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Eric Hovde: “Health insurance came as a byproduct of World War II where…”

Featuring: Eric Hovde, Republican | Former Candidate, U.S. Senate Wisconsin

Full interview with Eric Hovde

Published July 19, 2012 | Video Starts at 34:33

Think of it. You buy your homeowner insurance individually, you buy your car insurance individually. Everything else in life you buy individually. What happened is Health insurance came as a byproduct of World War II where they couldn't increase wages. So the way for businesses to attract employees was offering them health insurance and their tax code got morphed. I think we've got to get back to where people are able to buy and again break up these mini monopolies. (34:33–34:38)

CLAIM

Asserts that health insurance became common due to wage controls during World War II.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Eric Hovde

“We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world at 35%.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:00-04:04
“It is estimated right now that we spend as Americans anywhere from 160 to $300 billion a year in tax preparation.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 05:45-05:53
“The credit default swap market was a $54 trillion notional value market.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:03-09:08
“We put $187 billion into AIG [due to credit default swaps].”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 21:14-21:19
“$0.60 on every dollar spent today now in health care comes from the federal and state government.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 27:28-27:35
“A GAO study on home health care found that 68% of the hundred billion dollars spent was fraud.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 29:36-29:40
“For every 1% increase in the financing costs of our federal government, that's another $160 billion.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 50:06-50:12
“S&P 500 companies tend to pay about half the normal rate, 16 to 17% any given year.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:07-04:17
“General Electric have 1,000 people in their tax department.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:19-04:23
“There are years that General Electric will pay nothing in tax.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:23-04:27
“Goldman Sachs has 84 offshore corporations.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:31-04:35
“Apple Computer came out, pays 9% in tax.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 04:36-04:40
“I think we have six individual brackets right now.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 06:05-06:08
“The credit default swap market... it's grown vastly bigger than the amount of bonds underneath it.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 08:55-18:53
“Credit default swaps have a $54 trillion notional value.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:03-09:08
“It is the single biggest reason why we put $187 billion into AIG.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:08-09:12
“TARP was a small fraction of the bailouts that occurred.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:28-09:32
“The Federal Reserve and the treasury used [backdoor mechanisms] to prop up the financial system.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:39-09:45
“There's no consequences for the executives of those firms [involved in the financial crisis].”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 09:50-09:55
“Fraud [is] systemic in our healthcare industry.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 10:33-29:17
“The cost of capital input should have been at a vastly higher rate than what they did [during the financial crisis].”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 13:12-13:25
“The executives themselves were never replaced from their positions [after the financial crisis].”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 13:52-14:01
“When Sweden's banking system failed 20 some odd years ago, they removed every CEO of every one of those banks.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 14:05-14:14
“The equity returns to the government on providing that capital was much like what you as a private investor would charge.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 14:19-14:27
“We didn't do that.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 14:27-14:29
“President Obama did [a disastrous policy] with the housing market when he came in and said, we are going to try to do principal reduction…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 15:19-15:24
“They've put up restrictions against foreclosure.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 15:49-15:52
“You are going to create more strategic defaulters.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 16:28-16:31
“They caused a massive wave of strategic defaulters.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 17:36-17:41
“The credit default swap market is known as the ticking time bomb that can blow up the whole global financial system.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 18:03-18:06
“Dodd Frank was created, they write all these regulations which frankly most of it makes no sense.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 19:07-19:18
“If you would have forced every CDS contract within two years to be traded over an exchange... you would have just shranken massively.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 19:34-20:04
“That bailout [AIG] was bigger than all the other bailouts.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 21:21-21:25
“I'm going to release my taxes in the next couple weeks.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 24:20-24:23
“I'm going to do two years [of tax returns] and that's all I'm going to do.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 25:04-25:08
“When President Obama passed Obamacare, he said that it will save taxpayer money over the next decade.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 27:35-27:44
“Factoring in 10 years worth of tax revenue but only six and a half years worth of expenses [for Obamacare] is fraud.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 27:47-27:52
“Washington D.C. [has yet to] manage anything well.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 28:09-28:12
“The second largest sector in our economy [will] in the next probably five to eight years become the largest sector.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 28:13-28:19
“We need to break up the mini monopolies in every single state where one or two health insurers provide insurance.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 28:25-28:34
“Florida's right now trying to deal with the pill clinics... it's just all Medicare and Medicaid fraud.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 29:43-29:53
“The two biggest cost drivers are end of life care and chronic disease.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 30:02-30:09
“The government can play a role... providing premium support to those people that don't have the economic means to buy insurance for…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 30:30-35:55
“The interstate banking laws crumbled and you brought in competition. The same thing should happen with insurance.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 35:03-35:13
“If you are economically disadvantaged and don't have the means to buy that catastrophic insurance, that is a way where the government can…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 35:36-35:48
“If we can get back to individual insurance, then you can carry your insurance anywhere.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 36:12-36:18
