance Budget Act of nineteen ninety seven 19 00:01:10,519 --> 00:01:13,879 was an omnibus legislative package designed to balance the federal 20 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:17,280 budget by two thousand and two. It was to result 21 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:20,400 in one hundred and sixty billion dollars in spending reductions 22 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,359 between nineteen ninety eight and two thousand and two. After 23 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,680 taking into account an increase in spending on welfare and 24 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:30,519 children's healthcare, the savings totaled one hundred and twenty seven billion. 25 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:33,439 Medicare taking the blunt of the cuts at one hundred 26 00:01:33,439 --> 00:01:37,439 and twelve billion dollars. They reduced the Medicare spending by 27 00:01:37,519 --> 00:01:41,879 reducing payments to health service providers. The Balance Budget Act 28 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,840 of nineteen ninety seven represented not just a legislative victory, 29 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:50,480 but an unusual convergence, Clinton's third way centrism meeting Gingrich's 30 00:01:50,519 --> 00:01:54,959 revolutionary conservatism on common ground. While market it as a 31 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,040 triumph of physical responsibility, the BBA acted as the economic 32 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,239 dial that per eminently set the American safety net on 33 00:02:02,319 --> 00:02:06,799 a path toward privatization. Beneath the facade of saving Medicare, 34 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,599 the Act implemented complex formulas and structural handovers that signaled 35 00:02:11,599 --> 00:02:15,280 the end of representative democracy in fiscal matters in the 36 00:02:15,319 --> 00:02:19,120 beginning of a technocratic uniparty era by moving the levers 37 00:02:19,159 --> 00:02:21,639 of economic power out of the reach of the ballot 38 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:26,080 box and into the hands of algorithmic automatic stabilizers. The 39 00:02:26,159 --> 00:02:30,280 BBA ensured that the fundamental direction of the American economy 40 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:35,000 would remain untouched by future elections. The big question is 41 00:02:35,599 --> 00:02:39,719 what made Clinton and gingrich political enemies suddenly align so 42 00:02:39,919 --> 00:02:44,599 perfectly on such drastic changes on Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare. 43 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,960 Many skeptics started questioning whether it was really a compromise 44 00:02:49,319 --> 00:02:52,400 or just a consensus around a shared agenda that neither 45 00:02:52,439 --> 00:02:57,000 party wanted to openly acknowledge. Did the Balanced Budget mask 46 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,560 a deliberate plan to dismantle the social safety net piece 47 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:05,439 by peace, using fiscal responsibility as political cover. The suspicions 48 00:03:05,439 --> 00:03:08,199 on this act were fair. The BBA of ninety seven 49 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:12,759 cut nearly four hundred billion dollars from projected federal spending 50 00:03:13,039 --> 00:03:16,520 over five years, with the bulk coming from healthcare programs 51 00:03:16,599 --> 00:03:20,919 serving the elderly, disabled, and poor. Hospitals and healthcare advocates 52 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:25,120 warned it would cripple the system by imposing unprecedented restrictions 53 00:03:25,199 --> 00:03:30,280 on state Medicaid programs, all this while simultaneously delivering ninety 54 00:03:30,319 --> 00:03:33,680 five billion dollars in tax cuts, a detail that seemed 55 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:37,879 to contradict the justification of social spending reductions serving the 56 00:03:37,919 --> 00:03:42,759 public health infrastructure while feeding capital markets is the hallmark 57 00:03:42,879 --> 00:03:48,520 of managed competition. The uncharacteristic bipartisan harmony that made BBA 58 00:03:48,639 --> 00:03:53,360 possible became evidence of an elite agreement on policies that 59 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:57,360 would harm ordinary Americans while benefiting the wealthy. The Balanced 60 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:02,240 Budget Act achieved its stated goal with astounding efficiency. By 61 00:04:02,319 --> 00:04:05,080 nineteen ninety eight, Just one year after it was passed, 62 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,319 the federal government recorded its first budget surplus in nearly 63 00:04:08,439 --> 00:04:12,360 three decades. The national debt began to decline so much 64 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,319 that by the year two thousand, the Congressional Budget Office 65 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:20,399 projected a surplus stretching into the foreseeable future. But this 66 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:23,920 success came at a price many Americans didn't fully understand 67 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:28,879 until years later. The BBA fundamentally restructured how the federal 68 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:31,720 government paid for health care for seniors and people with 69 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,319 low incomes. It created the Medicare Plus Choice program, encouraging 70 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:41,199 beneficiaries to leave traditional Medicare for private insurance plans. It 71 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:44,920 cut payments to hospitals, nursing homes, and home health agencies. 72 00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:49,639 It also gave states unprecedented power to restrict Medicaid eligibility 73 00:04:49,879 --> 00:04:53,600 and benefits through waivers that would have been unthinkable in 74 00:04:53,639 --> 00:04:57,240 the past. The BBA embedded into federal health care programs 75 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:01,079 and a series of automatic payment reductions were essentially mechanisms 76 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:05,079 designed to cut spending regardless of actual health care costs, 77 00:05:05,439 --> 00:05:10,160 patient needs, or demographic changes. The sustainable growth rate or 78 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:14,600 SGR formula for physician payments, for instance, created a scenario 79 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:19,279 where doctors would face annual payment cuts unless Congress intervened. 