Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov - The GOP’s Health Care Crisis Is Blowing Up

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Jessica Tarlov is back with Friday regular Aaron Parnas for a packed end-of-week rundown. They dive into TIME’s Person of the Year debate — is 2025 really the year of AI, not Trump? — and break down rising tensions after President Trump’s seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker. They also unpack the GOP’s internal chaos over expiring ACA subsidies, the high-stakes showdown between Netflix and Paramount, and the growing influence of Zohran Mamdani as Brad Lander jumps into NY-10. Plus: predictions on next week’s Epstein files, a very online moment from Piers Morgan’s interview with Nick Fuentes, and what’s making both Jessica and Aaron rage this week. Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov.  Follow Prof G, @profgalloway. Follow Raging Moderates, @RagingModeratesPod. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RagingModerates  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who are you really? Introvert, extrovert, maybe you're a Pisces. According to some scientists, we're thinking about it all wrong. I always say that, you know, academic personality science needs, like, a PR person because we're not really good at spreading the word on what personality actually is. That's this week on Explain It to Me. New episode Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Jessica Tarlov, and it's Friday. So, Aaron Pernis. You didn't like win any huge awards this week, though, right? You're just Aaron Parnas.

No, just me. TikTok journalist extraordinaire, Aaron Pernas. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. How was your week? Long, but good. Good. Yeah? Yeah. I was yours. It was fine. Yeah. Kind of uneventful, I think. It's been a slow week, which is nice, is. I guess so, well, It's my daughter's fourth birthday. Oh, happy birthday. That's like a big deal. Yeah, I'll send you a pick. Okay, great.

She's real cute. So that's exciting. We're going to her class to read a book and sing and bring little cupcakes. And these kids, yeah, it makes me like, I'm not having more kids, but it makes me very broody when I see more. I'm like, oh, give me your little faces. Time person of the year has that transition for you. Was that announced?

Yeah. It wasn't Donald Trump. Oh, good. Okay. I was reading the prediction. markets were saying it was going to be AI. Is that what it was? That is it. Yeah. The people who reshaped the world weren't just Donald Trump, but the architects of AI. What do you think about that? I like it. I like it too. I mean, I think a lot of people

hate AI and I hate AI for a lot of reasons, but I mean, it is revolutionizing America and like the world. And so, yeah, I love technological advancements just went done properly and used ethically. Yeah. I mean, that's like in the write-up, obviously, has a big emphasis and in the conversations that we're having about it, like this thing is happening. Some of it is unequivocally this force for good. There are some drawbacks to it. How are we going to be responsible about it? And, you know, we don't have an administration that's particularly interested in curbing the excesses of AI. But I'm always so scared when I hear some of these AI overlords basically saying that they're scared out of their minds about where AI is going to go.

Yeah, I mean, I'm terrified about AI. I'm terrified that this administration's about to sign this executive order that restricts states from regulating AI. Truth be told, there may be some AI that's even smarter than the president right now in some respects. Yeah. And that should scare everyone. I'll go with an affirmative on that one. That's not, I was about to say that's not nice. I'm not nice about the president all the time.

They're smarter than me too. I mean, like, it is scary. But, I mean, time person of the year isn't like the best person. or the best thing of the year. It's just the most influential. Yeah, so it makes sense. Yeah, I was listening to Sam Altman was on a late-night show. He was talking about how he doesn't understand how people had babies

and kept them alive without using chat GPT. And that made me sad, though. I don't know how people got, I guess, like, I'm, like, looking back on it. Like, if I had Chad GPT in school, like, that would be completely different. Like, school would be completely different. I know, but that's part of the anxiety. I mean, there are professors that are, you know, trying their best to push back against this. And a lot of people have been found to be cheating. Yeah, you can tell

when people are using AI. I mean, like, and also chat GPT sucks at math. I suck at math, and that's how I know chat GPT sucks at math because I've had it, you do math for me before. And it just never works. It's like worse than me. Yeah. AI's been wrong about me too, about like which of my husbands I've cheated on. And I've only had one husband and I haven't cheated on him. On the record. AI thinks I'm Jack Schlossberg. That's weird. Yeah, I know. That's at least So Grock told me the other day. Is Lisa or Kennedy? Yeah, I'll take it.

Jack, if you're watching, I'll take the fortune. Okay, I want to talk about Venezuela. I'm really nailing these transitions today. So President Trump says the U.S. has seized a massive Venezuelan oil tanker headed for Cuba, major escalation in his pressure campaign against Maduro, carried out by the Coast Guard's elite units as the administration ramps up its military footprint in the region.

