Oct 8, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 10 segments
**Are we becoming so accustomed to political controversy that we've stopped being surprised by it?** This week on *Before You Speak*, Derek Peterson and Elwyn Hutter tackle another week of headlines…
This is just kind of an overarching conversation about the corruption that probably just continually needs to get talked about because it goes... unnoticed all the time.
But Trump is now sending billions of dollars in direct payments weeks before the midterms.
The administration says that these are legitimate government programs responding to economic needs, which my neighbor actually got one of these checks.
It's from I think she's old enough to be on Medicare, but it was something with the ACA subsidies, I think, and like a rebate check.
President Trump himself that said that, you know, Biden messed up and this is a payment for a reimbursement for his mess up and being overcharged.
And he hopes that his goodwill is reflected in the midterms, uh, this year, which is just another level of like, dude, we're there.
Yeah, I mean, it's possible that the payments are legit, right? And you can't time those payments based on an election.
That would be equally shitty, right? If all those payments were legit and they were like, we're not sending it out until after the election, then the people who need the money would be like, no, fuck you.
I need the money now.
But tying it to a nakedly political letter, you know, it gives away the game.
It's not really much different than saying, you know, I'll give you five grand if you vote for Republicans.
But I don't know.
I think that people are less swayed by that stuff.
Like, was your neighbor like, oh...
Yeah.
No, and I've been actually – she said the same thing that a lot of other people have said, and especially the people on threads that have gotten these checks.
This is just kind of an overarching conversation about the corruption that probably just continually needs to get talked about because it goes... unnoticed all the time.
But Trump is now sending billions of dollars in direct payments weeks before the midterms.
The administration says that these are legitimate government programs responding to economic needs, which my neighbor actually got one of these checks.
It's from I think she's old enough to be on Medicare, but it was something with the ACA subsidies, I think, and like a rebate check.
President Trump himself that said that, you know, Biden messed up and this is a payment for a reimbursement for his mess up and being overcharged.
And he hopes that his goodwill is reflected in the midterms, uh, this year, which is just another level of like, dude, we're there.
Yeah, I mean, it's possible that the payments are legit, right? And you can't time those payments based on an election.
That would be equally shitty, right? If all those payments were legit and they were like, we're not sending it out until after the election, then the people who need the money would be like, no, fuck you.
I need the money now.
But tying it to a nakedly political letter, you know, it gives away the game.
It's not really much different than saying, you know, I'll give you five grand if you vote for Republicans.
But I don't know.
I think that people are less swayed by that stuff.
Like, was your neighbor like, oh...
Yeah.
No, and I've been actually – she said the same thing that a lot of other people have said, and especially the people on threads that have gotten these checks.
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