80 00:05:19,519 --> 00:05:23,319 Many observers who followed the Act believed this design wasn't accidental, 81 00:05:23,399 --> 00:05:27,920 but actually intentional. The theory of a planned collapse was 82 00:05:28,199 --> 00:05:33,240 the most common topic, suggesting that the bba's architects knew 83 00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:38,319 these payment formulas were completely unsustainable. The SGR formula was 84 00:05:38,399 --> 00:05:42,920 a mathematical trap that tied physician reimbursement to the growth 85 00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:47,160 of the GDP if healthcare spending grew faster than the economy, 86 00:05:47,399 --> 00:05:51,240 and inevitability given the aging baby boomer demographic. The law 87 00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:57,120 legally mandated automatic, drastic cuts to doctor pay. Section four 88 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,639 zero zero one of the Act was the legal gateway 89 00:05:59,639 --> 00:06:04,399 to adverse selection. Proponents claimed it offered choice, but the 90 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:08,000 economic reality was the creation of an adverse selection loop 91 00:06:08,079 --> 00:06:11,920 by design. Medicare Plus Choice incentivized private plans to use 92 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:17,480 sophisticated data to cherry pick healthy, aging senior citizens. This 93 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,399 left the chronically ill and expensive patients in traditional medicare, 94 00:06:21,519 --> 00:06:24,680 which lacked the marketing budget to compete. By siphoning off 95 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,240 the healthiest beneficiaries, the BBA ensured that the government's risk 96 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:32,879 pool would become increasingly expensive. This created a statistical mirage. 97 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:37,759 Traditional Medicare appeared bloated and insufficient compared to private plans, 98 00:06:37,759 --> 00:06:41,720 providing the political ammunition needed to argue for further cuts 99 00:06:41,839 --> 00:06:46,399 or total privatization years later. It was definitely a self 100 00:06:46,439 --> 00:06:50,319 fulfilling prophecy of government failure. The evidence suggested that the 101 00:06:50,319 --> 00:06:53,600 bba's spending cuts were front loaded and aggressive, while the 102 00:06:53,639 --> 00:06:58,319 revenue projections relied on optimistic economic assumptions. The BBA was 103 00:06:58,399 --> 00:07:01,720 architected so that over sixty percent of the healthcare cuts 104 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:04,199 would take effect in the first two years. This wasn't 105 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,120 a transition, It was a shock and all campaign against 106 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:10,399 the public health infrastructure. Between two thousand and two and 107 00:07:10,439 --> 00:07:13,879 twenty fifteen, the SGR created a permanent state of crisis 108 00:07:14,079 --> 00:07:16,959 because the cuts were so severe they threatened to shut 109 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:22,120 down the medical system. This forced a ritualized congressional doc fix, 110 00:07:22,279 --> 00:07:26,319 a patch that had to be passed seventeen times over 111 00:07:26,399 --> 00:07:30,519 thirteen years. This was the uniparty in its purest form. 112 00:07:31,439 --> 00:07:35,879 By requiring repeated congressional patches, the healthcare payment mechanisms were 113 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:38,800 designed to fail. What is even more suspicious is that 114 00:07:38,839 --> 00:07:42,319 the same politicians who championed the BBA later pointed to 115 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:46,399 the unsustainable costs of Medicare and Medicaid as reasons to 116 00:07:46,519 --> 00:07:51,680 fundamentally restructure or eliminate the program's problems they helped to create. 117 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:58,399 In reality, this created a lucrative lobbying industrial complex. Every year, 118 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:02,600 medical association and insurance giants had to descend on DC 119 00:08:02,800 --> 00:08:06,120 to beg for a fix, ensuring that the uniparty leadership 120 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:10,600 maintained a constant flow of campaign contributions and hidden influence. 121 00:08:11,319 --> 00:08:14,800 The BBA shifted the fundamental mindset of federal health care. 122 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:18,560 It shifted the government away from a defined benefit model 123 00:08:18,720 --> 00:08:22,040 in which the government guarantees specific care, to a defined 124 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:25,680 contribution mindset in which the government provides a fixed payment 125 00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:31,000 to a private entity. This shifted the financial risk from 126 00:08:31,079 --> 00:08:35,720 the federal treasury onto individual seniors and public infrastructure. The 127 00:08:35,799 --> 00:08:39,519 famous harmony we talked about before between the parties over 128 00:08:39,519 --> 00:08:42,159 the Balance Budget Act didn't actually start that way. It 129 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,240 began as a confrontation, so apparently. In the fall of 130 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:48,480 nineteen ninety four, New Gingrich orchestrated one of the most 131 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,960 dramatic political upheavals in modern American history. Ging Gridge and 132 00:08:53,039 --> 00:08:56,720 more than three hundred Publican candidates signed the Contract with America, 133 00:08:57,039 --> 00:09:00,559 a ten point legislative agenda that promised to revolution ustionized 134 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:05,360 federal governance. This contract pledged term limits for legislators, a 135 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:10,080 balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, welfare reform, tax cuts, 136 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,120 and a fundamental re examination of federal power. The strategy worked, 137 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:17,360 and in the November nineteen ninety four midterm elections, Republicans 138 00:09:17,360 --> 00:09:19,879 captured control of the House of Representatives for the first 139 00:09:19,919 --> 00:09:23,480 time in forty years, gaining fifty four seats in what 140 00:09:23,519 --> 00:09:27,279 political analysts call a Republican revolution. It is said to 141 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:31,000 have been one of the most influential midterms in American history. 