This feels very warry to me. and very different from the random Caribbean boat strikes, which is not a finished conversation, but obviously very different. Yeah, I agree and disagree. I'm going to temper the heat down a little bit on this because it's not like United States military seizing oil tankers is not a new concept.

We do it in like the Strait of Ormuz and like the Middle East regularly when the Iranians try to like send the list of weapons to North Korea, for example. We've seized Iranian tankers before. Yeah. So this isn't like a new thing. Yes, I guess it's new for Venezuela and it really just shows that like the goal of all of this is oil. Like that is what they're looking for. But it's not new, right? Like if what they're saying is true that the ship is sanction, the people on their sanction, like they've done it before. Like this isn't like the United States is just seizing a ship for the first time. Well, you've seen that tempered reaction, I think even from Chuck Schumer, right? Like I don't think that people are going out there and saying this is wrong like it's wrong to shoot unarmed. people that are clinging to a piece of wood in the water.

Right. I think the bigger question is, are we headed to war with Venezuela and are we going to be backing regime change in Venezuela, which is a pretty big deal? All signs point to yes. I mean, based on what I've heard, I mean, I'm not going to be all conspiracy theory on here, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have troops in Venezuela this weekend, like that soon. I mean, I do think that we are heading towards some type of armed conflict in Venezuela.

You can call it a war, but ultimately the United States military is so powerful and so strong here that, like, the Venezuelans, the military and the regime don't really have much pushback. Right. So it's not really going to be like this, in my opinion, a protracted conflict like you would see in Ukraine, Russia. That's not what this is going to be. It's more going to be like the United States bombing a bunch of military installations in Venezuela, sacking Maduro, and then taking over Venezuela's oil, which I'm not saying is a good thing. And I'm saying that Congress has to authorize it. But this isn't going to be like the traditional, like World War II, World War I type war, a conventional battlefield war. That's not what we're looking at here.

Do you think the MAGA base will be supportive of it? Because it is one of his Trump's major selling points, especially to younger Republicans and then some of those swing voters, which was that he would be the peace president, right? And that like no more stupid wars, I understand it's a different definition of a war. But do you think there's going to be a pushback on it or people will just say we'll be in and out and Maduro's back. guy, let's get Machado in there. I think it ultimately depends on, like, what does the day after look like? Like, I do think there's no appetite for us going into Venezuela. I mean, Republicans don't like it.

I mean, look, the polling, 70% of Americans don't support it. So there's zero appetite for us going into Venezuela. I think it only gets worse for Trump if Maduro is sacked and then who comes in afterwards. Like, what does that look like? Can Marina Carina Marjado coalesce and take over and become the new leader? Can you actually have a free and fair election? I don't know that you can. Regime change never works historically.

Didn't work in the Middle East, has not worked historically. The United States, every time the United States touches regime change, like, we screw up majorly. And I wouldn't be surprised. I was talking to Ruben Gallego yesterday. I wouldn't be surprised if, like, we look back at this in 10 years. And in 2036, the top Democrats and Republicans are running on, like, I never supported the Venezuela war message, right? Like the same way that everyone ran on. Like Iraq.

I never supported the Iraq war. So I wouldn't be surprised if we get to that point again. It's all the same. Like, it's all oil, a Republican president, wanting to bomb a country, to make money, and it never works. Never works. Yeah. I mean, hopefully there's not a treasure trove of that intel for this one that we're going to be basing things on as well. But don't worry, if there is, Laura Lumer will let us know.

She's on the case. She's our Nancy Drew. Well, she's our Pentagon Press Corps leads. So, yeah. I actually, I feel like, I mean, I must know that, but you saying it felt like it hit me for the first time, and I feel a little sick. ACA's subsidies. Big story this week, obviously, seems like a little bit of a revolution in the Republican ranks, at least on the House side. I mean, Josh Hawley's Josh Hawley. And, you know, he always screams like, don't cut Medicaid. And then he's like, I'll send the bill. But what do you think happens with the discharge petition? in the House on this, like, do you think there's any chance that they do a clean extension of the ACA subsidies or there's like 90 questions? Just talk to me about what you think about health care

at the moment. And if the bill out of the Senate might have legs then into the House, if Dems will compromise, we also talked to Gallego this week. He did not seem open to that idea on the Senate level that they would be lending their votes to a bill that didn't at least have a couple years of C.A subsidy extensions, but what's your take? Aren't you glad we got a promise of a vote? Like, aren't we so excited? It's like, we have the lowest standards. You know, like, that girl who's, like, dating the guy and he's just, like, blatantly cheating

