Connect with The Main Event on social media! Follow Ed on Twitter @EdHoffman, where he tweets about current events all week long – and, like the show on Facebook at Facebook.com/TheMainEventEdHoffman. You can also call the new listener hotline to leave Ed a voicemail and tell him what you think of the show! Call The Main Event listener hotline at (855) 640-2092. Here’s a preview of this week’s show!
Ed starts out by setting the tone for this week’s show: “People need to stop listening to all the BS on TV, and start thinking about what’s best for them,” he says. That principle will apply to healthcare, the firing of James Comey and everything else in the news this week. After Ed discusses a financial scenario some people might relate to, he reminds anyone who’s interested in taking advantage of real estate opportunities to call him at (855) 640-2020.
Next, there’s a discussion on the battle to get The American Health Care Act through the Senate. This week, the Democrats dreamed up a new scare tactic regarding the part of the bill that deals with pre-existing conditions. If you listen to the media coverage, you might think that House Republicans passed legislation to deny people with pre-existing conditions health insurance. Wrong! We have people like Anderson Cooper and his guests to thank for this misinformation, and Ed plays audio from them on this week’s show. Ed also has a simple definition for pre-existing conditions: “If we take away pre-existing conditions, we take away the need for insurance,” he says. “If you’re pregnant or have cancer and you don’t get health insurance until after that happens, then that’s a pre-existing condition.”
You’ll also get the facts on the pre-existing conditions provisions of the healthcare bill; Ed is reading them in detail.
First, he breaks down who isn’t affected by the pre-existing conditions provision:
- People who get insurance through their employer (155 million Americans)
- People on Medicaid or Medicare (70 million Americans)
- People who live in a state that doesn’t request the waiver
- People who live in a state that does request the waiver, but have maintained insurance coverage continuously with gaps no longer than 63 days
In other words, a fraction of the population.
Next, Ed presents these facts:
- Fact #1: If you have a pre-existing condition, you live in a waiver state and you haven’t had continuous coverage, you can only be charged more by your insurer for the first year.
- Fact #2: Thanks to the provision in the bill, every waiver state will have access to $8 billion in federal funds to ease the cost of insurance for people with pre-existing conditions
- Fact #3: The state must also have a high-risk pool or similar program to further alleviate insurance costs for pre-existing conditions.
- Fact #4: (This one is for all the millennials on Twitter saying that Republicans want to deny healthcare to rape survivors): There are laws on the books in 44 states that ban rape and sexual abuse from being a pre-existing condition. That nullifies their entire argument.
“Remember,” Ed says, “health insurance and healthcare are two different things.” He has perspective you need to hear!
Next, Ed’s talking about Sally Yates testifying on Capitol Hill about Russia’s interference in the presidential election. “I didn’t think we were still caring about this,” Ed says, “but apparently some duffuses in Washington D.C. do.” The bottom line on this three-hour hearing can be summed up in a two-minute exchange between Yates and Senator Lindsey Graham, as she described what she told the White House about then-National Security Advisor Mike Flynn’s dealings with Russia – and of course, Ed has that clip on this week’s show. The media acted like the hearing was full of big revelations on Flynn’s vulnerability to blackmail, but we heard all this back in February and this was just more of the same (Ed has news clips from February that prove it).
“Let’s talk about the big news that everyone’s talking about,” Ed says in the second half. “James Comey got fired this week.” Ed has the full timeline of the entire debacle James Comey has caused over the past two years, going back to the announcement in August 2015 that the FBI was investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails and all the way through to his firing on May 9, 2017. You’ll also hear the hilariously fluid opinions of Comey held by prominent Democrats; the same people who are crying about his termination this week were calling for his head last year. “It’s amazing,” Ed says as he reads the various points at which Democrats either loved or hated James Comey.
Of Comey’s ultimate foot-in-the-mouth moment last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee (where he said that Huma Abedin just sent classified material to her husband Anthony Weiner so he could print them for her), Ed says, “Is intent any part of the law?! He was doing a poor job. If I was doing that, I would be fired too. If I did what Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin or Anthony Weiner did, I’d be in jail – but apparently there’s a second set of rules for those people, and that’s why we elected Trump. We were tired of that.”
If you still aren’t sure how you feel about the James Comey firing, tune in to The Main Event this week to get the full story!
Catch The Main Event at…
Inland Empire:
- AM 590 The Answer (KTIE), Saturdays at 9:30 AM/ 9 PM & Sundays at 8 AM
- 1490 Smart Talk (KMET), Sundays at 11 AM & Mondays at 3 PM
Los Angeles:
- AM 870 The Answer (KRLA), Sundays at 3 PM
Internet radio:
- Red State Talk Radio’s Encore Channel, Sundays at 1 PM Pacific
You can also get on-demand podcasts of the show right here on the Podcast page, as well as on Soundcloud or iTunes.