142 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:35,080 They also seized the Senate, giving the GOP complete control 143 00:09:35,159 --> 00:09:38,559 of Congress. Gingrich became Speaker of the House and immediately 144 00:09:38,639 --> 00:09:41,960 positioned himself not as a legislative partner to President Clinton, 145 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:46,200 but as the co equal power center, possibly even the 146 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:50,799 dominant force in American politics. The Trojan Horse theory holds 147 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:55,360 that before nineteen ninety seven, Medicare was a straightforward government program, 148 00:09:55,440 --> 00:09:59,600 but Medicare plus choice in the BBA wasn't about choice. 149 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:04,480 It was a wealth transfer mechanism. The conspiracy suggests an 150 00:10:04,519 --> 00:10:08,759 elite agreement to funnel trillions of taxpayer dollars into the 151 00:10:08,799 --> 00:10:12,759 hands of private insurance CEOs. The structural hollowing out of 152 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,039 the safety net went deeper than just Medicare, According to 153 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:19,480 the CQ Almanac's records on the one hundred and fifth Congress, 154 00:10:19,519 --> 00:10:23,159 the BBA also targeted Medicaid by removing the federal government's 155 00:10:23,240 --> 00:10:26,639 role as a watchdog. For the first time, states were 156 00:10:26,639 --> 00:10:30,720 granted the power to force people experiencing poverty into private 157 00:10:31,039 --> 00:10:35,559 managed care programs without seeking a federal waiver, a move 158 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:40,279 that fundamentally ended the government's direct responsibility for the quality 159 00:10:40,279 --> 00:10:43,440 of care. Before nineteen ninety seven, the Department of Health 160 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,559 and Human Services the HHS acted as a shield for 161 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:51,360 the vulnerable. The BBA stripped away that shield, turning millions 162 00:10:51,399 --> 00:10:54,919 of citizens into a captive market for private managed care 163 00:10:55,039 --> 00:11:00,840 organizations or MCOs. Simultaneously, the Acts slash funding for tavaching hospitals, 164 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,399 the very institutions that served as the last line of 165 00:11:04,399 --> 00:11:09,080 defense for the indignant. By slashing graduate medical education and 166 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:14,039 indirect medical education payments, the Act placed a financial stranglehold 167 00:11:14,279 --> 00:11:18,080 on institutions that trained future doctors and care for the indignant. 168 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:22,879 At first, these cuts were massive, causing immediate financial distress 169 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:25,840 for the very institutions that served as the last line 170 00:11:25,840 --> 00:11:29,519 of defense for the uninsured. By hitting the system with 171 00:11:29,639 --> 00:11:34,559 massive immediate cuts before hospitals could adjust, the BBA purposely 172 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:38,399 triggered a wave of bankruptcies and fire sales. This allowed 173 00:11:38,399 --> 00:11:42,320 the private hospital conglomerates to buy up public assets at 174 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:46,159 pennies on the dollar. This tactic forced independent and public 175 00:11:46,159 --> 00:11:51,879 hospitals to consolidate into massive corporate conglomerates like HCA and Kaiser, 176 00:11:52,279 --> 00:11:56,600 feeding the global corporate state. These weren't random fiscal trims. 177 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,960 They were a coordinated effort to dismantle the public infant 178 00:12:00,039 --> 00:12:02,639 structure of health and replace it with a system of 179 00:12:02,720 --> 00:12:06,600 managed competition where the only winners were the corporate conglomerates 180 00:12:06,879 --> 00:12:11,320 and the technocratic elite. Who managed the transition. The BBA 181 00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:16,360 didn't just cut it created the State Children's Health Insurance Program, 182 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:19,840 also known as CHIP. CHIP provided nearly twenty four billion 183 00:12:19,919 --> 00:12:22,360 dollars to states, but allowed them to use it for 184 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,039 private insurance rather than expanding Medicaid. To sell the BBA 185 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:29,120 to the public, the architects included the creation of CHIP 186 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:33,080 in the Social dial. This was marketed as a humanitarian 187 00:12:33,120 --> 00:12:36,759 expansion for the safety net. However, in the Economic Dial, 188 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:40,279 the CQ Almanac reveals that CHIP was designed to give 189 00:12:40,360 --> 00:12:45,720 states the flexibility to bypass traditional government programs, further entrenching 190 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:49,080 the role of private insurance companies as the gatekeepers of 191 00:12:49,120 --> 00:12:53,679 care for people experiencing poverty. One of the most radical 192 00:12:53,759 --> 00:12:57,159 changes in the CQ source is the removal of the 193 00:12:57,159 --> 00:13:01,399 federal waiver requirement for Medicaid. Before nineteen ninety seven, states 194 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:06,279 had to obtain federal permission from HHS to require Medicaid 195 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:10,600 recipients to enroll in private managed care programs. The BBA 196 00:13:10,919 --> 00:13:14,120 removed this requirement. The core of the nineteen ninety seven 197 00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:18,559 handout was the deregulation of Medicaid. Before the BBA, the 198 00:13:18,600 --> 00:13:22,080 federal government acted as a shield, requiring states to prove 199 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:27,360 that private managed care wouldn't harm beneficiaries, the BBA stripped 200 00:13:27,399 --> 00:13:31,679 US away, allowing states to mandate private enrollment without federal approval. 