on her, but, like, he does hang out with her on her birthday. That's like us. That's what this is. Right? They're like, we get to vote and we know we're going to lose, but we get to vote. And then we get to say Republicans voted against this. That doesn't help the 15 million Americans who are about to be kicked off their health insurance, right? I don't think this is getting anywhere. I don't think we're going to solve anything. I will say the

one thing that has the most legs, in my opinion, is that discharge petition in the House where you have, I think, at least eight or nine Republicans sign on to it. I mean, Jeffries then came out and kind of threw cold water on it. Scalese kind of threw cold water on it. I think, unfortunately, everyone's kind of stuck in their own camps. And it's December 12th. And we have 19 days left before ACA credits expired. But also, Congress isn't going to be working on that. 19 days because you have the holidays, right? So they're going to go on vacation in about a few days. So we have about a few days to fix this. And I don't think anyone's going to fix it. Ultimately, the only way healthcare is solved, and I don't want to say solved, because this is not

going to solve anything for a lot of people. But the only way we have a resolution on health care is if Trump comes in and says, you know what, here's what we have to do. Republicans, get your shit together. We're going to ram this through reconciliation. We don't need any Democrat votes. this is what I want done, and this is what we're going to do. That's the only way you're going to have a resolution. I don't think it's going to be a good one, but that's, I mean, that's how you get to somewhere. Do you think that when he, if and when he does it, and I think it's completely reasonable that that that might happen, because he floated this before. Like, he wanted ACA subsidy extensions, and then the caucus was like, no, no, no, no, we don't want that.

It's just Obamacare light. We're sick of that. We've been trying to repeal and replace since the day that it was signed. And what elements do you think might be in something that Trump would consider? Like, this marriage between extending the ACA subsidies and then doing health savings account seems really palatable to at least the moderate Republicans who then could team up with the Dems for it. I don't know. I've only heard resistance from the Democrats on it, which is like, I get what your fantasy is, but, like, we're all living here and you need to tell me what you think about a health

savings account actually, like if you got to vote on it. But yeah, I mean, the health savings account issues is a tough one because like it's, what is it, a thousand bucks that they're willing to do. Yeah, versus like the $6,000 anyway, the deductibles that these people are going to be saying. And also, if you actually get sick, $1,000 doesn't get you very far in America's health care system, right? Like that may be in the waiting room. Yeah, exactly. So I get the frustration. I think a Trump plan, you may see like ACA extension and then some type of income cap for families and for individuals who qualify for that deduction, which I guess makes sense. I don't think millionaires should be getting a deduction for Affordable Care Act.

But also, millionaires, most millionaires are not on the ACA. They're not on the ACA, so like it doesn't really, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know where we're going to fall on this. I think you may see a situation where Trump goes to Dems a little bit and says, hey, like, I may need your support here, moderate Republicans and Dems to get something across the finish line. but also he's a type lately that he's just like I want to burn it all to the ground I don't even want the Affordable Care Act just give them cash being funny if he was just like did a press conference with just him and John

Fetterman and he was like I have spoken to my Democrat I actually like Fetterman but that's kind of the only one that I could see him striking a relationship with on income caps I've seen in the two Senate proposals the Cripo Cassidy I think it's 200k or 190K and then the Moreno Collins one, it's either the 190 or 200. It's like, it's in the ballpark there that they're talking about, which does seem like kind of a reasonable amount. Good luck. We're going to take a quick break. Stay with us. Reason number 37 why Nissan is built for our winter. Because winter getaways should be cozy, not cold. Kick standard heated front seats and side mirrors help keep you warm and your view clear.

That's winter ready. Now, lease a 2026 kicks-ass front-wheel drive for 349 monthly at 3.9%. Or get $2,000 cash purchase bonus on remaining 2025 models. Visit your local Nissan dealer today or nissan.ca for more details. Least term for 48 months with 1,249 down conditions apply. Teenagers have been mystifying adults for a long time. Why can't he act his age? Why doesn't he grow up?