“Drive costs down and you're going to open up the free market system to competitively price health insurance is a huge windfall for…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 39:00-39:10
“The more we've moved to a socialized system of medicine, we've seen the quality of our health in this country decline.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 40:07-40:16
“We have $16 trillion in debt. We've got 103% debt to our economy. We're borrowing 38 cents on the dollar.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 42:56-43:02
“Their incomes have declined for the last 11 years, and yet the cost of all their goods.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 43:04-43:10
“We're engaging in something called quantitative easing... It is exactly what caused the destruction of Germany.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 43:09-43:24
“Zimbabwe followed exactly that path. And you know what I sometimes carry around with me? $100 trillion Zimbabwe note, which is worth about…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 43:30-43:42
“Greece, when they did their last restructuring, wiped out the pension value of all their pension value by 50%.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 43:47-44:16
“Social Security is going to be worthless because they'll money print and turn it to whatever that check that you won't even be able buy…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 44:20-44:29
“The problem that you have with the system is more people are taking money out of it than what put into it.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 45:17-45:24
“When Social Security was put in place... retirement age was 65. Life expectancy was 62... We're now in 2012... Life expectancy is 79.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 45:27-45:48
“If you're 50 or older, we're not going to touch it. If you're under 50, you're going to add two years to retirement age.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 45:51-45:57
“For people like me who have been economically blessed... you're going to have to do some level of means testing.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 46:18-46:29
“We've known for 30 years that this year was coming. And this is the critical year.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 47:21-47:28
“Our government does not do accrual accounting, simple GAAP accounting.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 48:17-48:22
“Our real deficits aren't a trillion three last year... They're probably 3.5 to $4.5 trillion because we're not expensing those liabilities.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 48:27-48:41
“Interest payments, just interest costs on our debt is 454 last year.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 48:56-49:05
“Last year, our interest payment on our debt was $454 billion, second largest expenditure in our federal budget.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 48:56-49:05
“Defense is as small a percentage of spending as our percent of our GDP than it's been at any time since World War II.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 49:30-49:36
“Defense spending as a percentage of GDP is down somewhere around 4 something percent.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 49:31-49:36
“We are financing our debt at about 1.5%, the cheapest rate we financed our debt since the Great Depression.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 49:51-49:59
“If we go back to where we have been financing our debt for the last 20 years at 5.5%, you are going to take the interest payments, just the…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 50:19-50:25
“Our debt as a percentage of our economy is higher than all but four European countries, and all four of them are in economic meltdowns.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 51:58-52:09
“Fractions of the Republican Party that are every bit much tied to cronyism and Wall Street reform.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 54:57-55:06
“I use the examples of Obamacare, how Nancy Pelosi's corporate givers are getting waivers from this.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 55:21-55:29
“Wall street was a prime example of cronyism.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 56:09-56:13
“We are getting in the Republican side, a big brush and starting to sweep out some of those career politicians who have been very embedded in…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 56:22-56:33
“Go back to Japan, look at Japan over the last 22 years. They haven't even been able to keep a stable government at all during that 22 years.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 57:10-57:19
“That's what's happened in Greece. How many governments have they toppled? They had to have after having an election. They had to redo…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 57:27-57:35
“I believe in entitlement reform.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 58:57-59:00
“It will probably move them, particularly Medicaid.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 59:05-59:09
“I've had three attack ads, Dan. You know it as well as I do.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:00:22-1:00:28
“We've already opened massive Eurodollar swap lines from the Federal Reserve to the ECB so they can have the liquidity.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:03:13-1:03:20
“Germany is 31% of the EU economy.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:03:27-1:03:33
“I think there's no question the Eurozone will break apart. It will probably last for another three, four years.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:04:04-1:04:10
“Finland and every one of the bailout packages are wanting cash collateral placed in their banks, which really isn't a bailout.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:04:16-1:04:24
“Once you get your economy, your debt in your economy over 90%, it stays that way for more than three years, you're left with one of two…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:06:22-1:06:32
“I said get out. Absolutely, get out. We don't have to treasury to deal with it.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:07:55-1:08:03
“Afghanistan has tried to be occupied so many times. The Russians, the British, the Ottomans.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:08:11-1:08:20
“We're not going to remake the society in the way that we want it because they don't want our form of government, our form of society.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:09:02-1:09:11
“The fundamental problem that we're having in so many of these countries is underlying religious war between the Sunni and the Shia.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:10:24-1:10:31
“Syria today, it is one of the few countries where the Shia are in control, where the majority is the Sunni.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:10:56-1:11:04
“I don't believe you put our young men and women at risk until you have a clear outcome that there is a way to resolve it and extract…”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:11:37-1:11:47
“I would be providing bigger support through a country like Turkey that understands it's an ally of ours, it's a neighbor of Syria.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:11:48-1:11:55
“I don't think we have the money to be in Afghanistan.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:12:33-1:12:37
“I think it's wrong. I think it's fundamentally wrong. Nothing should be off the books.”
Full interview with Eric Hovde | Uploaded July 19, 2012 | 1:13:03-1:13:08