201 00:13:31,919 --> 00:13:35,799 This effectively ended the era of federal accountability and turned 202 00:13:35,799 --> 00:13:38,919 millions of the most vulnerable citizens into a captive market 203 00:13:39,159 --> 00:13:43,639 for private MCOs. In nineteen ninety seven, home health care 204 00:13:43,879 --> 00:13:47,200 was the fastest growing Medicare benefit, allowing seniors to age 205 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,720 with dignity in their own homes, which most people prefer. 206 00:13:51,279 --> 00:13:56,039 The BBA implemented the Interim Payment Systems, or the IPS, 207 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,919 which was so hard on the program that it caused 208 00:13:58,919 --> 00:14:03,480 nearly four thousand home health agencies to shut down almost overnight. 209 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:07,600 This wasn't an accident. By destroying the home care option, 210 00:14:07,919 --> 00:14:12,759 the BBA four seniors into institutionalized, corporate run nursing homes, 211 00:14:12,919 --> 00:14:16,799 facilities that were coincidentally becoming major investment vehicles for the 212 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:20,200 private equity firms emerging from the nineteen ninety six King 213 00:14:20,279 --> 00:14:24,759 City Third Way meetings. While the BBA was saving the 214 00:14:24,799 --> 00:14:27,840 budget by cutting home health visits for the elderly and 215 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,720 simultaneously slashed the capital gains tax from twenty eight percent 216 00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:36,120 to twenty percent. This is the ultimate uniparty mic drop. 217 00:14:36,799 --> 00:14:40,559 The law effectively taxed the health of people with low 218 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:45,000 incomes to subsidize the investment portfolios of the elite. This 219 00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,159 was the first time in American history that a major 220 00:14:47,159 --> 00:14:51,039 deficit reduction bill included a massive tax giveaway to the 221 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,960 investor class, providing that the balanced budget was actually just 222 00:14:55,200 --> 00:15:00,480 rebranding of the massive wealth transfer upward, they wanted more money. 223 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,440 Typical cuts to hospitals, specifically teaching hospitals that train the 224 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:07,799 next generation of doctors were among the most aggressive, which 225 00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:12,000 literally makes no sense. That's how you keep making money 226 00:15:12,080 --> 00:15:15,240 is that you have more doctors. The BBA cut graduate 227 00:15:15,279 --> 00:15:20,120 medical education payments and indirect medical education adjustments. The bba's 228 00:15:20,200 --> 00:15:23,759 design included a strike at the very foundation of the 229 00:15:23,799 --> 00:15:28,279 medical system. By slashing GME payments, the act placed a 230 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,480 financial stranglehold on the institutions that serve the uninsured and 231 00:15:32,679 --> 00:15:37,000 trained future physicians. Evidence from Congressional Budget Office Projections or 232 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:40,399 CBO at the time indicates that the architects of the 233 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:44,960 BBA knew these cuts would disproportionately bankrupt rural hospitals as well, 234 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,000 since rural hospitals rely more heavily on Medicare and Medicaid 235 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,639 than urban centers. The flat cuts were designed to fail 236 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:57,200 in the heartland. This served the global corporate state's goal 237 00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:02,000 of urban consolidation, forcing populars out of independent rural settings 238 00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:07,000 and into managed urban environments where their service consumption could 239 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:12,120 be more easily tracked and taxed by technocratic elite. And 240 00:16:12,159 --> 00:16:16,320 in fact, now approximately eighty percent of US counties, home 241 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,559 to over one hundred and twenty million people, are considered 242 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:25,840 healthcare deserts. These areas lack adequate access to or infrastructure 243 00:16:25,879 --> 00:16:29,440 for essential services like primary and care hospitals or pharmacies. 244 00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,480 Nearly sixty percent of the counties have more than one 245 00:16:32,519 --> 00:16:36,519 type of healthcare desert. The CBO's nineteen ninety seven projections 246 00:16:36,559 --> 00:16:40,320 also contained a dark reality for Middle America. Because rural 247 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:43,600 hospitals typically rely on Medicare and Medicaid for up to 248 00:16:43,639 --> 00:16:46,720 seventy percent of their total revenue, compared to like the 249 00:16:46,759 --> 00:16:50,399 thirty or forty percent in urban private hospitals, the flat 250 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,720 rate cuts in the BBA were mathematically guaranteed to hit 251 00:16:53,799 --> 00:16:56,840 rural areas two to three times harder. By March nineteen 252 00:16:56,919 --> 00:16:59,919 ninety nine, just two years into the act, Medicare spending 253 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:05,000 grew even slower than the CBO's original drastic projections, under 254 00:17:05,039 --> 00:17:10,440 shooting by another eighty four billion dollars. This accidental overperformance 255 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:13,599 of the cuts accelerated the bankruptcy of rural health care, 256 00:17:13,759 --> 00:17:17,000 clearing the way for the urban consolidation required by the 257 00:17:17,039 --> 00:17:22,000 global corporate state. According to the CBO's August nineteen ninety 258 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,880 seven analysis, the one hundred and twelve billion dollars in 259 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:29,079 medicare savings served as the primary engine for funding the 260 00:17:29,200 --> 00:17:33,119 ninety five billion dollars in net tax cuts. This wasn't 261 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:37,160 a balanced budget, it was a rebalanced society. The federal 262 00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,680 government acted as a wealth stripper, taking money that was 263 00:17:40,759 --> 00:17:45,200 contractually promised to seniors for health care and transferring it 264 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:48,880 to those who earn income through asset speculation rather than labor. 