And we don't have definitive answers for you about why teenagers. are the way that they are, but we do have some scientists who are asking really interesting questions. Um, they asked me if I smoked once and I was like, I'm nine. That's this week on Unexplainable. All the weird, wonderful ways researchers are trying to figure out what's going on inside teens' heads. Teenagers, am I right? Hi, everyone. This is Kara Swisher, and this week on my podcast on with Kara Swisher, I'm interviewing one of my favorite people, Rachel Maddow. We talk with the MS Now host about her new narrative podcast

about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. You may think you know that story, but you actually don't. And we also break down the parallels between Japanese internment and Trump's mass deportation policies. Take a listen. People who are working in the regime right now that is terrorizing people on the basis of race explicitly,

they're going to have to answer for it. and they may have to answer for it just to their own families and to God. But if we do this right, they're going to have to answer in court as well. The full conversation is out now, and you can find it wherever you get your podcast. Search for On with Kara Swisher and hit follow. Welcome back. New York politics. New York City comptroller Brad Lander is jumping into primary Dan Goldman, who is my congressman.

mom-dani endorsing Lander to do that. I mean, I guess he had to give him something after Lander basically delivered as much of the Jewish vote that M-Dani got that came from Brad Lander vouching for him and that M-Dani was like, actually, no, bro, like, you're not going to be in my administration, but you can go after Dan Goldman. How do you see this, like in terms of Mom-Dani's influence

and also do you think that Lander has a chance? I'm so glad I don't live in New York and have to deal with New York politics. It sucks. Your politics are rough. it's really brutal um i'm curious to see if lander if lander wins then obviously mom donnie's influence will grow i don't know that lander will win i think goldman will be heavily favored in terms of funding because goldman is just very wealthy yes he has the name ID but also so does lander being

that he's already been an elected official i think it'll be a close kind of toss-up situation i did find it a little kind of ironic that on lander's launch day his twitter got hacked that was thing. But I mean, I like them both. I think they're both good candidates and good people. I interviewed both of them, Lander on the campaign trail and Goldman previously. And they're both good Democrats. It's just a matter of like what the people of New York want. I feel like it's going to come down to that. And it might have even been in the Lander launch video as well, which is why it's top of mind. This like fighters versus folders thing that's going on that people are not so much dealing with like where you are on the ideological spectrum. But like what is your

resistance vibe. And I have heard that that's a complaint that folks have about Dan Goldman that they feel like, you know, he's not getting in the mud with people. I mean, he was an amazing impeachment manager, obviously, like super smart guy, SD&Y prosecutor, etc. But that he's not throwing elbows the way that they would like to see. I mean, how do you, you just kind of, but like my thing is like you just said, impeachment manager, SD&Y prosecutor, he's already taking the fight to Trump so much. Like, there are so many other members of Congress on the Democratic side that you don't even hear from regularly.

They don't, like, they practically don't exist. Same thing on the Republican side. And, like, those are not fighters. Those are folders more so than Goldman, in my opinion. But they don't have a shiny seat. And they don't have a Mondani endorse. You know, it's like... I will say, I'm curious to see,

because I read a story the other day where they said that Mamdani's influence is already kind of being put to the test over the, it was recently over the New York City Council situation of like who's going to be the speaker of the city council and apparently mom donnie and his team really put pressure on unions and organizers in new york to like hold off their support and everyone kind of rebuked mom donnie and just still did what they were going to do and it showed that like his influence at first like wasn't there in like local new york politics

i'm curious if that translates to like the endorsement game as well i mean for the record like he got chiosay out of um the hakeem jeffrey's fight yeah that i mean that that was him if he threw his weight behind Chi, she would be running today. So we'll see what happens. I think electorally is very different than like local New York politics. So we'll see. Yeah, I'm also watching what happens with the Michael Blake running against Ritchie Torres. Oh, yeah. It's another kind of left versus moderate battle. Did Mamdani endorse over there? No, but I think Mom Dani could get Michael Blake like out of the way. And I think, you know, Congressman Torres was very open to Mamdani, surprisingly so for a lot of people because he's been so pro-Israel and had so many concerns

like he represents Riverdale, which, you know, big modern Orthodox population, et cetera. So I'm watching that one, too, now that Mamdani has knocked Chi out of the fight with Hakeem Jeffries. We'll see what happens. We will see what happens. Epstein files are going to drop next Friday. We talked about it a bunch before, and you said, like a lot of it is video that no one should be seeing, which I'm not eager to see, but any predictions for what that looks like? We're going to get a lot, a lot. I think we're going to get like tens of thousands of pages. And that's the only prediction because I don't know what the hell that could be. It could be in there. I think there'll be a lot of like fluff in there. A lot of like procedural documents.