265 00:17:49,079 --> 00:17:52,440 The CQ Almanac notes these cuts weren't just about saving money. 266 00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:56,400 They were front loaded to create immediate financial distress, forcing 267 00:17:56,400 --> 00:18:01,400 public hospitals to consolidate or adapt corporate business models to survive, 268 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,720 an essential step in the transition to the global corporate state. 269 00:18:06,279 --> 00:18:09,359 Now we've mentioned the global corporate state several times. Let's 270 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,559 get into what that actually means. The global corporate state 271 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:17,920 involves multinational corporations that absorb public services such as healthcare 272 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:23,400 and infrastructure for profit. It's always for something, right, profit, power, sex, 273 00:18:23,519 --> 00:18:25,880 you name it. That's what they're after. This one for 274 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,680 profit and also probably for power. Central and global banks 275 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:33,079 manage the flow of debt and set the fiscal rules 276 00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:37,119 for nation states, typically in international forums such as the 277 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:40,519 World Economic Forum, the Council of Foreign Relations, and the 278 00:18:40,519 --> 00:18:44,960 Builderberg Group. The uniparty are local managers who implement the 279 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,440 global mandate while pretending to fight each other on television. 280 00:18:48,759 --> 00:18:51,759 It's literally all a show. In June nineteen ninety six, 281 00:18:51,759 --> 00:18:54,519 the Builderberg Group met in King City, Ontario. While the 282 00:18:54,519 --> 00:18:59,200 attendees lists are kept pretty tight, the nineteen ninety six 283 00:18:59,279 --> 00:19:02,880 meeting is offen cited by researchers as the moment the 284 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:07,000 Third Way was globalized. Researchers of the global corporate state 285 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:10,599 point to the meeting as the briefing for the managed 286 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:14,839 transition of the Western economy. The goal was to pivot 287 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:19,240 the US from a manufacturing based social democracy to a 288 00:19:19,359 --> 00:19:24,240 debt servicing service economy. Newt Gingrich's presence in these globalist 289 00:19:24,279 --> 00:19:27,839 circles because he's literally a member of the Council Foreign 290 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,799 Relations and has attended high level international forums. Is often 291 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:37,400 used as evidence that his revolution was controlled opposition. The 292 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:40,039 theory is that he was coached to create the conflict 293 00:19:40,079 --> 00:19:44,680 the nineteen ninety five government shutdown to make the eventual compromise, 294 00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:47,440 which was the BBA, look like a hard won victory 295 00:19:47,480 --> 00:19:50,240 for the people when it was actually planned all along. 296 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,880 This managed compromise effectively erased the distinction between the two 297 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,839 major parties, creating a uniparty technocracy that answered to King 298 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:02,359 City and Davos rather than Main Street. The third Way 299 00:20:02,559 --> 00:20:05,359 wasn't a middle ground, it was a bypass by removing 300 00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:09,160 the public's ability to vote on the fundamental structure of 301 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,400 the social safety net, locking it instead to automatic formula 302 00:20:13,599 --> 00:20:17,400 and secret contracts. The BBA signaled the end of the 303 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:21,480 representative democracy in fiscal matters. The political theater of the 304 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:25,640 Gingrich Clinton rivalry was merely the breadcrumb, trail and circus 305 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:30,720 show designed to distract us from the quiet surrender of sovereignty. 306 00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:34,640 The prime example of this theater was the nineteen ninety 307 00:20:34,640 --> 00:20:38,799 seven campaign finance probe, which dominated headlines for allegations of 308 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,720 illegal Chinese influence in the nineteen ninety six election, which 309 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,839 sounds a lot like the twenty sixteen election. By November 310 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,240 of nineteen ninety six, the Republicans were convinced of the 311 00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:54,079 Chinese Communist government's influence on the US elections. Newt Gingrich 312 00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:56,839 promised the probe into the democratic scandal with China would 313 00:20:56,839 --> 00:21:00,839 be bigger than Watergate. This political confrontation between Gingridge and 314 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:04,359 Clinton led to the longest government shut down in history 315 00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:08,960 up to that point. Gingridg decided to compromise, though many 316 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,640 House Republicans disagreed, but the compromise was all staged. The 317 00:21:12,799 --> 00:21:14,880 shutdown was all staged. It was all just a game. 318 00:21:15,599 --> 00:21:18,200 While it appeared to be a high stakes battle for accountability, 319 00:21:18,279 --> 00:21:22,759 the investigation ultimately fizzled without major consequences for either party. 320 00:21:22,799 --> 00:21:25,400 This lack of an outcome suggests that the probe was 321 00:21:25,519 --> 00:21:28,599 not a search for the truth, but a scripted performance 322 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:32,400 intended to keep the public's focus on a partisan scandal. 323 00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,680 At the same time, the bba's economic dial was being 324 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,960 permanently set behind the scenes. To understand the uniparty through 325 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:42,319 the lens of the nineteen ninety seven BBA, we have 326 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,759 to look past the televised arguments and into the structural 327 00:21:45,759 --> 00:21:49,400 reality of what was surrendered. Pretty much the clash of 328 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:53,279 Titan's Theater put on by Clinton and gingridg was not 329 00:21:53,799 --> 00:21:57,119 ever real. It was just a coordinated handover of American 330 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:02,440 democratic sovereignty to a technocratic elite. In a functioning democracy, 331 00:22:02,559 --> 00:22:07,519 voters expect that switching parties will change the direction of 332 00:22:07,599 --> 00:22:11,720 the country. However, the BBA turned the American political system 333 00:22:11,799 --> 00:22:14,880 into a two dial machine. So in the social dial, 334 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:19,119 the left versus right politicians fight loudly over cultural issues, 335 00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,640 flags and rhetoric to keep the public divided and engaged. 336 00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:25,640 It's a great show, it's a great game. In the 337 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,640 economic dial, the managed corps, the fundamental movement of money 338 00:22:29,799 --> 00:22:33,000 and the privatization of the commons, and the servicing of 339 00:22:33,039 --> 00:22:38,240 global debt remained on a fixed, irreversible track regardless of 340 00:22:38,279 --> 00:22:41,880 who wins the election. It doesn't matter who you vote for. 341 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,599 What is really crazy about the bba's structural detail is 342 00:22:45,599 --> 00:22:49,720 that it used a legislative mechanism called contractual hard coding. 343 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:54,359 By shifting beneficiaries into private Medicare plus choice plans. The 344 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:59,440 government entered into multi year contracts with insurance giants. These 345 00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,839 contracts contained intringement clauses that made it legally and financially 346 00:23:04,039 --> 00:23:09,559 ruinous for future Congresses to return to public only models. 347 00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:13,000 The BBA didn't just change the law, it sold the 348 00:23:13,039 --> 00:23:17,079 deed to the safety net, making any future repeal a 349 00:23:17,240 --> 00:23:21,519 breach of contract against the global corporate state. The Third 350 00:23:21,559 --> 00:23:24,960 Way was marketed as a common sense centrism, but in 351 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:29,559 reality it was the implementation of a globalized corporate mandate. 352 00:23:30,759 --> 00:23:34,160 Managed competition was the buzzword of the nineteen nineties. It 353 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,279 meant the government would use its power to pick winners, 354 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,359 mainly large insurance conglomerates and hospital systems, and force the 355 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:45,759 public into their arms. Before nineteen ninety seven, there was 356 00:23:45,839 --> 00:23:48,720 still a lingering belief that the government had a direct 357 00:23:48,759 --> 00:23:52,200 responsibility to provide a safety net. After nineteen ninety seven, 358 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:55,559 both parties agreed that the government's only rule was to 359 00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,000 be a customer for private corporations. And I actually read 360 00:23:59,039 --> 00:24:03,720 in a book recently that that's how fascism starts. The 361 00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:06,599 historic government shut down of nineteen ninety five nineteen ninety 362 00:24:06,640 --> 00:24:10,240 six serves as an origin story for the uniparty's Third 363 00:24:10,279 --> 00:24:13,880 Way takeover. Gingrich played a major role by pushing a 364 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,880 radical divide between Democrats and Republicans. When Clinton fought back, 365 00:24:18,079 --> 00:24:20,759 it led to the shutdown that scared the public. Scared 366 00:24:20,799 --> 00:24:25,240 the public so bad that they agreed to this budget. 367 00:24:25,519 --> 00:24:28,279 By creating the government shutdown crisis, the two parties were 368 00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:32,400 forced on purpose, like they did this on purpose, into 369 00:24:32,519 --> 00:24:37,119 a compromise that the public would have otherwise rejected. This 370 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:40,119 made the gutting of the social Safety Net appear to 371 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:43,559 be an act of heroic bipartisanship rather than a calculated 372 00:24:43,599 --> 00:24:47,480 wealth transfer. They orchestrated the shutdown that way everyone would 373 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,519 be so excited and championed them when they came to 374 00:24:50,559 --> 00:24:53,799 an agreement. In the uniparty model, conflict is a tool 375 00:24:53,839 --> 00:24:57,480 for consensus. You cannot move a population toward a global 376 00:24:57,559 --> 00:25:00,839 corporate state in a straight line. He must swing them 377 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,599 back and forth between two extremes, the right and the left, 378 00:25:03,799 --> 00:25:06,559 until they are exhausted enough to accept the pre written 379 00:25:06,599 --> 00:25:12,240 middle ground, like what happened with the shutdown. Ultimately, the 380 00:25:12,319 --> 00:25:15,119 same year the American Safety Net was being hollowed out 381 00:25:15,119 --> 00:25:18,599 by the BBA, the legislative branch was occupied with a 382 00:25:18,599 --> 00:25:23,200 fizzling investigation that ultimately protected the political elite from the 383 00:25:23,279 --> 00:25:27,000 very sovereignty they were signing away. Among these elites were 384 00:25:27,039 --> 00:25:32,079 people like Democrat Robert Rubin, Clinton's Treasury secretary and a 385 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,599 former Goldman Sachs co chair who was the bridge between 386 