These grand jury materials are going to be a lot of like very in-depth like discussions about raids and warrants and things like that that like the average person won't understand. So it's going to take a while to be able to parse through all the documents that we receive. But I will say, I think anyone expecting there to be like this bombshell of like, Trump is in there and Trump did all these horrible things. I'm still waiting for my P-tap. Like, it's not happening. It's not happening.

And people shouldn't expect that. But what I'm most curious about is like the money trail, like which banks were helping Epstein move money to who. The banks must be having absolute meltdowns. That's the big one. It's like who's involved there and who and which wealthy people were paying Epstein. who was he moving money for that is going to be the biggest bombshell i think out of the epstein house um last thing i want to talk to you about uh nick fuentes being interviewed by pierce morgan i saw that yeah it was like i'm conflicted because nick fentes is happening whether i want

it to or not and i think that people should engage him and push back and we did all this criticism of tucker carlson basically just giving him an add-a-boy yeah but it also felt like just made for clip culture, and, you know, like, the question about, like, are you a virgin? And then, like, that's going viral. But I kind of expected that he would be a virgin because he seems insully and also waiting for marriage, right? Yes. I also, I mean, even taking out in cell and the waiting for marriage part, I mean, like, Cardihee says, just. No, he has a really devoted following.

You think, like, I know it's mostly broie, but you don't think that there are girls that, would do it with Nick Fuentes? Maybe for like, I, maybe, I don't know. Is this like too upsetting to think about? I'm not surprised he's a fortune. Nothing wrong with it,

but I'm not surprised. Okay. And have you seen this? It's kind of percolating online. It hasn't gotten really massive, which I think is probably due to the algorithm. But, you know how like Baron Trump likes the Tate brothers? Yeah.

Yeah. What, like, what do you say? think is the status of that right-wing cabal, like, misogynistic, like that culture? Because it feels like we've kind of taken a moment from it. And I guess we had a whole slew of it, like after Charlie Kirk's murder. And then there are the GOP staffer text messages, right? Yeah. And it feels like we step back. But like that there's renewed interest now with Nick Fuentes and his no sex and this story. Yeah. I mean, I think it's very like hyper-local D.C. Insidery things. I mean, it's horrible. I think it'll stay in the, like, in the background always. But I don't, I don't see that movement really growing a ton. I haven't seen it grow a ton. It got super platformed in the 2024 election because Trump platformed them. But Trump hasn't platformed them really much since. And so, you may see it like rise up again as like Vance runs in 2027, 2028. But in the meantime, without a big leader platforming them,

Fuentes and all of these guys, like, they have their, like, hyper online bubbles on the internet. They're not really breaking out of it. And I think that's why you haven't really seen much talk about it. Well, I would love it if they were contained. And while we're at it, could someone also contain Candace Owens? I have been enjoying the, the Erica Kirk, like, finally lashing out about all the conspiracy theories. Yeah, I don't, I don't wait into that. Well, I didn't say, like, you got to give it. me a deep opinion, but you do know Candace Owen's crazy. Yes.

You know that enough. Okay. Yes. Last question. I hope he thought about it at this time. What makes you rage? I've been thinking about it with its entire conversation. That's all you've been thinking about.

Okay. What's one thing that makes you rage? One thing we should all calm down about. Do you want to hear my rage? Yeah, I want to hear your rage. That my daughter's preschool pretends like they don't have plates and napkins already for her little school birthday party. Like the amount of stuff that you have to buy on top of paying tens of thousands of dollars

for them to babysit your child around like birthdays, holidays, it drives me crazy. So I have so many frozen-themed napkins and plates at my house right now. So if you came over right now, you would only eat off of frozen paraphernalia. Frozen themed. What's one thing that we should calm down about, putting you on the spot? I don't know, calm down. Kind of about everything. Like, going to the holiday is maybe I'm taking on your, like, December to remember that we should all be more chill.

And you also just took my answer, so thank you. Oh, sorry. All right, you go. One thing that makes me rage is cold weather without snow. Like, if it's going to be freezing, I need it to snow. I like that. Yeah, that makes me rage. And then one thing to calm down about, actually two things.

One, just generally calm down for the holiday season. That was my answer. But also, two, I've been very calm about my HOA recently. Like, I hate my HOA. But, like, for some reason, lately, like, it's been good. So, calming down about my HOA. I like that. Very relatable also.

Everyone has thoughts about their H-O-S. Yeah. All right. Friday feelings. Aaron Parnas. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Support for this show comes from Odu.

Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other. Introducing O-DU. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-U for free at O-D-O-D-O-O-O-com. Thank you.