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,359 Wall Street and the BBA. His philosophy of fiscal discipline 387 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,440 was essentially a mandate to lower interest rates to fuel 388 00:25:43,839 --> 00:25:48,119 corporate growth at the expense of social spending. Ruben later 389 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:51,400 moved to City Group, a global bank that benefited a 390 00:25:51,519 --> 00:25:55,079 ton from the financial deregulation that followed the bba's fiscal 391 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:58,680 responsibility era. Ruben was paid over one hundred and twenty 392 00:25:58,799 --> 00:26:02,799 million dollars over the next decade. This Rubinomics era provided 393 00:26:02,839 --> 00:26:06,519 a fiscal cover for the eventual repeal of Glass Stiegel, 394 00:26:06,880 --> 00:26:10,279 further merging the interests of global banks with the federal 395 00:26:10,319 --> 00:26:14,680 government on the Republican side. Newt Gingrich didn't retire to 396 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,319 a quiet life either. He became a high paid consultant 397 00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:23,559 and strategic advisor for major healthcare and tech interests. Well, 398 00:26:23,759 --> 00:26:26,880 isn't that interesting? He literally handed over the whole country. 399 00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,359 He is a long standing member of the Council of 400 00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:33,960 Foreign Relations, the globalist hub that many people point to 401 00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:38,680 as a true source of uniparty policy. To truly understand 402 00:26:38,759 --> 00:26:40,799 that this was not just a left versus right issue, 403 00:26:40,799 --> 00:26:44,480 but a globally managed transition, we can look at other 404 00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:47,839 places that implemented nearly identical third way scripts around that 405 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:51,519 exact same time. Around May of nineteen ninety seven, just 406 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:54,960 months before Clinton and Gingrich signed the BBA, Tony Blair 407 00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,480 became Prime Minister of the UK. He rebranded his party 408 00:26:58,519 --> 00:27:01,599 as New Labor, which was the Britain twin of Clinton's 409 00:27:01,599 --> 00:27:06,960 Third Way. Blair implemented the Private Finance Initiative PFI. Like 410 00:27:07,079 --> 00:27:12,200 Medicare plus Choice, PFI used private contracts to build public infrastructure. 411 00:27:12,519 --> 00:27:16,160 It moved debt off balance sheet to make the budget 412 00:27:16,279 --> 00:27:20,720 look balance while actually saddling the National Health Service NHS 413 00:27:21,079 --> 00:27:24,240 with high interest debt that costs ten times the actual 414 00:27:24,319 --> 00:27:28,079 construction price. It looked like the government was balancing the 415 00:27:28,079 --> 00:27:30,759 budget because it moved the debt onto the books of 416 00:27:30,759 --> 00:27:34,680 private corporations. In reality, it was a massive wealth transfer 417 00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:39,119 that piled on decades of high interest payments to private 418 00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:42,839 banks and developers. In the late nineties, Germany also followed 419 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:47,160 this model. Under Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, he introduced the new middle, 420 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:51,799 Schroder introduced the Heart's for reforms. These were the German 421 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:55,559 version of the bba's welfare and healthcare cuts. Just like 422 00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,039 in the US, these reforms were so conservative that the 423 00:27:59,079 --> 00:28:02,400 traditional right wing parties couldn't have passed them without causing 424 00:28:02,400 --> 00:28:05,720 a revolution. It took a left wing leader to betray 425 00:28:05,759 --> 00:28:09,319 his own labor base to satisfy the global economic mandate, 426 00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,680 proving that the social dial of party identity is irrelevant 427 00:28:12,880 --> 00:28:16,880 when the economic dial is being turned by global interests. So, 428 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,400 of course all this is just speculation, just a conspiracy, obviously, 429 00:28:22,079 --> 00:28:27,000 but is it though? Let's talk about the congressional record. 430 00:28:27,559 --> 00:28:30,519 The nineteen ninety seven debate was split into two bills, 431 00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,519 HR two zero one five, the Balance Budget Act and 432 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,599 HR two zero one four, the Taxpayer Relief Act. Because 433 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:41,599 they were debated simultaneously, a few legislators caught the shell 434 00:28:41,599 --> 00:28:45,359 game in real time on the House floor. Then Representative 435 00:28:45,359 --> 00:28:48,440 Bernie Sanders, and independent from Vermont, was one of the 436 00:28:48,519 --> 00:28:52,599 loudest critics, famously calling the argument a quote Robin Hood 437 00:28:52,640 --> 00:28:56,359 in reverse. He said, quote at the time when we 438 00:28:56,440 --> 00:28:59,119 are told we must cut Medicare by one hundred and 439 00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,160 fifteen billion, dollars. It is an absolute outrage that we 440 00:29:03,319 --> 00:29:06,559 are at the same time giving ninety five billion dollars 441 00:29:06,599 --> 00:29:09,720 in tax breaks, the vast majority of which go to 442 00:29:09,759 --> 00:29:13,279 the wealthiest one percent end quote. Sanders confirms that the 443 00:29:13,319 --> 00:29:15,960 transfer wasn't a hidden side effect, it was the known 444 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,119 intended goal. The savings from the health of the elderly 445 00:29:20,359 --> 00:29:23,599 were laundered through the Treasury and handed directly to the 446 00:29:23,599 --> 00:29:27,160 investor class as a capital gains bounty. Something we found 447 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,680 super interesting is that in the Senate, Paul Wellstone, a 448 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:34,240 Democrat from Minnesota, warned that the BBA was a quote 449 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,240 betrayal of the social contract. He noted that the tax 450 00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:40,880 cuts were front loaded for the wealthy, while the Medicare 451 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:47,039 protections were vague and unenforceable. Wellstone identified the economic dial perfectly, 452 00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,079 arguing the bill permanently weakened the government's ability to protect 453 00:29:51,079 --> 00:29:54,480 the poor while hardcoding the benefits for Wall Street. He 454 00:29:54,559 --> 00:29:57,519 also noted that the capital gains cut would bleed the 455 00:29:57,599 --> 00:30:02,200 Treasury of the very funds needed to sustain the baby 456 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:07,359 boomer's future healthcare needs. If Paul Wellstone's name sounds familiar 457 00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:09,359 to you, it's probably because you heard it before in 458 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:13,359 the Crisis Actors episode, So George Zen, a decoy guy 459 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:16,680 from Charlie Kirk's assassination, was credited with the Republican win 460 00:30:16,759 --> 00:30:19,720 in Minnesota. Just five years later, when Paul Wellstone was 461 00:30:19,799 --> 00:30:23,160 running for office again. So Wellstone has obviously just shaken 462 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:28,559 up the political sphere in Minnesota. He's not fully agreeing 463 00:30:28,599 --> 00:30:31,640 with what they're doing. Well, then he became a target. 464 00:30:32,119 --> 00:30:35,359 So Wellstone was targeted by the National Republican Party as 465 00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:38,279 the Keystone race in the GOP's quest to regain the 466 00:30:38,319 --> 00:30:42,200 Senate majority. It was this statement that motivated George Zen, 467 00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,640 who quote packed his bag and was off to Minnesota 468 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,319 from Utah, volunteering to pound signs and lawns, hang up 469 00:30:49,319 --> 00:30:51,279 banners and stand on the corner with a vote for 470 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,680 Norm sign while whistling Yankee Doodle end quote if they 471 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,920 wanted him to. This was quoted from the Desert News. 472 00:30:58,279 --> 00:31:00,559 It goes on to say, quote, who'd have thought a 473 00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,680 month later that Wellstone would be killed in a tragic 474 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:08,079 plane crash while campaigning, that former Vice President Walter Mondale 475 00:31:08,279 --> 00:31:10,480 would jump in to try to save the seat for 476 00:31:10,519 --> 00:31:14,160 the Democrats, that the Democrats would turn Wellstone's funeral service 477 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,559 into a campaign rally, and that Norm Coleman, the guy 478 00:31:17,599 --> 00:31:23,400 George then campaign for, would win anyway. End quote coincidence. No, 479 00:31:23,559 --> 00:31:27,799 not around here, guys. Furthermore, the Congressional Budget Office's August 480 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,839 nineteen ninety seven report provides the final smoking gun. Here. 481 00:31:32,240 --> 00:31:35,359 It projected one hundred and fifteen billion dollars in Medicare 482 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:39,000 savings and seven billion dollars in Medicaid savings over five years. 483 00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:42,720 At the same time, the Taxpayer Relief Act was projected 484 00:31:42,759 --> 00:31:45,920 to cost the Treasury ninety five billion dollars in revenue, 485 00:31:46,400 --> 00:31:49,839 primarily through the capital gain slash and the creation of 486 00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:54,279 the back door roth IRA. The symmetry is undeniable. The 487 00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:58,480 Uniparty calculated that the amount they could politically strip from 488 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:02,000 the safety net was, onmost exactly equal to the amount 489 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:07,119 their donors demanded in tax relief. Isn't that interesting? To 490 00:32:07,240 --> 00:32:11,039 pass the BBA, the Uniparty used a trick called sunset clauses. 491 00:32:11,319 --> 00:32:14,359 They claimed the tax cuts would expire, but the Medicare 492 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:18,240 structural changes such as Medicare plus Choice would remain permanent. 493 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:22,720 This was the ultimate lock in. They knew that once 494 00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:26,920 the private insurance infrastructures was built, no future Congress would 495 00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:30,279 have the courage to dismantle it. The tax cuts were 496 00:32:30,359 --> 00:32:32,960 the bait in the trap. The permanent hollowing out of 497 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,759 the safety net was the trap itself. This is why, 498 00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:40,519 decades later, we still have a private market medicare system, 499 00:32:40,759 --> 00:32:43,400 while the temporary tax cuts for the wealthy have been 500 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:48,359 renewed and expanded every administration. Since. Nothing is ever what 501 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:52,240 it seems. It's all a show. It's all just a game. 502 00:32:52,599 --> 00:32:58,559 Our health, our world doesn't matter to them. How can 503 00:32:58,599 --> 00:33:00,759 they manipulate it for themselves. I don't even have a 504 00:33:00,799 --> 00:33:04,440 question for you guys this week. I've been asking questions lately, 505 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:08,319 and I don't have one. So until next week, my friends, 506 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,799 stay skeptical and I'll see then. Hey friends. The rabbit 507 00:33:11,839 --> 00:33:14,680 Hole is an independent podcast written, hosted, and produced by 508 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,759 me Danny Mercy. Special thanks to Lindsay for research and writing. 509 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:19,799 If you love the podcast, please leave us a five 510 00:33:19,839 --> 00:33:22,400 star rating and review wherever you're listening. Follow us on 511 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,440 social media at rabbit dot Hole podcast, and visit our 512 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:28,400 website at stayskeptical dot com for everything else.